Chris Jones
Playing Our Favorite Song
story by ROBIN COKER photos by CHARLOTTE BERKELEY
Slinging his guitar since the age of nine, Chris Jones feels more like family to our little town than a performer, and he will tell you the same. “My favorite song is your favorite song,” is his answer when asked to play what he loves.
Chris fell in love with Beaufort at an early age. While growing up in Branchville, his family would travel to Hunting Island annually for camping trips. A teenage Chris Jones spent countless evenings playing guitar on the long-ago, washed away, original boardwalks of Hunting Island. The trails there are still his happy place for a run. He recalls trips into town with his father in which he would ask to be dropped off at Bay Street Music, which at the time was actually on Bay Street, to play as a child. Finding his early inspiration and roots in Chad Atkins, Jerry Reed, James Brown, and Freddy King, he pursued music as a hobby. He followed an educational path to become a machinist. Realizing that this perhaps wasn’t the best path for his future, he started to put in the necessary hours to harness his then hobby into his career. Twenty years later, he has had the doors opened for him to play across numerous venues up and down the East Coast from Toronto to Florida. He credits a special privilege to those who took a chance on him years ago and to this community that continues to show up to embrace him year after year. His first official gig was an antique festival in Bamburg. During that pivotal moment, he realized that just maybe he could actually get paid to show up and do something that brings joy to himself and to those who are there to listen to his music and sing along. He was invited to start traveling to play gigs at Johnson Creek Tavern, Back Porch Grill, Hemingway’s, and Bananas … now Luther’s, remaining still one of the more sentimental venues whose doors continue to stay open for him to share his love of music and community.
Hemingway’s also played a vital role in his journey, not only for his music career but also for meeting his wife. Chris can point out the exact square of concrete in which he set eyes on Katy for the first time. Despite her aversion to Waffle House, the late-night destination he suggested, she rebuffed that first evening, but after many dates and lots of love, he convinced her to marry him. They now have a beautiful family and life together.
Chris credits his faith in the Lord and the gift of countless friendships for his success. “The fact that I have been able to keep a family of six safe, warm, and fed for 16 years now — by playing the guitar — amazes me. This career truly is a gift from the Lord.”
If you ask this musician if he has a favorite gig, they are all his favorite, each one having its own individual qualities, making them special to the beloved and unique crowds that continue to show up. As much as we all love to come out to sing along and watch him create loops, he just may enjoy it more than we do. When the crowd sings along with the chords on his guitar, he doesn’t feel like a performer: “It feels like we are all just singing happy birthday to a loved one together.”
The pandemic brought a slew of new challenges to tackle with creative efforts for a performing musician whose career thrives in crowds. It began to significantly hinder Chris’ ability to provide entertainment for the community and provide for his family. However, what sets apart our little town is that we take care of our people no matter our differences. Chris was invited to play in driveways, business parking lots, and even the side lot of Bill’s Liquors on Lady’s Island. With a bit of normalcy, he would set up to serenade the crowd from the safety of his truck bed, and the music played on. He was able to continue to provide not only for his family but also held our community together with the surge of live music, keeping us connected in a time when we were shut out of our river and beaches, a season in which we had lost all that seemed to define our coastal town. Beaufort showed up collectively in true Lowcountry fashion to remind this musician and the entire town what it looks like to love music and engage with your community.
Chris’ “advice” to young creatives pursuing their passion is “Know that you will get better. I was so very shaky at the beginning. Even when I watch a performer who hasn’t quite put in the hours needed to hone their craft yet, I am still impressed with their ability to get up on the stage. If you have the nerve to stand up there and expose that fire inside you that burns to bring joy to others, you are already well on your way. Keep practicing. You will be better tomorrow than you are today. One hour on stage is more valuable than ten hours of solitary practice. When the audience is watching your every move, there is a drive to perform flawlessly, to give them the absolute best you have to offer. That sort of exquisite pressure cannot be recreated in a practice environment.” The journey of a musician is never linear. “I am always working to improve my craft, to learn and grow from others,” he remarks.
Chris learned a lesson early in his journey about keeping his ego in check. He tells the story of advice an older and more seasoned musician gave to him after someone came up to the stage and told him how awful he was. “After that show, he told me that people will have opinions about everything … including what we do. If you want to place stock and value in those who say how great you are, you also have to do the same on the opposite end of the spectrum.”
When he isn’t gracing us with our favorite tunes on stage, Chris teaches physical education or “coaches,” as he would say, at Holy Trinity. Not always into health and fitness, he found himself led to this position at the school on the heels of his health journey. Five years ago, sitting around the dinner table with his wife and children, planning out their upcoming trip to Moab, Utah, his daughter expressed her desire to ride horseback across the desert. This presented a predicament. Sitting there that night, he read the requirements for making her dream come true, and his current 280-pound body made him ineligible to make it a reality. Putting his fork of mashed potatoes down, he went for a three-mile walk in his crocs, as he did not even own a pair of sneakers. Coming home afterwards, he told his wife, Katy, that he would be making some immediate changes. After losing sixty-five pounds, he got on that horse next to his daughter on hers. He was able to shed a total of 100 pounds. That was enough to get him out of the overweight category that had inhabited his entire life. He is also now the proud owner of a pair of sneakers.
This community loves Chris Jones and his innate ability to bring together all walks of life through the mic. Chris has undoubtedly become an integral thread to our Beaufort community, and it would be safe to say we want to keep him! His voice is one you can hear echoing at our favorite local water holes and has undoubtedly become a staple to the music scene of Beaufort. Currently, you can find him playing locally at Luther’s, Hemmingway’s, and Panini’s every week. To find a complete, updated list of upcoming gigs, just type Chris Jones Beaufort into your Facebook search bar and show up to sing along!
