Dear John, Our friend Orphan Jon just seemed to come out of nowhere to start making waves in the Blues world. He did us a solid by playing our fundraiser on Memorial Weekend. Now he's nominated for a Blues Music Award. Sometimes it takes some guys a little longer to become famous. I ran across this article and found his backstory to be interesting. Hope you do too. On Wednesday evening the Rocket 88s are hosting a big guitar shootout at the RR with a list of our local friends. Mike Howard, JC, Nina, Kirk Hawley, Glenville Slim and Jim Robertson round out the bill. Go there!! Showdown cometh so start shining up your act. Let's make it a good'n. Jeff Beck's in town this week. Might be worth checking out. The Celebrity Theater is a cool venue. Kind of slow slogging through our usual summer heat. But, we getting closer. Have a good week!! Sincerely,
Jim Crawford, PBS
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Orphan Jon by Peggy Stevinson Bair
Any musician who gets credited with being an overnight sensation knows that statement just makes for good headlines. In reality, the backstory for greatness is a road paved with more rocks than a prison quarryEven with the rising, seemingly quick success of blues singer/songwriter Orphan Jon English, he still informs his ever-growing fan base upfront from the microphone - "I was an orphan, abandoned as a little boy" - if nothing else, just to clear up how the name of the band came about. But there is nothing overnight about the success of Orphan Jon and the Abandoned and their new CD Abandoned No More. The inspiration for every song was decades in the making. In the words of the late, great Sunshine Sonny Payne: "Ya gotta live the blues before you play it.Orphan Jon English's family, based on the outskirts of Bakersfield, California, was part of a long line of migrant workers who traveled from town to town, from state to state for work. When Jon's mother was a young teen, she gave birth to her first child, a daughter, and soon another and another child was born every year or so until there were four more - all boys. In and out of the family's life, the children's father finally abandoned them. His mother, still young and rebellious, had less interest in her children than she did in hanging out in the bars. The State of California was finally called to look in on the unkempt, unsupervised kids. Beginning at eight months old, Jon and his three brothers were sucked into the California Social Services orphanages and foster care system.Social Services had offered the all the children to their maternal grandparents. But his grandparents only wanted the oldest child, Jon's sister Georgia, and declined to take the boys. It was three more years before his mother got the boys back. That reunion would only last a few short months.One day in 1970, a skinny, disheveled four-and-a-half-year-old boy peered out the window of a motel room looking for...waiting for...his mother to return. In tattered clothes and no shoes on his feet, surrounded by his three older brothers, all under the age of 10, the last memory Jon had of his mother was from the night before, when she cupped his face in her hands and kissed his cheek in a rare display of affection, leaving him with some last words: "Don't you boys go running around all over the place."With that, and no warning, while they slept, she vanished and did not return.That next day they woke up alone. The children had waited, pulling snacks of food from vending machines, running around anyway, barefoot and unattended - and eventually making their way up the road to the house of their mother's sister.His aunt took the four boys in, temporarily. But with many children of her own, the addition of four more rambunctious boys was too much for her and, after a short time, she reluctantly called social services - again.The four boys were split up and taken to an orphanage.Puzzled and alone again, the scrawny boy Jon, lay in the top bunk in the boys side of the dorm of the orphanage, hugging the emptiness and staring at the neon EXIT sign over the door located on the distant wall."Why? Why has this happened to me?" With tears streaming down his face, he waited for some word that their mother would return. Or, that someone...a family...would come forward to take them in.Weeks went by, which turned into months.Then, years.After spending his early years in and out of foster homes and dealing with many abuses by those that were supposed to be there to protect him, a day came when Jon was 10 that he and one of his older brothers got the news that the English family, with whom they had been living, would adopt them.And that's when the nightmare got bigger."The lady who took us in was very abusive," said Jon, in a recent interview.Jon English, 8, left and his older brother Clarence, in the attire they arrived in from the orphanage in the summer of 1973. Two years later, the family adopted them. (photo and caption submitted from Jon English) "Looking back, I see there's so many different paths and directions my life took when I was young that I had no control over," Jon said.Because his brother Clarence was older and bigger and had more physical defenses, the younger and smaller Jon took the brunt of the physical and emotional abuse from their adoptive mother."When I was young, there were those moments when I hated her. I hated life. I wished for death." Jon said.The two brothers became slave labor to serve the adoptive family."My life was wrapped around doing chores. That's all I did as a kid. My brother and I would get up early in the morning, fix our dad's lunch and do chores before going to school, we never had any play time," he remembered.The dad in the family had his own problems and issues."He was gone all of the time," Jon recalled. "He was a workaholic. He didn't know until years later about the stuff she had done, he had no idea. Of course, when you're a kid, you don't think to say 'Hey, Dad, there's a lot going on here...'"There was no one to tell.Telling anyone about abuses was double-wrapped in the fear of losing the only real home he had come to know. As a result, Jon did what he hoped would keep him on the good side of his abuser."We cleaned the house constantly. We did all the floors and dust mopped them, did the dishes, cleaned the bedrooms, did the laundry. We'd go out in the yard and pull weeds in the flower beds and mow the lawns. That's all we did day in and day out. Go to school, come home from school, do your homework, do the chores, do the dishes, go to bed," Jon said.And put up with the beatings, the ridicule, the loneliness and abandonment.As Jon related his story, he was able to say that, over time, and from a much older viewpoint, he realized that his adoptive mother was one more link in a chain of child abuse - trapped in a cycle of her own life of abuse."I recalled the stories she told me when I was a child - about her stepdad and how he raped her...and just beat the crap out of her with a razor strap. It wasn't until I was older and had an adult mind and I could look back and say 'Wow, I see why she was the way she was.' She was conditioned to do that. I don't think she could look and say, 'I can change this' towards me," Jon said.Within the despair, however, were rhythms of hope - coming through the speakers of a record player. His adoptive mother would, in softened moments, invite his companionship to listen to her favorite songs.(more next week)
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| Out & About Tuesday, July 17 Wednesday, July 18 Rocket 88s w/ Lots of Players, 7 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix
Leon J, 6 p.m., Café Paleo Brio, Sedona Carvin Jones, 8 p.m., Stingers, Glendale Bad News Blues Band, Every Wed., 9:30 p.m., Chicago Bar, Tucson Thursday, July 19 Eric Ramsey Hosts OPEN MIC, 6 p.m., Fatso's Pizza, Phoenix Hans Olson (EVERY THURSDAY), 6 p.m., Handlebar, Apache Junction Arizona Blues Project, 8 p.m., Harold's, Cave Creek Friday, July 20 Albert Castiglia, 9 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix Hoodoo Casters, 6 p.m., Desert Eagle Brewing Co., Mesa Blues Review Band, 8 p.m., Good Time Charli's, Chandler Blu Zone w/Dr. Fish, 7 p.m., West Alley BBQ, Chandler Saturday, July 21 Soul Power Band, 9 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix Rocket 88s, 6 p.m., Rip's, Phoenix Big Daddy D, & The Dynamites, 4 p.m., Bailey's, Phoenix Sugar Thieves, 7 p.m., Orpheum Theater, Flagstaff Blues Review Band, 8 p.m., Jersey's Tavern, Chandler Leon J, 1 p.m., Café Paleo Brio, Sedona Front Page Blues Band, 7 p.m., Eagle's Nest, Prescott Sunday, July 22 Paul Gurvitz & The New Army, 7 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix Rocket 88s JAM, 4 p.m., Chopper John's, Phoenix True Flavor Blues, NOON , Copper Star, Phoenix Monday, July 23 |
Weekly Jams
Sunday
Bourbon Jack's JAM w/Kody Herring, 6 p.m., Chandler
Sir Harrison, every other Sunday, The Windsock, Prescott
MONDAY
Bam Bam & Badness Open JAM, 9 p.m., Char's, Phoenix
Weatherford Hotel JAM, 6:30 p.m., Flagstaff
TUESDAY JAM Sir Harrison, 9 p.m., Char's, Phoenix
Rocket 88s, 6 p.m., The Last Stop (Old Hideaway West), Phoenix
Gypsy's Bluesday Night JAM, 7 p.m. Pho Cao, Tempe
Tailgaters JAM, 7 p.m., Glendale
WEDNESDAY Tool Shed JAM Party, 7 p.m., Draw 10, Phoenix
THURSDAY Tool Shed JAM Party, 7 p.m., Steel Horse Saloon, Phoenix Jolie's Place JAM w/Adrenaline, 9 p.m., Chandler
Friday
Saturday Bumpin' Bud's JAM 2nd & 4th Saturdays JAM, 6 p.m., Marc's Sports Grill |
| Moved? Changed email addresses? Please let us know of any changes in your address, email, or phone number so we can keep you informed about the Blues community in Arizona. Email us at: info@phoenixblues.org or write to: Phoenix Blues Society P.O. Box 36874 Phoenix, Arizona 85067 |
| GOT BLUES? If you are a Blues musician, a group, or a club that features Blues music, and would like to be listed, please send your info to info@phoenixblues.org and we'll be happy to list your event in our weekly Out & About section of the newsletter |
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