Andrew Jones has carried his nickname “Jr. Boy” ever since he as born.
It was his grandmother’s way of distinguishing him from his father Andrew Sr., and the moniker stuck.
It’s what all his friends called him, and when blues impresario Bruce Iglauer heard the name, he
declared it a great blues name. So “Jr. Boy” became affixed the Andrew Jones’ image.
Now at 60 Jones plays blues guitar in a style that reflects all the music that’s passed his way since
those early days in Texas.
“All the stuff I hear, I’m implementing in my style,” Jones said in a recent telephone interview.
Jones will be playing on the Main Stage at the Black Swamp Arts Festival Sunday at 2 p.m.
That includes the swing and jazz playing of his original influence, Dallas-based bandleader Aldolphus
Sneed. Jones’ mother sang with the guitar player’s band, and he was “a play uncle” to young Jones. “He
kept the ball rolling.”
From those early years, Jones had “an obsession with guitar playing.” That passion paid off when Jones,
at 16, started playing with bluesman Freddie King.
A neighbor, who knew King, had heard Jones practicing at home, and when the elder bluesman needed another
guitar player, he recommended Jones. Jones ended up touring — with his mother’s permission — during the
summer and playing whenever he could during the school year.
His career has included extended stints with Bobby Patterson’s Mustangs and Charlie Musselwhite’s band.

After touring the world with the harmonica master, Jones decided to return home to Texas, where backed
local singers.
Jones also started honing his songwriting skills, and going out under his own name. His style, he said,
is “smooth and clear and distinct.”
Audiences will hear “a little funk and some deep blues.”
It’s a style that draws on early influence such as Sneed and King as well as jazz fusion guitarist Larry
Carlton.
He writes all the songs he sings, he said, including the witty “Noises in the Backroom,” about a
confusing racket.
His latest songs he said go for “deeper stories,” and “some of the songs are prophetic… I’m starting to
live some of it” even though they were written over a year ago.
He also plays covers including “Don’t Let the Green Grass Fool You” and “What’s Going On.” These he does
as instrumental, he said, because he can’t match the original vocal versions by Marvin Gaye and Wilson
Pickett. “I consider my guitar my forte.”
He takes these songs and sketches out his own arrangement and “then you make it your own.”