Topic: Americana
MIKE JONES , SONGWRITER, SINGER, MOVIE MAKER Mike Jones, Biker, Singer, songwriter, play writer, and now movie maker emerges from the distant past with :Live To Ride", the movie and the album.by Freeamerican
(libertarian)
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
MIKE JONES , SONGWRITER, SINGER, MOVIE MAKERBy Clay Douglas918 words
It was an old CD, getting a little scratched from years of use. Somehow it had survived two wives, ten moves and now I was in the town of Tucson, putting together another incarnation of Thunder Riders on the Internet. I found Yesterday 1903 with Milwaukee Vibrator and four other motorcycle songs sung deep from the heart of one of the finest writers and singers I had ever met over the last twenty years. My travels and writing about the motorcycle community had put me on the pages of Easyriders, Motorcycle Industry and Biker magazines around the country. I had rode and partied in Daytona, Laconia, LA, San Francisco and Seattle. But it was in Sturgis, at Hog Heaven campgrounds, that I had the pleasure and the opportunity to meet a young singer, songwriter and musician named Mike Jones.
Mike was an Arizona man, I was living in Florida. My sons grew up knowing all the words to his songs. When I got a divorce, part of the settlement was that I had to burn her a copy of "Yesterday 1903". The CD only had five songs and was not marketed well enough to be able to find it in Record Stores or motorcycle shops, but anytime I did a motorcycle oriented show, I broke it out and played it for my audiences.
This last time, I made an effort to locate Mike Jones on the Internet but only found a black rapper by that name. I was discouraged and wondered if he was alive or, like too many of my friends, dead and gone.
That was when the phone rang. An oddly familiar voice asked if this was Clay Douglas.
It was Mike Jones. He had been able to track me down over the Internet. He called me, after 15 years, because of a story I had written about him after we met in Sturgis. I was blown away. "I have your album sitting on my desk right now, Mike, and you chose today to call me?"
We were now only an hour apart, after fifteen years and thousands of miles. We have both had our ups and downs. Each of us had tasted success to fall into despair and calamity. But Mike, like the Phoenix I wrote about many years ago and used as the introduction to one of my radio shows, Mike had risen from the ashes and came back to life stronger and better than ever before.
Over the years he had expanded on his writing ability to pen scripts and screenplays for major movies. Of course his love of riding and all things Harley-Davidson, led him to be invited to play the song he wrote for Willie G. Davidson at Willie’s induction to the Harley Hall of Fame.
The screenplay he wrote for the motorcycle film starring William Forsythe is a winner. 80% of the film was in the can when the money ran out and the film stalled.
The details are boring and not relevant here. Mike was part of the almost completed project, and refused to let it go down. He kept on, buoyed by the faith in his own creativity. He kept writing more songs and expanded the five songs into a full album that is now ready to market. He came out of the project smelling like a rose, maintaining his hold on the film, the negatives and with the distribution in place. This is a sweet deal for investors who want to get into the movie business quickly with a product mostly complete and all of the actors standing by and committed to finishing a great movie about riding, with a touch of nostalgia for the Vietnam Vets too.
The title song for Mike’s first album, "Yesterday 1903" talks about the kind of country we once had. The new songs he wrote for his latest compilation center on Freedom and Liberty that have always typified the biker lifestyle he captures so poignantly and he has expanded on the theme of women riders. " She Rides" was the heart wrenching lament of a lost love now riding on streets of Gold and his Milwaukee Vibrator were both hits on his first album, but he has taken into account that a large and growing segment of our motorcycle community is female and has penned a few more tunes that will capture that segment’s imagination.
The timing was incredible. I was just starting to do a weekly radio show for my new thunderriders.us/ Mike was my first guest. You can hear that interview and listen to his original album on Thunderriders. That site has links to his wolfonthemoon.com that has trailers from the movie and samples of his new tunes as well.
A few calls to biker related publications informing them of Mike’s new album has caused some excitement, and I plan on following and writing about his career and even helping him market and distribute his new album! It is possible I might even work on the movie with Mike and help him promote the movie.
It is an exciting time in both of our lives. It was like finding a lost brother. You could call it Synchronicity, coincidence, fate or an act of God. The outcome is still in the future but I feel like Mike and I were brought together for a reason and I plan on doing a series of articles on this remarkably talented individual as he builds a dynamic company around his already legendary music.
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