Jayme Stone joins KGNU DJ Doug Gertner to discuss his musical background, influences, and upcoming performance in Denver with Alexa Wildish on February 27th at the Savoy. Jayme shares his experience growing up in Toronto and his time traveling to Mali, and also talks about his work as an instigator of creative projects. (Interview date: 2/3/2025)
Doug Gertner: Jayme Stone’s Folklife featuring Alexa Wildish played the Savoy in Denver on Thursday, February 27th in a MAS Presents show supported by KGNU. And we have Jayme Stone on the line right now to talk about that. Jayme Stone, welcome or I guess welcome back to KGNU.
Jayme Stone: Yeah, good to be with you. Thanks so much.
Doug Gertner: I’ve been digging into your bio and I see Juno Awards among your accolades and this suggests that you may have roots in Canada, even as I place you as Boulder based these days. I’d love to hear. I’d love to hear a little bit about your background musically, your own albums, those you’ve produced, contributed to, etc. What’s the story?
Jayme Stone: Sure I was born and raised in Toronto and lived for a spell in my teenage years in Vancouver, but I’ve been down in Boulder County for the last 20 plus years. So yeah, that’s where the early Junos came in. And yeah, growing up in Toronto, if you’re not familiar Toronto is one of the most vibrant multicultural cities on the planet. And it’s also a city of neighborhoods. So every neighborhood you go to, there’s the Brazilian neighborhood and a Korean neighborhood and many different ethnic groups and they really celebrate the food and culture and music. And I grew up, just listening and having access to so much incredible music from around the world. Much of it was free programming down by the waterfront. And I thought that was normal, so I’ve had my ear to the ground listening to music from everywhere and being influenced by a lot of different music. So that has informed and formed my own aesthetic sensibility that borrows, loves to borrow and cross pollinate different cultural forms and performance practices and styles of music.
Doug Gertner: You soaked in and integrated so much of the diversity and rich cross cultural opportunity in Toronto and traveled the world along the way. Something in your bio talked about making your way to Mali and studying Quora and Nagoni and this influences and informs the music that you make and also that you steward these days, it sounds
Jayme Stone: Yeah, definitely. My primary instrument was less so these days, but was the banjo. And I heard early on that the banjo is not in fact an American instrument as many people believe, but it comes directly from West Africa in the 1700s and 1800s. With enslaved people and it’s still news to some people. Though the word is getting out of that history. But I heard about this, right when I first started playing and I was fascinated. What was bewildering is that it didn’t seem like anyone played West African music. And I had already been introduced to this music that I loved. So I made the connection and became good friends with a kora player from Mali, West Africa named Manso Sissoko. And I went over there for a few months on a research trip in 2007 to learn more about the African roots of the banjo. But more than anything, to just be immersed in the music, see what the music is like in its native context, and make field recordings, travel around, sleep on rooftops, meet a ton of musicians that both played ancestors of the banjo and just other instruments that they have over there, and I came back and made a record called Africa to Appalachia, which I toured for a number of years. And it’s been a thread, really all the way since then, I have continued to fall in love again and again with West African music and also in more recent years, East African music. I’ve been playing a whole bunch of East African guitar music from the 40s and 50s. That’s really fascinating and both beautiful in and of itself and also it’s really informed my songwriting and just given me different sideways ideas of how to think about writing songs on guitar.
Doug Gertner: It’s part of what you do and, I clearly you’re a busy guy. I just have to say, you’ve been described using this intriguing string of words, including instigator, integrator, infiltrator, synthesizer, searchlight, field worker, galvanizer, and as well as an educator. And I’m just wondering if you might enlighten me and share with our listeners today a little bit about the activities that kind of define the labels, those descriptors that I’ve mentioned. Cause it’s a robust palette of music and music related services that you offer, it sounds like.
Jayme Stone: Totally, yeah. Instigator is my favorite moniker of the bunch. In part because it implies, part rabble rouser and part lighter of fires and starter of projects. Yeah, both in my own creative life, making records, leading bands, starting projects, creating new context for the work that I want to see in the world has been something that I did for myself for many years. And over the last decade plus, I have branched out to supporting other artists, musicians in particular, but also lots of other creative people, dancers, podcasters, etc. Help them instigate their own creative projects. So that has looked like producing records for other artists, which I’ve done for a long time. These days, I do a lot of career coaching. So helping people create, hone, and expand a vision of what art is in the world, or work is in the world, and then help them take the tangible steps to actually make it happen. And also work with a number of organizations, an online course, a music camp. It’s looked like a lot of different things, but I love being part of the making of creative work, and more and more these days, I feel like I don’t need to be at the center of that. It doesn’t have to be my record or my show. I’m happy to be in a more supportive, collaborative role with other people. Finding, finding their voice and finding their place in the world.
Doug Gertner: I’m talking with Jayme Stone, a Boulder County based musician, but really a world musician and Jayme Stone will bring Folklife featuring Alexa Wildish to the Savoy in Denver on Thursday, February 27th for a MAS Presents show sponsored by KGNU. It would be great to hear a little bit about what to expect. As you say, on the one hand you’re not seeking the soul spotlight and in addition to Alexa Wildish who you know, maybe you could remind our listeners. She does have a good relationship with KGNU as well. We love her music. We’ve premiered some of her tunes. But you’ve got a nice cast with you and would love to hear what folks can expect. And then before we wrap up today, we’ll give away a pair of tickets to that show. Jayme Stone’s Folklife featuring Alexa Wildish, February 27th at 7 at the Savoy in Denver.
Jayme Stone: Yeah, this show will feature and be a kind of travelogue of the many kinds of music that I love. So we’re gonna play music from my Lomax project and Spoke Life Records, which are albums I made after exploring field recordings held at the Library of Congress that were recorded by folklorists like Alan Lomax. And we Take these old songs and re imagine them, refract them, recast them in new contemporary ways. And then we’re going to play a whole bunch of new, more like indie singer songwriter pieces that I’m working on for a new album of my own, and then we’re going to play some of the aforementioned East and West African music. I’m even going to sing in Bambara which I’m stoked about. And yeah, the band features Alexa Wildish, who you mentioned, if people aren’t familiar. She lives in Lyons, Colorado. She is one of the most extraordinary singers I have ever heard. She has an ability to channel emotion really in such a unique and profound way. We’ve been friends for a long time and I’m really stoked to actually be performing with her. And then Tobias Bank, who plays in a band called Trail Talk out of Fort Collins, is playing drums and percussion. Greg Harris, who people, if they don’t know his name, have seen and heard in many configurations. He will be playing vibes and synthesizer and keyboards and piano. And then Emmanuel Alexander will play bass guitar and some bass synth. It’s a very cool shape shifting band. We do things that feel very earthy and folkloric, and then also can branch out into stuff that feels more electronic and ethereal and sometimes all of those different sounds combine in a given piece. I really love these musicians and I’m pretty excited about sharing this music.
Doug Gertner: It sounds like an amazing show in a great venue. I was just there last week for Transylvanian folk music. There’s a good bar, an excellent sound system, and the sound is mixed by KGNU. Folks can check out the MAs Presents program online and a couple of you can compete for a pair of tickets.
This is Jayme Stone’s Folklife featuring Alexa Wildish on February 27th. 7 o’clock p. m. at the Savoy, you’ll be our guest. Again, we ask that you’ve not won anything from KGNU in the past 30 days and that you can make it to the show. We’ll be joining me, I’ll be there. And my guest today, Jayme Stone appreciated this time today and really looking forward with your description of what you’re bringing. At the end of the month, we’re going to go out on your tune from the project that you mentioned, the Lomax project, something called Lazy John. And I wonder if you might talk a little bit about the tune we’re going to play after we say goodbye to you.
Jayme Stone: Yeah. Lazy John was an outlier. After finding all of these old songs. We could not find the provenance of this one. And just before I finished the lighter notes, I got a call from a friend at the Library of Congress who informed me that this song, in fact, was written by Alan Lomax, who’s mostly known as a folk song collector. But it turns out he wrote this song in 1954 and he wrote it to sound like an old folk song. And we took this version and turned it into almost like a, maybe more calypso vibration. And it’s a fun one, which we will be playing at the show.
Doug Gertner: That show again, MAS presents Jayme Stone’s Folklife featuring Alexa Wildish at the Savoy in Denver on Thursday, February 27th. Cocktails at 7, the music starts at 8. Thank you again, Jayme Stone for calling into KGNU. We’re really looking forward to your show on the 27th and I’ll see you there.
