Bay City Tribune

The Jones Family Singers — a gospel singing group from Bay City — was invited to represent the state of Texas by performing for thousands at the recent annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington D.C.

The festival, June 25-29, is an international exposition of living cultural heritage produced each year on the National Mall of the United States by the Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.

This year, the festival highlighted three featured cultures — NASA, the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan and Texas.

Bishop Fred Jones — the group’s manager — said the singers were recruited by Pat Jasper, Austin curator for the Folklife Festival, who attended one of their regular Sunday worship services at their home church in Markham, at Mount Zion Pentecostal Holiness Cathedral.

Jasper heard about the group from its performances at Austin City Limits and South by Southwest Music Festival.

“She came in one Sunday morning to see us perform and didn’t really say anything to anyone until we welcomed her to the church,” Jones remembers.

“She asked us if this was where the Jones Family Singers went to church and if they would be performing that morning.

“When we told her it was, she just smiled and sat back and didn’t tell us who she was,” Jones explained.

After Jasper had seen the family perform at the worship service, she explained her reason for visiting the church and invited the Jones Family to represent Texas culture at the international festival.

“She told us that she didn’t want to tell us who she was or why she was there because she didn’t want us to do anything different from what we would normally do,” said Jones.

“She said what she saw us do in our worship service was enough to convince her that we were the ones she wanted.”

The group performed nine concerts at the festival and participated in three Texas Talk Forums and in two CD signings.

The Jones Family gained a following of new fans worldwide, including people from China, Bhutan and Israel.

“We met some people from China who bought our CDs and said they wanted to learn to sing like us,” said Sabrina Wade, a Jones Family Singers vocalist.

“There were some other people from Israel who bought several copies of our CD and said they were going to take it back to their friends at home,” Jones said.

The singing group received lavish treatment at the festival, said Wade.

“We didn’t want for anything — we had five-star private dining every evening, we stayed in the finest Hotel and all of our transportation was provided,” Wade said.

The week also included a special invitation for the Jones Family Singers to the Governor’s Ball.

According to Jones, their highlight performance happened when they were paired with Texas Johnny Brown and the Quality Blues Band for a concert entitled, “When Saturday Night Meets Sunday Morning.”

“We teamed up for a finale of ‘When the Saints Go Marching In’ that brought down the house,” Jones said.

Since performing at the festival, Jones has been contacted by Casey Monahan, Texas Music Director for the Governor’s Office, about performing for state officials in Austin.

Visit the Smithsonian Folklife Festival Web site to see photos and video footage of the Jones Family Singers.