Bay City Tribune

Country musician mother and daughter, Joni and Jade Jack, will make their way back to Bay City Friday as the opening acts for John Conlee.

Country music artist Conlee, who began his rise to fame in country music in the 1970s, will be in concert on Nov. 6 at the Bay City Civic Center.

The concert is sponsored by the VFW post 2438 and Ladies Auxiliary.

Joni moved to Bay City when she was three years old and is a graduate of Bay City High School and Wharton County Junior College.

She gained her love for traditional hillbilly country music from her father, Fred Jack.

She says her musical influences also include Dolly Parton and Buck Owens.

She spent her youth performing at gospel events with her family and recorded a gospel cassette in Oklahoma City when she was nine.

When she was 14 years old, Joni began singing at country music conventions.

In 1999, Joni began performing with Joel Nava and the Border.

She has spent the last two years writing and recording a CD in Nashville which she hopes to complete soon.

Joni credits performing during her entire pregnancy and heading back to country music conventions when her baby was only 10-days-old with her daughter Jades love of music.

Jade was drawn to the fiddle from the time she could crawl up on stage and constructed her first fiddle from a straw and spoon when she was only two years old.

She began taking violin lessons in Sugar Land when she was four.

At five she began taking lessons from Bay City native Dan Ratliff. He inspired Jade to do her best and "learn a little something" from everyone who had something to show her.

Dan gave her the fiddle she still plays on today.

Jade is a student at Bulverde Academy of Music under the teaching of Grammy award winning artist/producer Bobby Flores.

She was a guest at the Ernest Tubb record shop's "Midnite Jamboree" in Nashville twice this past summer and just completed her debut CD on which Flores has two guest spots.

Jade also just completed a weeklong engagement in Branson, Mo., with legendary singer/songwriter Leona Williams.

Tickets are still available for the concert that will begin at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6 at the Bay City Civic Center.

Tickets are $30 each and are available from members of the VFW Post 2438 and Auxiliary. A limited number of tickets will be sold at the door.

Tables for 10 can be reserved for $300 through Thursday.

There will be a live auction and a can raffle during the event. Auction items include a guitar signed by Conlee, a queen-sized quilt made by the Bay City Quilt Guild, an African mahogany quilt rack and a stained glass picture. Can raffle tickets are three for $1.

Proceeds from the concert, auction and raffle will go to the Zachary & Elizabeth M. Fisher House at Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center in Houston.