Skip Jones making world better through music

To put it simply, Skip Jones, of Gresham, is a folk singer.

In a greater sense, Skip Jones is a supporter of justice for all, a champion of veterans suffering from PTSD, a storyteller with a moral purpose and commitment to protecting the environment.

Jones moved to Shawano County 45 years ago, built a home on the Stockbridge-Munsee Reservation and decided to become a folk singer.

“I’m retired for 45 years,” Jones said. “I work when I want and for whom I want.”

Boy, does he work.

Being a folk singer seems to be the central core of who he is and what he sees his purpose in life to be. Jones takes his songs, guitar, banjo and Native American flute to nursing homes, schools, festivals, cultural events and any opportunity to use singing as a way to build relationships. He said: “Having a guitar in front of me opens up people” to talk and discuss their feelings and needs.

He’s done programs at the same nursing home in Madison for years and works with differently abled children through associations he’s forged with St. Norbert College in Green Bay.

His Be a HERO (Help Everyone Respect Others) Program is popular in schools. Jones’ pre-Kindergarten through grade 12 presentations are tailored specifically to each age level. He uses the program as a way to teach children the Golden Rule “Treat others the way you want to be treated.” He has had students, now adults, come up to him years after one of his presentations to tell him how much they enjoyed and learned from his program.

In the past 45 years, he has visited more than 4,000 nursing homes, senior centers, memory care facilities and assisted living centers. He said that when he first started out “I did programs in up to three nursing homes each day” just to start making some money.

When someone asked how long he has sung for the elderly, Jones replied: “Long enough to become one.”

The elderly programs are planned to inspire nursing home residents to sing along with him to songs from their past. His storytelling draws out their life experiences and the programs become inter-active.

After Jones moved to the area, he found Mary’s Music store in Shawano, which later became Makin’ Music. Dave Habeck, a songwriter, owned Makin’ Music and he became a lifelong friend of Jones until his death.

“He taught me a lot about music,” Jones said.

Jones has a recording studio in his house and recorded Habeck’s first album. The two played together with the Burnt Toast and Jam band, which is still performing in the area, although without Jones and Habeck.

A 14-year veteran of the U.S. Navy, Jones has a special connection with other veterans. He sees his folk singing as a way to connect to veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder. He feels the nature of folk music is bonding with people and sharing common ground. Jones said he believes in finding those parts in people that allow him to explore and build relationships, providing healing through music.

Jones has worked through Warrior Songs (www.warriorsongs.org), a group that helps veterans heal from the wounds of their service experiences through music and the creative arts.

“It’s not about me,” he said. “It’s about the vets.”

He noted that at one time in recent history, the United States was losing 21 veterans a day to suicide. This statistic made him start to look at the big picture and he realized that the country had asked servicemen and women to do things that weren’t normal for them. Killing, or witnessing killing, wore on those people.

Jones noted that veterans discharged since the Vietnam War didn’t have the chance to return to the United States in one group with support from one another, like they did after World War II when they were shipped back on large troop transport ships. For some, this resulted in feeling that they just didn’t fit back into society, or be able to reconcile being back home one day after being on the front line. Jones tries to remediate these feelings when he sings for veterans.

Warrior Songs hold annual retreats for veterans with PTSD. A 2022 event for Vietnam War era veterans with PTSD at the Siena Center in Racine is scheduled, according to the organization’s website.

Jones said that he is living his dreams in his house in the woods, but the connections he has made through his singing throughout the state, the Midwest and beyond go far beyond those woods.