Rev. Robert Jones, Sr. is a native Detroiter and inspirational storyteller, and musician celebrating the history, humor, and power of American Roots music. His deep love for traditional African American and American traditional music is shared in live performances that interweave timeless stories with original and traditional songs. For over thirty years, Robert has entertained and educated audiences of all ages in schools, colleges, libraries, union halls, prisons, churches, and civil rights organizations. At the heart of his message is the belief that our cultural diversity tells a story that should be celebrated, not just tolerated. 

Rev. Robert Jones makes his home in Detroit while performing throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. An award-winning multi-instrumentalist, he is accomplished at guitar, harmonica, mandolin, banjo fiddle, and ukulele. He has recorded six albums of original and traditional songs. Robert is the former host of the award-winning radio programs “Blues from the Lowlands” and “Deep River,” broadcast on Detroit Public Radio’s WDET-FM Detroit. And he has taught music history courses at Wayne State University in Detroit, and he serves as a member of the affiliate faculty at Boston’s Berklee School of Music. Jones has taught and performed for several folk music organizations, including the Ashokan Center, Summer Acoustic Music Week, Fiddle Hell, and the Houston Folk Society. In recent years Robert wrote, performed, and recorded a one-man show entitled “An Evening with Lead Belly,” and in recent years Robert has been a featured artist at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum (Springfield, IL), Rutherford B. Hayes Library (Fremont, OH,) and Gerald R. Ford Library (Grand Rapids, MI).  Robert is also a frequent performer and presenter for The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village (Dearborn, MI). As an ordained minister and a Baptist pastor, he has an unwavering faith the cultural importance of sacred and traditional American roots music. In addition to his solo performances, he often collaborates musically with his wife, Sister Bernice Jones. In 2017 Robert and Matt Watroba co-founded “Common Chords”, 501.c3 educational organization designed to create community, cultural and historical connections through music and the arts.   In 2018 Robert received a Kresge Arts Fellowship for Music Composition and Performance.  He also teaches traditional instrumental music online at www.truefire.com. It was for Truefire that Robert wrote and produced 30 YouTube segments on traditional blues artists, entitled “Blues Chronicles”.  Robert is also currently working on the final stages of his book, “Roots & Branches, The Songs and Stories of Rev. Robert Jones, Sr., A Detroit Blues Singing Preacher”.
 
The late legendary Detroit Free Press columnist Bob Talbert wrote about Robert: “Perhaps the world’s most highly educated blues musician, an ordained minister, a longtime DJ, and a living encyclopedia of blues history, the Reverend Robert Jones is comfortable among juke joint loud talkers, fancy-hatted church ladies, and PhDs alike."