Their love of Celtic and Old Time American music came from seeing a demonstration of the Appalachian mountain dulcimer. After purchasing a dulcimer for themselves, they had difficulty locating printed music for the instrument in West Texas. While researching old folk ballads, they became as interested in the history of the music as they were in the songs themselves and have since included the history in their programs.

They have performed at state and local festivals, museums, schools, and coffee shops. Their informal relaxed attitude on stage encourages the audience to ask questions and become part of the performance.

Children and adults alike enjoy seeing the demonstration of many unusual musical instruments and hearing songs that are fun, heart warming and often heart breaking.

You can see & hear some clips of them here:

Melissa playing mountain dulcimer

Stephen playing mouth bow while Melissa sings (Melissa didn't know he was going to ask her to sing and they didn't have the moth bow tuned down to her range.)

He played bagpipes and was a member of theTexas Highland Pipes and Drums, but has since decided to learn the banjo and hammered dulcimer.He's not quite ready to perfom yet, but hopes to be soon. He also hopes to get a set of small pipes/parlor pipes for indoor playing.

Stephen does the naration and storytelling for The Joneses and also plays the jaw harp and mouth bow while Melissa sings or plays other instruments.

You can see her work here:

Quilting and misc crafts