Tami Jones’ dynamic new EP and resilient life story bring Nashville and Thailand together

Tami Jones is proof that winners never quit.

The Billboard-charting vocalist is about to release a new EP tentatively titled To Thailand With Love, which features artists based in Nashville and artists from Thailand. This unusual pairing reflects how she calls both places home, dividing her time between a bustling hobby farm in Nashville and a home in Koh Chang, an island in the Gulf of Thailand. 

Despite the ongoing challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic, she has continued to create and perform, building a global following, she is happily married with three children. But anyone who knows Jones knows that her talent as a singer-songwriter is outsized only by her grit and tenacity. To reach her current success, she has overcome more adversity than one person should experience in their entire lifetime. 

Jones came to Nashville from a small northwestern town in Oklahoma with dreams of becoming a country music star, like Tammy Wynette and fellow Oklahoman Reba McEntire. Soon after, her marriage ended. A single mother to a toddler, she would take her son with her to performances, wherever they were. At age 27 and just six months after the move to Nashville, she was diagnosed with cancer, forcing her to return home to Oklahoma for surgery. Then, right around this time, Jones’ parents – who had nurtured her love of music and rallied behind her dreams – rocked her world by revealing that they had adopted her at the age of 13 months.

After her recovery from cancer, she returned to Nashville and to work. On the cusp of realizing her dream of stardom, she signed a record deal with Sony. Her first album, due for release in 1999, was 80% complete when management at Sony abruptly changed. The person in charge of her project was dismissed, leaving Jones no choice but to shelve her recorded songs. 

While her recording career was in limbo, however, her life took a positive romantic turn. She met and married Lep Andrews, her husband of 23 years. When he took a teaching job at a university outside Beijing, China, Jones saw the move as an opportunity to take her talents to Asia. There, she began performing live and attracting attention for her arresting appearance and captivating, genre-spanning voice. With her star on the rise, she began to perform nightly, becoming a headliner singing torch songs at Oodie’s Place, a famous club in Koh Chang owned by Oodie, who is revered as Thailand’s Father of the Blues.

It would be Jones’ popularity in Thailand that sparked her return to Nashville. In 2018, she released Velvet & Steel. Produced by country music legend Bobby Braddock, the album included the Billboard-charting dance hit, “The Sugar Shack,” written by Beth Hart, and additional songs written by Joe Bonamassa and Percy Mayfield. Upon the album’s release, Billboard magazine named Jones a breakout artist. 

2020 brought Together Apart, a six-song EP that Jones released during the first COVID-19 lockdown. With social distancing as the new normal, Jones and her fellow musicians recorded their parts separately, and were brought together only in the final mixes. Jones made her New York City debut at a sold-out concert at the acclaimed Bowery Electric and was readying to play the legendary SXSW music festival when the pandemic halted it. In the spirit of her song “Strong Woman,” Jones once again did what she has always done. She set aside the setbacks and simply created music. The results? Her forthcoming EP — as well as beginning a collaboration with the reading organization Connection to Creativity and author/Nickelodeon executive David Steinberg. She did a reading and composed original songs for his children’s book Kindergarten Here I Come. 

These days, life is great for Jones, and after so many challenges, her future looks brighter than ever. Yet despite her ever-increasing profile as an international artist, she remains grounded, humble and unshakably resilient.  Currently in Thailand, Jones spoke to SesayArts about the creation of her forthcoming EP, the influence of global music on her style, the importance of staying true to her values . . . and her ever-growing Wizard of Oz collection. 

SM: What would you like us to know about your upcoming EP tentatively titled “To Thailand with Love”. The record seems like a beautiful union of your two homes. 

TJ: It’s an idea I’ve had for many years now. I’ve been so fortunate that my work has taken me to the beautiful cultures of the world. It has enriched our lives (mine and my husband’s) beyond belief. Not only developing real day to day living, but also immersing ourselves in Thailand and forging strong friendships. An added bonus has been the ability to make music globally.

The Thai culture is beautiful, and we’ve been able to make music with the wonderful Thai musicians and fellow expats who come from many countries of the world. 

SM: I understand that you are working with musicians from Thailand as well as musicians from Nashville. I would love to know about how you accomplished this transcontinental project…the sound, the songs and the process of creating them… and anything else you would like to share.

TJ: Technology has made it remarkable to record tracks in both places when I can’t physically be there at the same time. We could not return back to the states last year at the time we were scheduled to leave because of COVID. We were here an extra four months – and in the rainy season! I was thinking, “Well, this is just like Together Apart, the EP I released in 2020 during the very first pandemic lockdown.” I felt I should do something because it looked like we were going to be in Thailand for a while. I started making some videos for Thai Tourism – showing the beauty of Thailand. 

Then I began cultivating the music from musicians I know and love, asking them how they would like to contribute to the project. We laid down some work tape recordings here in Thailand with the songs and musicians. I thought they were so good that I took them to Nashville where we made master recordings with Nashville musicians and vocals, but still all the while adding instruments back and forth digitally from Thailand. It was amazing. I can’t wait for you to hear it. 

SM: To describe you as a strong woman would be an understatement. Your life so far reads like a novel. To what (or whom) do you attribute your strength and tenacity?  

TJ: From the start, my parents. They were always encouraging and made me feel that I could accomplish anything. My mother was a nurse, raised her family and went back to nursing school to get her master’s degree. All the while, she was the most creative, sentient, wise, careful, strong, beautiful, and wonderful person. She also was the most amazing cook. Beautiful meals were prepared every evening while she was getting her degree. I don’t know how she did it. 

My husband and family are a huge support system, always giving me the path to sing and create. I’m so completely humbled by this.

Then there are my fellow musicians, producers, engineers, stage mates, hoteliers, and restaurateurs that we know and love who make our lives so much easier. We look forward to seeing them every time. 

And the friends all over the world who come to see us wherever we are playing. It really means the world to me. 

SM: How has your global experience as an artist and the opportunity to live in the US and Asia affected your musical style?

TJ: It’s been the biggest gift. The thing about creating and playing music is that everyone has their own style and I have my style. Live music is always an impromptu situation — even if you have a show already worked out. The elements of live music changes constantly. The sound is different in every venue. When you are in Thailand there are a lot of outdoor venues, which makes it all so ever-changing. When you work closely with musicians from other cultures, you learn so much about them and their lifestyle. To have been able to experience that is so valuable beyond measure. 

SM: And how has it influenced your views of music and the potential of music to connect people? 

TJ: It’s completely opened up my world. I’ve gone from the Nashville way of doing things, which is completely extraordinary, to all over the world. There’s a reason it’s called Music City. I’m so thankful I had that professionalism at the beginning of my career. I learned how to make music from the very best. 

China was amazing from the classical standpoint where the musicianship was very much trained to perfection. 

Thailand has shown me the soul of their country and the beautiful hearts of their people. I’ve learned that every country has their own sound and historical instrumentation. I’ve had fun learning and hearing beautiful sounds of cultures, and it’s opened up an insatiable desire to work with as many international groups as I can. 

SM: I’m really interested to know about the artists who have influenced you. Did you receive any advice or guidance that carries special meaning or weight for you? 

TJ: Being around the music world, it’s been great to listen and share passions and sounds that bring us all together. Music has this wonderful magic that brings people together, whether it’s a memory or making new music that is a language for ALL to understand. 

My influences early on were learning about the big band jazz artists of the 40’s to early rock and roll to music of the 60’s and 70’s. Then there is country music and its wonderful stories. And, of course, the great soul records that will always stand the test of time. 

SM: What would you like us to know about you beyond your music? Anything that might surprise us?

TJ: Haha! Well, people say I should write a book. I’ve been in situations that have challenged and rewarded me. Like adoption, finding music, being a single mom, health scares, learning to live on a farm with animals, a beautiful family, living full-time in China – and singing everywhere in the world. Things I never could have imagined, but somehow I’ve survived and thrived, and I’m thrilled to be alive in this constant state of wonder and to be able to create music in all of it. 

SM: What question do you wish I had I asked you that I didn’t (and what is the answer)?

TJ: I have a Wizard of Oz museum. I have been collecting Oz nostalgia for many years and created an entire room dedicated to just that! I’m already needing more space and am always thinking of ways to expand.

Connect with Tami Jones:

• Website: www.tamimusic.com
• Facebook: @OfficialTamiMusic
• Instagram: @tamimusicofficial
• Twitter: @TamiMusic

© Arpita Ghosal, SesayArts Magazine, 2022