Santa Ynez Valley Star Oct B 2019

Page 1

October 15 - November 4, 2019

www.santaynezvalleystar.com

Every Issue Complimentary Every Time

New album features local woman’s life story Kinky Friedman memorializes his friend Karen Jones in title track, ‘Redemption’ By Raiza Giorgi

publisher@santaynezvalleystar.com

K

aren Jones of Santa Ynez has been immortalized by outlaw country musician Kinky Friedman in the title track of his new album, “Resurrection.” The opening lyrics talk about Jones and her decision to change her life’s path after a troubled start: ”Karen Jones was just 15, coulda been homecoming queen, but she had a child and she lived at the Salvation Army. Now she has a thrift store of her own, raising money for folks without a home. Too bad she’ll never find a home for me,” the song starts. “I met Kinky about a decade ago after being a lifelong fan of his. In his earlier life he was a mystery writer, and my mom and I would share his books. I was so excited when he was playing in Los Angeles and ended up meeting him with my daughter Kara, and we struck up a friendship,” Jones said. Jones is originally from Taft, where she had a rough start in life. As a teenager she was sexually assaulted at a party and became pregnant. “I was terrified of my parents’ reaction, because in those days it wasn’t looked at as assault. It was assumed it was the girl’s fault — so I ran away,” Jones said. She ended up in Oakland, where she connected with a distant aunt and uncle who helped get her get into a Salvation Army home for unwed mothers. “It was a culture shock to say the least, but I ended up having my son Dylan and getting my GED and a good job at a local hospital,” Jones said. She met her husband Rob a few years later. They married and had two more children, Alex and Kara. They first lived in Bakersfield and then moved to Santa Ynez in 1996,

Photo by Daniel Dreifuss Karen Jones ran away from home as a teenager after a sexual assault made her pregnant, but she “resurrected” herself into someone who helps others.

Jones is the president of the SYV Opportunity Shop, which was started during World War II in Buellton as a “canteen” for soldiers. When it reincorporated in 2010, its mission statement was created to include help for veterans and other worthy causes, Jones said. The shop also annually gives thousands of dollars in scholarships to local high school students. It recently gave $10,000 to the Santa Barbara County Veterans Stand Down event. “In getting to know Karen over the years, she was the epitome of ‘resurrection.’ Unfortunately, all the other people I sing about in the song are dead, and in some way I wanted to resurrect and make this tribute to them, and Karen because she is a veteran soul and a great person in my life,” Friedman said. Friedman, known in the music industry as an iconoclast and satirist, said he hopes this album will break through the white nose of “crap coming from Nashville” and really be heard. He said he has no problem in “telling it like it is,” a trait he said he shares with Jones. Friedman was born in 1944 to Russian Jewish immigrant parents, Dr. Thomas and Minnie Friedman. His father was away fighting in World War II when he was born. His family moved to Texas and opened a summer camp for Jewish kids called Echo Hill. Friedman learned to play guitar and spent two years with the Peace Corps in Borneo, Indonesia. In 1973 started the band Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys, which was apparently a parody on the famous Bob Wills and His KAREN JONES CONTINUED TO PAGE 28

o

FYI

Photo Contributed Kinky Friedman and Willie Nelson.

to her husband’s family’s home on Edison Street. “I am not ashamed of where I came from

because it got me to where I am now. I got to change my life and make the choice to make a bad situation into a positive,” she said.

El Rancho Market

Time to fire up the oven & try some of our fabulous menus Go to: www.californiafreshmarket.com/recipes/weekly

2886 Mission Drive • Solvang • 805-688-4300 elranchomarket.com

“Fright Farm,” this year’s community haunted house, tops the list of events throughout Halloween season. See Page 5.


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Santa Ynez Valley Star Oct B 2019 by Santa Ynez Valley Star - Issuu