God and country

Binu Jones might have missed out on limelight and possible fandom because he chose not to pursue country music as a career but the singer in him doesn’t seem to regret the loss even a bit.

As a musician, he is virtually unknown, except perhaps among a close circle of admirers linked to Methodist Church worship in Kerala and opera professionals in the UK, with whom he collaborated for two years. The world revived an interest in Jones’ voice after a video clip of him riffing a guitar and belting out Jim Reeves’ opus My Cathedral, went viral on WhatsApp last week. But to his consternation, it circulated with a false message that he was being honoured by an organization founded in memory of Jim Reeves.

“In the past week, I received several calls and was kind of perplexed by queries since it was in 2004 that I received an invite from a Netherlands-based organization named after Reeves to perform. I couldn’t go because of visa issues and never heard from them later,” says Jones.

He had recorded My Cathedral after a request from a friend on July 31, which happens to be the death anniversary of Reeves, who died in a plane crash in 1964. Jones was hooked by the voice of Reeves at the age of seven.

“I lost my father at the age of five and one legacy he left was a collection of records, mostly Reeves. I used to get up at five in the morning put them on a turn tape and sing along,” says Jones when asked about his training Anyone who listens to the 46-year-old would immediately conjure in their mind the formidable artist whose tenor continued to bust charts for years after his death because of the rich texture of the voice and debonair style.

“Whatever songs I sing, I have heard people coming up and saying that Jim Reeves used to sing like that even when he has never sung it,” says Jones when asked about the comparison. “I used to sing quite a bit way back in early 2000,” says Jones, an IT professional currently working as group manager, projects, for Allianz Technology, based in Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram.

His public performances had been sparse – a Jim Reeves night in Kozhikode, churchorganized events in Chennai and Kolkata, and a couple of gigs in Dubai, Qatar, and Bahrain – but to call him a dabbler or even an amateur would be an injustice.

A casual acquaintance with a member of an operatic society in London, where he was on work, exposed his musical talent to the world.

“I performed in one of the annual opera events by Godalming Operatic Society, considered the oldest operatic in the UK. This isn’t classical opera but mostly classical and folk. The shows were a combination of theatre and music which drew huge crowds,” says Jones who also had the opportunity to associate with a jazz band while in the UK, singing songs of Michael Buble.

“I know most of Reeves’ songs, the gospel and the secular. But when it comes to public performance, I usually go for his gospel songs. When you sing you have to sing with meaning in your heart and it gives me a lot more soul satisfaction. The soul should come true in songs. I believe this was one of the distinguishing factors in Jim Reeves. All his songs, in fact,” says Jones who loves all genres of music from the classical to contemporary.

“I don’t listen to heavy metal at all, but I can appreciate good music, any kind of alternative music or hip-hop or reggae, as long as it has soul in it,” says Jones. While Reeves had been the emotional life-blood for Jones, his voice has captured notes of other singers as well without breaking into a sweat.

“I have attempted many, including John Denver and Johnny Cash, the Country Roadskind of songs. I think that’s the kind of music that suits my voice. I don’t want to return to anything that is hugely different. That’s one of the things I am careful about,” says Jones who insists that he sings for passion and hobby. When he was asked to sing in cities like Dubai he would take a few days leave, sing and come back.

“That’s what I love to do. This field is very different when it becomes a profession and I wanted to be quite careful about it. I used to get lots of calls when I was much younger, in my early 20s,” says Jones who crooned before elite crowds at the old Ashoka Hotel and South Park. But I never really wanted to do that, not even once. For me it was something I enjoyed doing, rather than taking it up as a burden,” he said. Jones says his spiritual inclination may have shaped his temperament. “It’s true. At the end of the day, you have to feel what you sing. There has to be an alignment of truth in your music,” says Jones.