ABOUT US

Some of the people involved in the creation and development of this play

Joyce Jewell, vocalist, consultant, proof reader, inspiration, and wife to author

Daniel Jared Jewell, website developer, college student, grandson #5

Jerry Webb, music producer of album, guitarist, friend of the author

Charlie Barnes, country troubador, songwriter, friend of the author 

Charles Daniel Jewell, the author

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Charles Daniel “Dan” Jewell, author of the play, and Joyce Jewell (01/20/1940-11/22/2018), vocalist, consultant, proof reader, Muse, inspiration, and wife to author

My wife Joyce and I met and graduated from Martin Junior College (now University of Tennessee Southern). After marriage in 1960, both Joyce and I worked odd jobs to help me finish degrees at MTSU in Murfreesboro, TN and George Peabody College in Nashville. Our son Barry was born in 1961. After working at two state colleges (now universities), Southeastern Louisiana in Hammond, Louisiana, and Eastern Kentucky in Richmond, Kentucky, I became an Assistant English Professor, Department Head, and Division Chair at Tennessee’s first Community College in Columbia, Tennessee. Later, I served as an Associate Professor of English and Drama and Dean of Humanities at Volunteer State Community College in Gallatin, Tennessee.  In my academic career I directed numerous college theatrical productions -- everything from "The Odd Couple” to “Antigone" (including three of my own plays). Since retiring I’ve also written a couple of award-winning books – a mystery novel and a collection of poetry.

Joyce was born with a beautiful coloratura soprano voice. It was recognized early and she was invited at a young age to receive free classical voice lessons. The power and dynamism of that voice, the sheer beauty of it on a hymn like "The Lord's Prayer" for example, could break your heart. She sang in churches all over middle Tennessee with the Martin Junior College choir and in local gigs. But, after we married, she too eventually pursued an academic career. She worked full time in the Volunteer State Community College Library and Learning Center as lead clerk and then completed her B.A. in Psychology at Middle Tennessee State University in 1986 and her M.A. in Psychology at Western Kentucky University in 1993. After completing her Master's she and vice president Charles Lea created a new remedial/developmental program at the college which Joyce directed. We were both charter members of the faculty and staff there and we each served for about thirty years. Joyce passed away November 22, 2018. Our marriage was grounded in love and friendship, and my grief at her passing will only end when I reach the end myself and join her on the other side.

I moved to Texas in 2025 to be closer to my son and his family.   

Although I only know three chords on my old Silvertone flattop, thanks to a former student and Nashville musician, Joyce and I once cut a demo of some of my songs in the famous Woodland Studio. Woodland is the famous  Nashville studio where artists Joan Baez, Neil Diamond, Emmy Lou Harris, and Robert Plant, as well as Johnny Cash, Mother Maybelle Carter, and Gordon Lightfoot have recorded through the years. (I thought I'd drop a few names there.) People say that in the ‘70s and ‘80s, over half of the city’s population had cut at least one demo. I think it was more like 90%.

P.S. Johnny Cash and Emmy Lou were nowhere in sight the night we cut the demo, but the whole deal was great fun, thanks to my Nashville musician student Richard X. But it went nowhere, which is what happens most of the time in the City of Dreams. There are some poems about that sort of thing in my book of poetry, A Nashville Woman and Other Sorrows.

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Daniel Jared Jewell, website developer and maintainer, college student, grandson #5

Daniel has an A.A. from Collin College in McKinney, TX and is beginning the fall term (2026) at the University of North Texas in Denton, TX. He attended McKinney North High School, and after the national education disaster that accompanied Covid 19 came to live a year with his grandfather (the author) in Tennessee. He graduated from Beech High School in Hendersonville in May of 2022 TN. His work experience includes a full summer stint as a front man at Demos restaurant and a year as a cashier at Home Depot. A Gamer, Daniel built his own computer and is quite adept at operating it as an aid to work and study and  for entertainment. He developed and set up every part of this webador website. All of the technical work is his and 90% of the organization and creativity as well. He plans to get a B.S. in Gaming Studies at UNT and begin a career in the gaming industry.

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Jerry Webb, music producer of album, guitarist, friend of the author

Good friend Jerry Webb produced the music for the play’s album, played guitar on all tracks, and selected and directed the vocalists and other instrumentalists. Jerry attended and graduated from Greenville High School, Greenville, TX (1969-1972).  He arrived in Nashville in the early 1980s and became a free lancer. Jerry plays many styles but specialises in Retro Country, Rock, and Blues. He performed live as Band leader with Jett Williams for 10 years, and has also done spots with David Houston, Jack Greene, David Frizzell, Stonewall Jackson, Jim Ed Brown, Helen Cornelious, Tommy Cash, Little Jimmy Dickens, David Church, Neal McCoy, Lynn Anderson, Mo Bandy, Razzy Bailey, Bill Anderson, John Conlee, Jimmy Fortune, Marty Stuart, Jeannie Seely, Ricky Lynn Gregg, Charlie Louvin, and many more. He owned and operated the Project Room Studio in Sumner County near Nashville for many years and now works with his buddy Tom Campbell out of a small studio in Hendersonville, TN. Jerry continues to perform regularly in Nashville venues.

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Charlie Barnes, country troubador, songwriter, experimental aircraft builder/pilot, friend of the author 

Charlie was a student in one of my English Composition classes back in the late 1970s. He eventually received his bachelor's degree from Cumberland University. Later, we became good friends because of his work as a Math instructor with my wife Joyce in the developmental program she directed at our college. He is the vocalist on “The End of November, 1963,” and it was Charlie who introduced me to Jerry and worked extensively with us on an earlier, incomplete version of this project in 2013 (the 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination. Besides touring as a bass player in the bands of many country stars in the 1970s and 1980s including Jeannie Seely and singing lead in his own group, Charlie’s Good Time Band, he also built and flew his own ultralights and experimental aircraft. During the Covid scare, Charlie wrote and with his  friend Tom Campbell made a you tube video in Tom's kitchen of a novelty song that got over 11 million views! Charlie is a great friend with a perfect counry voice and in my opinion is a real country troupador.  

Also, very much deserving notice are the other great vocalists and musicians on the album of songs from the play. 

Joyce Jewell, Vocalist “The Golden Cup”

Juli Maners, Vocalist “Amazing Grace “He Was Born to Live” “Hero”
“America the Beautiful” “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” and final “The Golden Cup”

Michael Lusk, Vocalist “Armageddon” “The Day Jack Kennedy Died”

Jeff Williams, Vocalist “When the News Came Through”

Charlie Barnes, Vocalist “The End of November, 1963”

Jerry Webb, Solo Instrumentalist, guitar “Poor Wayfaring Stranger”

Buddy Elethorpe, organ and piano “The Golden Cup” (“Danny Boy”) Theme, other songs in the play

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