Jim Payne (born c.1955) is a

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

folk singer Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be c ...

, best known for performing and recording many of the traditional

sea shanties A sea shanty, chantey, or chanty () is a genre of traditional Folk music, folk song that was once commonly sung as a work song to accompany rhythmical labor aboard large Merchant vessel, merchant Sailing ship, sailing vessels. The term ''shanty ...

of Newfoundland culture. He also composed the song "Wave Over Wave" with Janis Spence and founded the record label SingSong Inc. Payne was born in

Notre Dame Bay Notre Dame Bay is a large bay in Newfoundland, Canada. To the south it adjoins the Bay of Exploits. The name, French for '' Our Lady Bay'', dates to at least 1550, and is possibly a French translation of an earlier Portuguese name. Trump Island ...

, Newfoundland. He plays

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

diatonic accordion A melodeon or diatonic button accordion is a member of the free-reed aerophone family of musical instruments. It is a type of button accordion on which the melody-side keyboard contains one or more rows of buttons, with each row producing the ...

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

tin whistle The tin whistle, also called the penny whistle, is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is a type of fipple flute, putting it in the same class as the recorder, Native American flute, and other woodwind instruments that meet such criteria. ...

, and

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

, and is a singer, storyteller, actor, writer, stepdancer, and teacher of traditional Newfoundland set and square dances.

Career

Payne performs regularly with

Fergus O'Byrne Fergus O'Byrne is a Canadian folk musician, best known as a member of the popular Irish-Newfoundland band trio Ryan's Fancy, and as a banjo, concertina and bodhrán player. Biography O'Byrne was born in Dublin, Ireland. In the late 1960s, he immi ...

and with the band A Crowd of Bold Sharemen. He is also one-half of the musical comedy duo, "Sods'n Rhymes," with Glenn Downey. He has directed, composed, and performed music, as well as creating soundtracks for plays, documentaries, and videos. He has performed on radio and television in Canada and abroad, and has toured throughout Canada, the US, Europe, Japan and Australia. His recordings range from original solo efforts to contributions to anthologies of Newfoundland music. He also owns a recording company, "SingSong Inc.", which provides support and production work for recordings by other Newfoundland artists.

SingSong, Inc.

Started in 1989, the label is dedicated to traditional and contemporary music, story, song, and dance that reflect the Newfoundland experience. As of 2005, the label has fourteen currently available titles, making it the largest traditional music label in the province of

. In 2005, SingSong published a CD-ROM version of Kenneth Peacock's 1965 book ''Songs of the Newfoundland Outports'', thus making the long out-of-print work more widely available than it had been. The CD-ROM was produced as a collaboration between Payne's company and the Canadian Museum of Civilization. SingSong also works in conjunction with the Newfoundland Museum and the Historic Resources Division of the Department of Tourism and Culture to produce music at various music festivals. The series was developed by SingSong and presents Sunday afternoon concerts throughout the summer by performers of Newfoundland traditional folk music. The company is also a sponsor of the Newfoundland Folk Music Club, a regular performance event in St. John's produced by The St. John's Folk Arts Council. SingSong recordings are distributed in Canada by Tidemark Music and Distribution and by Camsco Music in the USA.

Discography

* ''How Good Is Me Life!'' (with Fergus O'Byrne) * ''A Crowd of Bold Sharemen'' (with A Crowd of Bold Sharemen) * ''Wave Over Wave'' (with Fergus O'Byrne) * ''Sods 'N Rhymes'' (with Glenn Downey) * ''Empty Nets'' (solo) * ''State of the Nation'' (music from Rising Tide Theatre) * ''Southern Cross'' (solo)

Awards

* 1997 ECMA, "Roots/Traditional Artist Nominee", ''Wave over Wave'' * 1999 MIA, "Instrumental Album of the Year", ''Motion Potion'' (label owner, and backing vocal) * 1998 MIA, "Album of the Year", ''Battery Included'' (label owner, and mixer)

References

* * (French
Canadian-English folk music

External links

Jim Payne
- website about Payne's participation with an expedition to circumnavigate Newfoundland in 2002 (includes MP3s of his singing)
James Payne - Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador, v. 4, p. 236
{{DEFAULTSORT:Payne, Jim Canadian folk singers 1950s births Living people Musicians from Newfoundland and Labrador People from Newfoundland (island)