Jim Payne is a Newfoundland

Newfoundland and Labrador

Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada. Situated in the country's Atlantic region, it incorporates the island of Newfoundland and mainland Labrador with a combined area of . As of April 2011, the province's estimated population is 508,400...

 folk singer

Folk Singer

Folk Singer is a 1964 album by Muddy Waters. Waters plays acoustic guitar, backed by Willie Dixon on string bass, Clifton James on drums, and Buddy Guy on acoustic guitar...

, best known for performing and recording many of the traditional sea shanties

Sea Shanties

Sea Shanties is the debut album of Progressive Rock band High Tide. The cover artwork was drawn by Paul Whitehead.-Production:Denny Gerrard produced Sea Shanties in return for High Tide acting as the backing band on his solo album Sinister Morning...

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

Biography

Payne was born in Notre Dame Bay

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....

, Newfoundland. He plays guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

, accordion

Accordion

The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....

, mandolin

Mandolin

A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...

, tin whistle

Tin whistle

The tin whistle, also called the penny whistle, English Flageolet, Scottish penny whistle, Tin Flageolet, Irish whistle and Clarke London Flageolet is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is an end blown fipple flute, putting it in the same category as the recorder, American Indian flute, and...

, and violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

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

Payne performs regularly with Fergus O'Byrne

Fergus O'Byrne

Fergus O'Byrne is an Irish-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...

 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 Newfoundland

Newfoundland and Labrador

Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada. Situated in the country's Atlantic region, it incorporates the island of Newfoundland and mainland Labrador with a combined area of . As of April 2011, the province's estimated population is 508,400...

. 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.

Jim Payne 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)

External links

• Jim Payne - website about Payne's participation with an expedition to circumnavigate Newfoundland in 2002 (includes MP3s of his singing)