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Little Label Records, DBA# |
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Biography: extended (page 1) |
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How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live. Growing up in the Midwest as the son of two teachers, Jack Du Mez learned early the value of hard work and imagination. In grade school, Du Mez attempted to write poetry and sang in church choirs with adults, and at sixteen years old, Du Mez taught himself guitar and started writing regularly, filling spiral-ring binders with his thoughts and verse. His hometown of Oostburg, Wisconsin (pop. then 1,400), would prove to be the perfect place to help Du Mez begin a spiritual and intellectual life which would carry him across the country in search of experiences, characters, and images to fill his songs. THE JOURNEY Through his late teens and early twenties, Du Mez worked a number of jobs which moved him from his hometown across the United States. His journey took him from small-town Iowa to Chicago, Seattle, Milwaukee, Indiana, and upstate New York, and finally back to the Midwest, giving him experiences which would shape his songwriting for years to come. In college, Du Mez studied literature and writing, and experimented with philosophy and theology. It was here in small-town Iowa that Du Mez learned to take an interest in the academic and imaginative life. During his summer breaks, Du Mez worked seasonal jobs, one of which was as a camp counselor for kids from Chicagoland's Fox River Valley housing projects. During his third year of college, Du Mez spent six months in Chicago as an intern and began composing a number of short essays and poems. While working in Chicago, Du Mez noticed first-hand the economic disparity between the 'gold coast' residents of Chicago's near-north side, and the kids he would see from Caprinni Green just a few blocks away – kids who reminded him of the kids who would be bussed in from housing projects just outside of Chicago to the camp where he worked during the summer. This experience was one of the first which opened Du Mez's eyes to issues of social and economic justice, which were themes which would later find their way into his music and message. However, Du Mez's journey would also soon lead him back to the academy. After finishing college Du Mez immersed himself in the world of words by attending graduate school to study English literature and work as a writing composition teacher. In graduate school Du Mez encountered modern essayists and poets, as well as classic literature from the American and early English cannons. Through his study Du Mez also learned more about poetic rhyme, meter, and imagery. While the confluence of graduate school and his time in Chicago would come later, in songwriting, the close attention to detail which Du Mez paid to his education still would bear much fruit, and appears often in his carefully crafted lyrics, drawn from rich classic metaphors and images. During his summers in graduate school, Du Mez worked as a trail guide at a camp in the Adirondack mountains in upstate New York. It was here that Du Mez first encountered the rich tradition of singer-songwriters in the Northeast and began to see another avenue for his intellectual and creative life. Learning traditional folk songs from other staff members, and hearing story-telling sessions around the camp fire, Du Mez began to compose his own stories and put them to simple melodies. Some of his earliest songs were composed outside during morning meditations and the melodies reflect the gentle spirit of the Adirondack mountains. Yet Du Mez's time in the mountains would not turn him into a monk, and his sensitivity to issues of social and economic justice would propel him into the fertile ground of the Northeast folk scene even further. After graduate school Du Mez sought work in upstate New York to become more familiar with the folk scene in that area. Attempting to blend his faith and meditation with work and practical action, Du Mez found an opening as a lay-chaplain in a residential treatment center for 'court adjudicated' teenage boys. In this role, Du Mez was confronted first-hand with the life-styles of many of the kids in treatment – a reality that included drug abuse, poverty, and street violence. While Du Mez could not shed the privilege of his own upbringing and access to education, it was here that his songwriting turned from pastoral to what some have |
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Last Updated 10/7/2008 |
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Contact us at: |
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Phone: 616.581.7978 |
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E-mail: mail@jackdumez.com |
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All materials © 2000-2007 Jack Du Mez |
