Bobby Jones is an easy man to reach, but a hard man to talk to. Call most any hour of the day or night, and you’ll hear him answer, “Rooter-Man” in his soft southern drawl. But unless you’re in the middle of a plumbing emergency, he’ll most likely take your number and call you back. Jones has a lot of balls in the air.
First, there’s the fast-growing, 18-month-old Rooter-Man franchise serving Charlottesville, Va. Then there’s the launch of a second Rooter-Man in Nashville, Tenn., 560 miles away. And then there’s the Sweetwater Band, a country and southern rock group that’s made quite a name for itself in Virginia and along the East Coast.
“It’s hard at times keeping it all together,” Jones says. “If there’s a place beyond crazy busy, that’s where I am right now.”
Rooter-Man means being available 24/7. Sweetwater means night and weekend gigs, road trips and rehearsal time. It would be hard for one person to manage all that and still keep a marriage together. But Jones has a partner, Sandy Jones, his wife of 23 years.
The Joneses work together on drain cleaning, music and married life, and they have “crazy busy” – which included raising daughter Heather – down to a science.
The beginning
It began with the music. Bobby Jones and Sandra Wanless met in 1984. He went to audition for a band that was just getting started and she was there. “We got to talking, and neither of us joined that group,” Jones says. “Instead we decided to put together our own band.” It wasn’t long before they also put their personal lives together as Bobby and Sandy Jones (she is still Sandra Wanless professionally).
Their original band was successful enough to keep them engaged in a sideline they both loved. They wrote some songs, booked their own gigs and produced their own CDs. At the same time, Bobby was working his way up in the drain-cleaning business. He learned the ropes working for a Rooter-Man competitor, starting as a laborer, and eventually overseeing the opening of new stores for the franchise holder.
Success in music
Musical life took a big leap forward in 1990, when the couple founded the Sweetwater Band. They supplied lead vocals and harmony, backed by musicians on guitar, drums and piano. It was a winning combination.
“Things moved really fast,” Jones says. “We had a lot of club work and a lot of dates with major artists right away.” Their repertoire blends country tunes with jazz, blues, rock and Top 40. Songs from country greats like Travis Tritt, George Jones and Trick Pony mingle with others by Delbert McClinton, Dierks Bentley, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Pat Benatar, the Doobie Brothers, Carrie Underwood and Sugarland.
“When you see our playlist, you might wonder why we ended up in a country band,” Jones says, “but it’s working for us.”
Sweetwater is booked in clubs and sit-down venues up and down the East Coast. As the band’s reputation has grown, they have opened for and played with big-name acts including Shenandoah, Confederate Railroad, Aaron Tippin, Sara Evans, Tracy Byrd and Charlie Daniels. Most recently, the Joneses recorded several duets with country music legend Vern Gosdin.
“That was a thrill,” Jones says. “We were also pleased to have three of our singles hit the independent charts. Two of them went to number one, and all three stayed on the charts for several months.”
It’s a far cry from their early times in music. These days, Sweetwater books gigs through an agent, and they do their recording in major Nashville studios.
Another kind of work
In early 2007, the Joneses took on a Rooter-Man franchise centered in Charlottesville, Va., covering a 50-mile radius and a population of 175,000. “It seemed to be our next logical move,” Jones says. “Opening the franchise let me put all my technical experience with drain cleaning and excavating together in a more profitable way.”
In the beginning, they worked at the franchise part-time. Sandy did the bookkeeping and ran the office, while Bobby handled the technical work. Last June, they went full-time and now have five employees, a jetter, a pumper and four service trucks.
Taking on the franchise cut into time with Sweetwater, but the band still has plenty of momentum. They play four to six gigs per month. Still, it takes a lot of juggling, especially with the opening of the second Rooter-Man location.
Hard work and good business sense make it all come together. Even when on the road with the band, Jones almost always answers the Rooter-Man phone and handles dispatch. “People calling about a drain problem don’t want to talk to a machine or an answering service,” he says. “They want to talk to a professional right away.”
Having it all
That same customer service applies to Sweetwater. Client reviews on the band’s MySpace page express thanks for their willingness to accommodate anyone who is sponsoring a show.
Opening the Rooter-Man franchise in Nashville is a business-driven choice, as well. “Nashville is a good place for us, because that’s the center of our music career,” Jones says. “Having a Rooter-Man office there will make us more efficient, because our travel time and costs can be spread over both businesses.”
Jones believes Rooter-Man and Sweetwater are a winning combination. “Because we own the franchise, we can control our own schedule,” he says, “and with all the people we meet, there’s some crossover business.” The band even uses the Rooter-Man shop for rehearsals. Heather, now 20, pitches in with both enterprises, handling the phone in the Nashville office and doing publicity and Web site management for the band.
Would he consider doing the band full-time? Jones says no. “Sandy and I love everything we’re doing right now,” he says, “from managing the band to performing to operating a successful service business. In short, we have everything we need, and we’re content.”
