Michael L. Jones is an award-winning journalist, author, and music historian based in Louisville, Kentucky. He has worked as a staff writer for the Louisville Defender, the Jeffersonville Evening News, LEO newspaper, and Kentuckiana Parent (a Courier-Journal publication). His freelance writing has also appeared in Louisville Magazine, Oxford American Magazine, and the Unte Reader.
Jones is currently the economic development reporter for Louisville Business First.
In addition to being a journalist, Jones is the author of Second-Hand Stories: 15 Portraits of Louisville and Louisville Jug Music: From Earl McDonald to the National Jubilee (winner of the Louisville Historical League’s 2015 Samuel Thomas Book Award for best local history).
Jones cocurated the “Celebrating the Sounds of Kentucky” music exhibition at the Frazier History Museum in 2019. Jones cofounded and is the editor of Black Scene Millennium magazine.
Alongside his placement on the Portland Museum’s board, he sits on the boards of the Louisville Historical League and the National Jug Band Jubilee, a nationally-renowned festival that celebrates Louisville’s jug band legacy.