SOUNDTRACK: JADE JACKSON-NonCOMM (May 17, 2019).
I thought this was Jade Bird when I saw her name listed. I have come to like Jade Bird quite a bit. I had also forgotten about Jade Jackson.
Jackson is getting ready to release her second record, Wilderness, next month, and she and her band came prepared with a seven-song set of catchy country rock tunes.
I guess it’s the “country” part that meant I’d like her less. I don’t like country music (duh) but I do really like the feminist lyrics that so many country singers have been writing lately. All of these new country singers who are getting crossover airplay write about strong women. I just wish I liked their music and their voices (too twangy) better. Having said that Jackson’s voice is far less twangy than most.
And her lyrics are pretty good. Like in “Bottle It Up”
I cross my heart
I don’t need a man’s hands to open the jar
Although it seems like a lot of modern country songs are about drinking (old ones too, of course).
But her songs are certainly more rocking than country, I’d say. “City Lights” rocks a lot harder and was more enjoyable to me.
Jackson pushes the boundaries of that genre label in any way she can, citing influences from Lucinda Williams to Mazzy Star and The Smiths, and enlisting seasoned punk rocker Mike Ness of Social Distortion to produce her records.
Jade Jackson flew in from California just in time to play the last set of NonCOMM this afternoon. But you’d never guess the singer-songwriter was a bit jet-lagged — and struggling with a guitar that had just endured a cross-country flight in the cargo hold — if she hadn’t told us.
“Finish Line” is slower but still pretty catchy. “Tonight” is even slower. She says it’s a personal song about something that happened to her. The lyrics are not explicit although it is clear what happens and “Jackson emphasized that its very personal content made it the most difficult one on Wilderness to write.” It’s surprising to make it have such a catchy chorus.
She thanks the audience for being so nice and promises that they will carry on their guitars next time.
Her older songs have a lasting familiarity, like the foot-stomping “Good Time Gone.”
This does sound familiar, but I’m not sure if I’ve ever heard it before. It is catchy and foot stomping.
“Secret” opens with an guitar intro that sounds a bit like U2’s “Sunday Bloody Sunday” but which goes in a different direction. There’s a pretty ripping guitar solo which I adds an edge to the song. She says she wrote it in her car on the way to the gym.
She ends the set with “Troubled End.” This one is the real foot-stomper, the one kind of country song I like.
So yes, I guess she’s a country crossover sing that I do like.
[READ: June 3, 2019] “Prosperity”
After reading the essay from Salman Rushdie about India, I was interested to read a story about India–using what I learned from that essay to help flesh out this story.
And this story had everything: torturing dogs, torturing cats, child prostitutes, religious violence, infidelity and incest!
This was, without question, the most horrible story I have ever read.
All of the above things were done by the narrator (well, he didn’t torture the animals, but he did calmly report about it and described it in detail). All of it is told in first person, which makes it so much worse. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 