We Built This City
Picture it. Nashville. 1985ish. Satin jackets. Badminton rackets. Power pop. That was the world of The Jackers; a sibling duo who brought the house down at every show. Well, not literally. That would've resulted in a really long Time Out.
Photo by Chuck Ricker
As I've mentioned before, my brother (Ed) and I had a "band" in the 80s that performed on the stair landing in our family den. I remember preparing in our rooms, getting together to listen to the radio and record our "set" when favorite songs came on. Sets included Jefferson Starship, John Cougar Mellencamp, Tina Turner, Huey Lewis & the News and Mike and the Mechanics...and who knows who else I'm not recalling. These make up my earliest musical memories.
Fast forward twenty years, give or take a few (well, give and maybe give a few more) years. In 2008, I made my first trip to Austin, TX to visit my BFF Brooke and attend the Austin City Limits Music Festival. Aside from The Great Stink of '09, the ACL Festival has become a highlight of my year. I get to visit Brooke, friends I've been lucky to make through Brooke that live there in Austin, and hear some bands that would be impossible to afford in any other concert-going situation. (Moment of honesty: I'm also drawn to ACL over other music festivals because there is zero threat of camping involved. You go, you leave to shower, sleep in a bed, enjoy a leisurely morning and then go back to the park around lunchtime. Also, AUSTIN RESTAURANTS.)
Zilker Park 2009: Awww, that's adorable! You just keep telling yourself that's mud, sweetheart.
Each year, the festival sells several price tiers of tickets, the most coveted (and elusive) being the $50 "souvenir" ticket, which is sold at an unspecified time the week immediately following the festival. Well, y'all, somehow I hit the jackpot in 2012. After years of trying, I was in the right place (ACLFestival.com, to be exact) at the right time and made it through to purchase two wristbands. First thing: I flipped out. Second thing: I knew that ACL '13 would provide the perfect stage for The Jackers' comeback tour.
So consider yourselves VIPs on this trip down memory lane which, coincidentally, is made up of highways and interstates that'll take us from Nashville, TN, to Prattville, AL, to Austin, TX. I'll be updating the blog with posts between now and October 2 (the "go" date of the tour part of the tour) and then the hope is to have posts, video and other multi-media from the road. You can follow updates on Twitter through @_TheJackers.
Stay tuned... ( <--- subtle music joke)
I am embarrassingly ignorant of how to use Spotify, but I'm crossing my fingers that this works. If you'd like, you can follow the playlist below for a "real time" soundtrack to The Jackers Comeback Tour 2013. (I have learned enough about Spotify to know that all tracks don't necessarily work at all times. Sorry about that!)
