Forty miles north of Dallas, Texas you’ll come upon a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it town named Melissa, Texas; population less than 5,000 people. Tiny, but that’s not what’s important. What’s important is what it has to offer the world and make no mistake, Melissa, Texas has something big to share.
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His name is Jackson Scribner.
Expertly straddling that line between folk-rock and country, Scribner’s timeless voice comes through the speakers not as a new artist but rather a well-traveled troubadour. Bathed in the same grit and soul of guys like Steve Earle before him, Jackson Scribner is his own entity. Authentic, raw, honest, pure. Just like where he’s from.
Obsessed with music from an early age, Scribner learned to play guitar when he was only nine years old and spent countless hours playing alongside his Dad and brothers. Fast forward through the next decade and that’s all Scribner did, play guitar and make music. It wasn’t until this last year and a half that he began adding lyrics to his musical weavings and not unlike when he picked up the guitar, it soon became apparent the young man has somewhat of a knack for that as well.
Hell, let’s not sugarcoat it, the guy can write and deliver with the best of them. As is evident in his debut single “Sixteen,” Scribner is already an A list talent. At this point, the world just needs to learn about him so they can catch up.
“Sixteen” is a song about watching someone grow up and leave home, exploring the world for themselves for the first time,” muses the young Texan. “It’s funny because it’s a song I wrote while I was still at home.”
Any musician will tell you the recording studio can be both magically wonderful and an intensely frustrating place. Tracking a song, whether you’ve played it once or a thousand times, is often filled with details and minutia even if you’re going for that live feel. For Scribner however, the studio experience on “Sixteen” was anything but. Produced by Jeff Ryan (drummer for St. Vincent, The War on Drugs, Daniel Johnston) and mixed by Grammy-winner Stuart Sikes (engineered Phosphorescent, Cat Power, Modest Mouse, The Walkmen), this debut single poured out so easily in the studio they surprised even themselves.
“Recording “Sixteen” was a very unique and extraordinary experience. Jeff (Ryan) and I had never played together before we recorded the song, and it was the first song we tracked. The plan was just to run through the song and give it a go, but I don’t think we expected the first take to be the take we’d use. I think the chemistry we formed playing that song set us up for the rest of the record, and now for the song to be the first single is fitting.”
Scribner’s debut album is due in 2021 on State Fair Records / We Know Better Records.
