Upon attending college at the prestigious California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), her sphere of in uence exponentially expanded to include the sounds of Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, and California punk rock and rollers Social Distortion. During an intimate co eehouse performance, Jackson’s melancholic country-folk caught the attention of Social Distortion front man Mike Ness’s wife and son, eventually leading the punk-rock legend to reach out to the young songwriter. Ness produced Jackson’s debut record, Gilded, and also invited her to open for Social D. on their upcoming spring tour throughout March and early April. “He gave me homework,” she points out. “He made me listen to Lucinda Williams’s Car Wheels On A Gravel Road and told me to listen only to that album for the next three or so months. That was the template of the album he wanted to create with me, so I picked from songs of mine that had a similar feel. If I didn’t have him, Gilded would have been a lot more scattered.” That’s the key, right there. Gilded is a closed circuit, a masterwork of emotional honesty, of epic tales and intimate confessions. This is just the rest you’ve heard from Jade Jackson. So much more lies ahead, for her and for us.
