Here we go...

Just did a few interviews that focused solely on the new cd. It made me realize that this thing is about to happen for real! It's been such a long planning process and recording process that sometimes it becomes more of a dream than reality but it's coming into focus now. August 25. Don't know how many days that is (not into math, really) but I do know that the count down is on!

Video's Out- Summer is here- Big Dreams & High Hopes

The video got delivered this week! It's on CMT.com or on my website. It will be on the channels next week. It was a ton of fun to do and went well... I dig it. Go check it out.

July 4 gig in Whitewater is going to be one of the best all summer for us... and we've got some good ones lined up and have had some good ones so far! But there's just something about being down on the Guadalupe River on July 4th that is just damn right!!!! I am almost scared I'm so looking forward to this show! Eli Young Band is on the bill and I love those guys. People coming off the river and ready to rock. It's gonna be good!!! And... Happy Birthday America!

Big Dreams & High Hopes is finally finished and ready to roll. The artwork is in progress and will be ready shortly. I really can't believe it and can't wait for you to hear it. It comes out on August 25! The single, of course, is already available and blah blah blah- (go get one!) but the record comes out in a month and a half! I've been listening to it all week just to make sure it's what I want it to be... IT IS...

Things are good- the video's out, summer is here and the record's coming...

Keep on keepin on...

Jack

Come To Austin and Get Barefoot And Crazy (For Real)

Hey,

If you're reading this then that means you're in. That means you're a fan or quite possibly could be. It definitely means that something has gotten your attention. So now that I I have you...

How about coming to Austin, Texas next Fri., June 12 and shooting the video for "Barefoot And Crazy" at the Lakeway Resort and Spa above Lake Travis? We'll be playing a free show and shooting the video. The doors will open at 7pm and we will start the show at 9pm. It's going to be a ton of fun. It'll feel just like being in a really cool video for a big hit song and being on all the video channels for the rest of the summer!!!... that ain't so bad, is it?!

Check out http://www.dolce-lakeway-hotel.com/ to get directions. Go to my myspace page or check out all the info on the website.

We want everybody and anybody to come out to this thing. Young, old, inbetween... you know what I'm getting at.

This will be good.

Jack

It Still Matters... music

I don't mean to be too dramatic or anything but I heard a song yesterday and it made my world stop for 3 1/2 minutes. When I was a little younger and a whole lot less busy with everything this used to happen all of the time... every time I heard Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain by Willie Nelson, Ellis Unit One by Steve Earle, This Is Where The Cowboy Rides Away by George Strait, American Girl by Tom Petty and I could go on and on and on and on it seemed like the rest of the world just stopped and the only thing that mattered was what was coming out of those speakers. It feels like love at first sight, like watching a perfect spiral, like hitting a home run, like... well, you get the picture... music does that for me. If you're reading this then it probably does that for you too.

I was listening to Rodney Crowell's "Obscenity Prayer" yesterday and it did that to me. It came on my ipod and all of a sudden the noise from the rest of the world was silenced. I live for those moments. A lot of people spend a lot of time trying to find that place and I got it from a song that I can turn on anytime I want to.

We need this stuff. It helps. In a world that provides plenty of disappointment to go around music is a place that we can go. That's a good thing. Use it. It matters.

That's it. I got a gig.

Jack

Strait Line...

I had the opportunity to be included in "The ACM Artist Of The Decade Concert honoring George Strait" over the weekend while I was in Vegas! The show will be on CBS on May 27!

To say that it was an honor for me would be an understatement. I still am amazed that I was a part of it! I did "All My Ex's Live In Texas"... I changed the arrangement of the song up quite a bit. It's a pretty hard core, country, Western Swing kind of vibe and I thought it would be a sign of George's influence on my music if I changed the arrangement up to fit what I naturally do. That, after all, is what George has done his entire career... done songs exactly the way he sees fit! He has made a Hall Of Fame career out of just being himself... that, more than anything else, is how George Strait has influenced me and my music... just be yourself from start to finish... that way you don't have to "put on an act" every time you go to work!

Thanks to the ACM and to George Strait... it was fairly high cotton in the room and I am grateful to have been a part of it.

Keep On Keepin On...

Jack

Back to the grind.

I showed up at the Austin airport this morning just like I always do... about an hour before my flight. MISTAKE!!!!!!

I am not sure that I have ever attempted to leave Austin on the morning after SxSW that also coincides with the end of Spring Rockin' Break! The airport was a mess!!!!!

Luckily I am only gone for two days this time so I had no bags to check (just my computer bag and my guitar (I am going to two different cities in two days so I won't see the same person twice and you know my rule about that right?))... if I had had to check anything I would have definitely been SOL!

I did notice one very cool thing though... usually I am at the airport early in the morning on the day of my departure and I only run into people that look very much NOT like other people who do roughly the same sort of thing that I do for a living. This morning was an exception to that! I looked around and through my sleep deprived eyes I couldn't help but notice a thousand other dudes carrying guitars and girls with guitars and people that looked like they probably did EXACTLY the same thing I did. It was very comforting. I took a moment to look at all the OTHER people in the airport and smiled... amused. I took another moment to look at one of the guys in a tie as if to say- "I wonder why he looks like THAT!" It was a simple pleasure and very much needed amidst the chaos!

I'm not sure how everybody else fared waiting in all of the tremendously long lines that did not seem to be moving. I'm not sure if anybody else trying to get out of Austin this morning actually did. I wish them luck. I am now sitting in the airport in Washington, D.C. waiting on my connection to Norfolk, VA and realizing that it is indeed Monday morning after a week of Spring Vacation and I, while lucky to be doing it, am back to the grind! I play music for free... I get paid to travel.

K O K O...

Jack

ADDICTION!

Twitter alert!

I have not gotten into anything like this in a long time! I am officially addicted to this Twitter. I tweet!

You've got to come on there and be a "follower" of me... not in the way you are thinking like in high school you were either a follower or a leader... get over that... I'm still trying too! but in a way that means that I can figure out who you are and I can communicate with you directly... I'm not talking about just giving you tour dates (come see me on the road) or asking you to call your favorite radio station and request my song (which you should!!!!) or that I have a new album coming out soon called " Big Dreams and High Hopes " and you should get a lot of copies, some for yourself and others for people that need to have a copy (which I do and you should) BUT because it is really something that I am enjoying being a part of and it IS a great way to actually COMMUNICATE with people from my point of view! I am on there constantly updating what I am doing all day long and talking about music... usually not mine although I do like that subject as well. Seriously... it's Friday night and Mary's looking fancy and I'm on this blog talking about some new website called Twitter!

So do not pass go... go to Twitter.com and join up and then say that you want to follow "jackingrammusic" or @jackingrammusic... I don't normally recommend this kind of stuff... but what can I say... in the words of Radney Foster yet in a totally different kind of way... "I'm In"!

KOKO...
Jack

Twitter- Follow Me...

Hey-
Ok, so I've been really getting into this new way of communicating with people called Twitter. I know that everybody is into Facebook right now and so am I BUT twittering is so easy to do from the road and I can access it and send messages from my phone while I'm walking through the airport or the woods or while I'm walking to the stage... from ANYWHERE! I send messages out continuously throughout the day and well into the night. I dig it.

If you're not familiar with Twitter- it is very easy to check out AND IT'S FREE! Just go to Twitter.com and click where it asks you to set up a new account. That part's real easy. Once you have your account set up just click on the "Find People" icon at the top of the page. My account is: jackingrammusic. Just type that in your search window and it will pop up. Click that you want to "follow" jackingrammusic and WE WILL BE CONNECTED! It's that simple! I should explain what being a "follower" means but I bet you already know... I've never really been a follower myself but I'm adapting to it very well... and, as you already know, I love to have followers so this part of it is going to work out nicely for all of us!

Here's the deal... I was watching Ellen on television (you must know that I'm a big fan of hers) and she was saying that she just found out about Twitter yesterday and signed up. She started with 9 followers yesterday and in one day already has 36,000! You might have read about Lance Armstrong and Barack Obama Tweeting (that's what it's called as an ACTION verb when you actually use Twitter to send a message!) from their various campaigns. They have 300,000 followers on Twitter!!!

I want to talk to you... but you need to sign up. I want to see how many people we can get going on this in the next few days. I have 312 people following me on Twitter as I write this this morning. I want to see how many people sign up by the end of the day. You sign up and if you know anybody that cares about what I'm up to then tell them about it and tell them to sign up too!

Unlike ALL of the other communication networks, Twitter is something that is real easy for me to do and I don't have to be sitting still to do it which makes it possible for me to stay in contact with everyone that follows me throughout the day.

Well, here we go.

KOKO...

Jack

What's in your ipod?

As a lot of you know, I do a ton of interviews to promote upcoming shows, records, whims and/or otherwise! It seems like every time and interview gets a bit stalled out the guy/girl asks me "so, what's in your ipod?". That question always seems to stump me as my ipod is not there at the moment and I can NEVER seem to remember EXACTLY what is the last thing I was playing on my ipod when I took my headphones off not to mention the fact that the actual answer to the question is that "everything I ever owned, bought, stole or was given to me is on that damn thing because I have one of the big ones with 1 million gigs on it" so... well, you get my point! My point is this- with a little time to think about it mixed with the fact that I am home today, I have my ipod right here in front of me and I would like to answer the question posed with just a little bit of truth and not JUST rely on names that, during an interview, I think will add some cachet to my status in this world!! :)

Here's a few that I've been listening to lately...

Mike Farris- Salvation In Lights

This thing is FANTASTIC! This guy used to be (may still be) the singer for a band called The Screaming Cheetah Wheelies. I don't know anything about that band or about Mike BUT... this gospel cd is enough to make you never say that you "hate gospel music" again!!!!

Jason Isbell- And The 400 Unit

I first saw Jason when he was playing guitar in The Drive By Truckers. He looked like somebody's younger brother that got to sit in with the band. I remember thinking to myself that he looked like some dude that just kissed somebody else's girlfriend because the girl was drunk and mistakenly thought that he was her girlfriend... you know... that guy!

TURNS OUT I WAS WRONG!!! This guy is a BAD ASS! His songs are knowing, solid, melodic, tight and the list could go on and on. Jason Isbell is not the guy I thought he was... and makes me re-think what I thought I was! (that's a long story anyway and I am in therapy!) Get this cd.



I am interested in what you are listening to! Who's your favorite singer? Is it Tim McGraw? Keith Urban? Todd Snider? Pat Green? Tom Waits? Who?????????

If you want to start a dialogue with me... tell me who your favorite singer is. Go to iplaycountrymusic@gmail.com and give me your thoughts. It's my email that I just set up this evening because I'm interested in who you dig. I'm a fan of music and I want to know.

I look forward to talking with you.

K-O-K-O

Jack

First Week Of Toby Tour

WOW! What a fantastic tour for us! We played in Asheville, North Carolina, Louisville, Kentucky and tonight in Pikeville, Kentucky. All three shows were sold out or close to it and all three nights Toby's audience acted like they were there to see the opener also... that's very nice of them and feels great! They stood for the hits and sang along with every song even if they didn't know the words ( you know how much I love that!!!!)!

It's been a good few weeks of touring for us... the shows in Texas were great, these shows were great, we have more TK shows coming up and the shows to start the year were a ton of fun... be careful here boys and girsl... I could get used to this!

I've been recording some songs for the cd that are really special to me... it's almost done. Should have some news on a release date soon.

Come see me out here.

Call your favorite radio station and tell em to play "That's A Man" or they're not one!!! (or woman if it's a girl that answers!!!!)!

KOKO...

Jack

That's A Man... The Linemen

Hey,

How bout that Super Bowl?!!!! Congratulations to our mighty friends in Pittsburgh!


I was watching the game and thinking about the linemen. I've been thinking about the linemen more than usual these days because of the new song I have out, "That's A Man". When people ask me what this song is about I tell them that it is about a lot of things but one theme that runs throughout this song is that it is talking about "the linemen"... the guys that do the dirty work in the trenches without any question and without any fan fare. They are the guys that provide the protection and make the holes so that the running back looks good, the quarterback looks like a genius and the wide receiver can have time to get open. I don't think a lineman has ever received the MVP award at the big game and they all know that it ain't ever gonna happen... and they don't care! They take pride in doing their job the right way because that's what they do.

In many ways "That's A Man" is a song for "the lineman"! It's about getting up, going out and doing the right thing the right way because that's the way we do it.

So do me a favor... if you know anybody that fits the description of being a "lineman" then go up to them today and give them a hand... a handshake, a pat on the back, a attawaytogo. Look them (him or her) in the eye and say "Thanks."! Don't make too big a deal of it because they don't like all that fanfare! But I guarantee they'll appreciate it.

Do me another favor while you're at it... call up your favorite radio station and relay the message that you'd like to send one out to the people that just flat out get the job done... tell them to play "That's A Man" and tell them why!

That's it... That's A Man.

KOKO...

Jack

Happy, Happy...

Are you happy now?!!!!

It's January 14 and it's the New Year! Has anything changed? Have you broken your resolutions yet? Me too!!!

I tried not to cuss... then I hit my head on the cabinet trying to get a remote control for the Wii! done.
I tried not to eat fried food... then I got in the car heading to a gig with 4 hours to drive and I was starving and in a hurry AND a KFC was right there in the truck stop where I was getting gasoline! done.

2 for 2! That sounds good! I'll go with that...

When somebody asks me, "Hey Jack, how's your New Year going?" I'll just reply... great, I'm 2 for 2!!!!!!!!

Happy New Year Everybody! I'm batting 1000%! How bout you?!

Keep on keepin' on...

Jack