The Bumper Jacksons bring their hot and sweet, slightly countrified 1930s-style hot jazz, traditional jazz and pre-war country repertoire to The Mainstay in Rock Hall, MD on Saturday March 5 at 8:00 p.m. Admission is $20. For information and reservations call 410-639-9133.
Information is also available at the Mainstay’s website https://www.mainstayrockhall.org.
Taking new sounds from forgotten 78s, the Bumper Jacksons boldly and elegantly pay homage to roots and traditions while fashioning a vivid, contemporary sound with their instrumentals and vocals. They playfully create their own originals and re-imagine roots music with both power and tenderness, painting America’s story from New Orleans’ brothels to Appalachian hollers.
Bursting at the seams with some of the richest threads of old America, the Bumper Jacksons bring every listener into the center of a party where everyone’s invited and the dance floor never sleeps.
Frontwoman and Florida native Jess Eliot Myhre (clarinet, vocals, washboard) honed her musical chops in jam sessions in the streets and clubs of New Orleans, immersed in the music that fuels the city’s humid, carnivalesque all-night parties. In 2012, she met Maryland-born fellow songcrafter Chris Ousley (guitar, vocals) in Washington, DC, and the two joined forces to form core of the Bumper Jacksons.
Chris’ background in old-time banjo and bluegrass music harmonized perfectly with Jess’s vintage jazz credentials; the songs the duo collects, arranges, and writes weave the high lonesome echoes of old rural America into the galvanizing sounds of the cities and artists that have defined American jazz, blues and swing.
The band is completed with Alex Lacquement on upright bass, Dave Hadley on pedal steel, Brian Priebe on trombone, and Dan Cohan on suitcase percussion. Together, they blast through carefully crafted, expertly selected tunes; sidelong horn and pedal steel flourishes enhance the band’s brawny vocal harmonies, dynamic swells, and high-octane rhythm section.
Their new recording, “Too Big World” is garnering nationwide attention. It was recorded in Maryland with Grammy-winning engineer, Charlie Pilzer (Smithsonian Folkways’ Anthology of American Folk Music). It is a carefully curated, sweetly balanced collection of hot swing numbers, heartbreak ballads, and late-night moonshine foot-stompers.
Their genre-bending danceable mix of great tunes and songs that also make for great listening has led to a rapidly expanding touring schedule taking them to clubs, festivals and listening rooms across North America.
The Mainstay (Home of Musical Magic) is the friendly informal storefront performing arts center on Rock Hall’s old time Main Street.
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