I first want to dedicate this page to my Dad who passed away in 2002 at the age of 59. I will miss him dearly.I started playing music when I was 5 years old. My parents, John and Diann Jackson, who is now living in Tennessee very near me, both played guitar and mandolin as a past time at home. We were by no means a wealthy family, so we had to create our own entertainment. I was able to pick up my mother’s mandolin and pick out songs that I had heard by ear thus unknowingly starting my future music career. My father later bought me a guitar at the age of 9, and believe it or not I still have both my first mandolin, and my first guitar. Growing up in the small town of Pecos Texas, I found there was not much to do for a teenager in a town with a population of 13, 000, so I almost always had a band of some sort working. I was in both rock and country bands from the age of 12. My music took me out of Pecos and into Dallas Texas’ club scene in the late 80’s. My band “Lariat†worked on the club circuit for about 5 or 6 years all over the country and was very successful. We even had our own fan club, tour bus, and cut our own album. We had a song, which I wrote and sang, go pretty high on the independent and overseas charts and Razzy Bailey produced it on his independent record label. We were given an award by Cashbox magazine for “Independent Group of the Year†in 1989. We were offered a record deal by a major label at one point, but things fell through and eventually dissolved the band as a result (among other reasons I’d rather not discuss). From bouncing in and out of a few different bands, to quitting the road bands for a short time to work as an electrician, which was my trade I had learned in Pecos, to back in club circuit bands, I finally found myself in Nashville working for an artist on Asylum records named Curtis Day. This was my first national act. His success was short lived and I found myself with a tool belt around my waist once more. Finally, while working on a job site in Lebanon Tennessee, a friend called and told me of a gig available with the country artist Mark Chesnutt and told me to expect a call from someone about the job soon if I was interested. Well, of course I was interested. Who wouldn’t be? I had been playing his songs for years in different club bands and was luckily drafted into the ranks of the New South band by his band leader Slim Yamaguchi that day. I have currently been working for Mark since 1996 and love every minute of it. It’s been a long, and sometimes, hard road to get to where I am today, but I made it in one piece. Mark is a great guy to work for and as long as he’s got gigs and wants to keep me around, I’ll be playing Chesnutt songs to whoever will listen…….loud!
Mark Chesnutt http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgGkhGmUNbw
Just a little pickin' and a little grinnin'
