If you are familiar with the Red Dirt/Texas scene then the name Brandon Jackson should not be new to you. What you might not know is that Brandon has been performing since the age of 5. “The very first performance I ever had I sang a duet with my dad at church,” Brandon says. “He plays guitar, banjo, and mandolin, so I grew up singing along with my dad and sister around the house. In ninth grade I started learning how to play the guitar and put a band together. We would play the school talent show and art festivals around Oklahoma. I continued to perform with bands and in the theater throughout high school and college. I pretty much grew up on stage performing, and have never stopped.”
Brandon is also one of the many talented artists who have benefited from the Stillwater music scene. “I first started playing in the Stillwater music scene while I was in college. I was in a rock band called Twelve Pearls, and played shows at venues all up and down the Strip as well as fraternity and sorority parties,” Brandon explains. Brandon also had a weekly acoustic gig with fellow Twelve Pearls member Jordan Doolen at the original Wormy Dog on the strip in Stillwater. He later started playing acoustic shows with Steve Rice who he had met a couple years earlier when Steve opened up acoustic for 12 Pearls. “He had just joined No Justice and had an acoustic night on Monday nights,” Brandon states. “He asked if I wanted to join him one time and we played that acoustic show together for the next 6 years.” That meeting led to Brandon joining the regionally successful band No Justice in 2003. “I spent 5 years in the band and enjoyed it greatly, but I reached a point where I just really felt like it was time for me to continue on and try making it on my own,” Brandon says. Brandon co-wrote several songs on the self titled No Justice album released in 2006. He continued to write throughout his time with No Justice. “I had several songs that I had written that I really thought were great tunes but didn't really feel like they would make it on a No Justice album, so I started thinking about my next step,” Brandon states.
After leaving No Justice in 2009, Brandon starting writing songs for his first solo album. “Most of the time I write on my own, but have done some co-writing,” Brandon explains. “Usually when I write a song I start with the music. Music is by far my strong suit, lyrics are not so much. I have to really work to get some great lyrics down. In the past when I've hit a road block on lyrics in a song, I've handed it over to another songwriter to fill in the gaps.”
In August of this year Brandon went into the studio to record his first solo album with producer Eric Delegard. “I was pleased and surprised at how the songs took on a life of their own in the studio,” Brandon says. “I had no preconceived notions of how it would sound and it was cool to hear the songs grow up from the song I wrote on my acoustic guitar to the big full sound they had at the end. It has some real rock sounding songs and some great country sounding songs. It is truly my music.”
Brandon’s album that is expected to drop in February will be titled “The Good Times.”
“I wanted the title of the album to be a song from the album,” Brandon says. “It also represents how things are now and my optimism about the future.”
Brandon will then be hitting the road with a full band to promote the album release. Until then he travels throughout Oklahoma and Texas playing acoustic shows. “Acoustic shows for the most part are more intimate and they make it easier to interact with fans during the show and take requests,” Brandon says, “while full band shows tend to be just that, a show. You have a set list and you give the crowd an experience through your music. Those shows tend to have a little more structure so you can take the crowd on a musical ride so to speak.”
Brandon hopes the fans like his sound and can relate to what he worked so hard to create. “If one of my songs can give a fan something that creates a moment in their life, brings back a great memory or just gives them something they understand and can relate to, then I feel I've done a good job,” Brandon says. “I can think of certain songs that take me back to a time in my life the minute I hear it. There is nothing cooler than that.”
