A Biographical Essay about Bill Jackson by Shane Howard – April, 2016
I'm generalising of course but Australia doesn't have much respect for folk music.
Australia doesn't really have a folk tradition. Not like Ireland, England, Scotland, the rest of Europe or Asia or the Americas and Canada. It's as if the roots of our Settler culture haven't gone deep enough yet, in this ancient, Aboriginal landscape, for us to trust our own voice.
We respect other people's folk music, but at home we consider it indifferently. We fall over ourselves for the inane and the banal that gets packaged and sold to us from the larger, commercial, cultural imperialists.
Real music is rock, or schmaltz or alternative or punk or classical and there's a little room left over for folk, which is then relegated to generic labelling in with World, Roots and Blues. There are whole industries based around these genres, but folk is considered as if it were something that amateurs do on the weekends and not worthy of much attention or support. The ARIA awards, for example, have no folk category. "I close my eyes and I wonder if everything's as hollow as it seems", sings Bob Dylan on 'Tryin' To Get To Heaven Before They Close The Door'.
Bill Jackson is out there fighting the good fight and he's been doing it for a long time. He's a true folkie, in the Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Joan Baez tradition, reminding us of our better selves, prompting our conscience and reminding us to give a damn about the unconscionable shit that's happening in our world. Once the balladeers were the media, traveling from town to town, village to village, carrying the news. Bill's comes from the same mould and is cut from the same cloth.
Jackson does this by marrying compelling melodies and fine musicianship to clever, witty, poignant lyrics that never underestimate the intelligence of his audience.
There is no iTunes category for the type of music Bill Jackson creates and performs. It's not just folk, or country, or Americana, or blues, yet it contains elements of all those genres. But you're not likely to hear Bill on mainstream radio anytime soon.
Undaunted, Bill continues on, touring and recording, garnering fans across the country, constantly winning new audiences in Australia, the USA and beyond. Of course he wants people to like his songs but he's not about to sell himself short for a popularity contest. He's coming from the grass roots, from the ground up, from the struggle of the 99%, who have to put up with the deceit and conceit of the kingdoms and corporations. His songs are gritty and real and come at you like a hammer, ringin' in the mornin'. Take it or leave it, he's telling it straight up.
Bill Jackson has firmly established himself over the past few years as one of Australia’s finest Singer/Songwriters. 'Steel & Bone' was awarded Folk Alliance Australia 'Radio Presenters Album of the Year' in 2008 and his 2011 album ‘Jerilderie’ was enthusiastically received in the marketplace, so much so that the song ‘Something in Blue’ was covered and released on legendary Americana artist David Olney’s most recent album ‘When the Deal Goes Down’.
Jackson writes primarily with his brother Ross. The content is eclectic but never obvious - from love to war and everything in between. They also have that rare ability to entwine folklore into a folk/country/roots setting. Songs like ‘Kate’s Pretty Green Dress’, ‘Joe Byrne’, ‘Jerilderie’, ‘Honeymoon Gully’, CSS Shenandoah’ - extraordinary stories about ordinary people.
When reviewing ‘Jerilderie’ Slow Magazine said - ‘Jackson sings about relationships, Vietnam veterans, good food and good company – however it’s his relationship to the people and land in his life that shine through...from a man who should be a household name…’. The Melbourne Folk Club wrote - ‘…we heard Bill for the first time at the Unpaved Sessions earlier in the year and he’s up there with Paul Kelly’.
Melbourne Singer-Songwriter Bill Jackson tours exclusively with Pete Fidler, one of Australia’s finest musician’s. They have toured the US four times together. US website acousticmusic.com described Fidler as ‘ranking up there with a handful of people on my best of dobro/resonator players’ and of Jackson and Fidler being ‘joined at the hip’ in a ‘symbiotic musical relationship’. Bill Jackson has recently released his sixth album - ‘The Wayside Ballads Vol 2 through Laughing Outlaw Records and was nominated for an Age Music Victoria Award – Best Country Album 2016.
