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Name: Carl Jackson
Date: Friday August 22nd, 2008
Time: 1:00pm EDT
Website: www.carljackson.net
Interviewer: Gracie Muldoon
Description:
Carl Jackson, was born in the small town of Louisville, Mississippi on September 18, 1953. By the time he was eight years old, he was already well on his way to being an accomplished musician.
At age fourteen, after playing backstage at a local concert for Jim and Jesse McReynolds, he was asked to be a Virginia Boy by the bluegrass greats and soon found himself on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry. He played banjo for Jim and Jesse for almost five years before joining The Sullivan Family for a short time as a guitarist. Carl then journeyed to Columbus, Ohio to form a group called "The Country Store" with close friends Jimmy Gaudreau, Bill Rawlins, and the late Keith Whitley. The band in its original form would last little more than a week, for just around the corner lay another big break for Carl.
Glen Campbell came into town to play the state fair and being huge fans of his, Carl and Keith went out to see the show. Afterwards they ran into Glen's banjo player, Larry McNeely, who persuaded Carl to come by the next day for a jam session. Larry took him to meet and play for Campbell and Glen hired him on the spot. For the next twelve years, Glen featured Carl everywhere he went as “the greatest banjo player in the world”.
He recorded two albums for Capitol Records, ("Carl Jackson: Banjo Player" and "Old Friends"), three for Sugar Hill, ("Banjo Man: A Tribute To Earl Scruggs", "Song Of The South", and "Banjo Hits"), and then in 1984 his signing with Columbia Records produced a couple of top forty country songs, ("She's Gone, Gone, Gone" and "Dixie Train").
It was at this time that Carl made the decision to strike out on his own. As a vocalist, you can hear him on recordings with the likes of EmmyLou Harris, Dwight Yoakam, Vince Gill, Ricky Skaggs, Steve Wariner, Garth Brooks, Janie Fricke, Dolly Parton, Sweethearts Of The Rodeo, John Anderson, Mac Davis, Pam Tillis, Radney Foster, Joe Diffie, Rebecca Lynn Howard, Holly Dunn, Glen Campbell, Martina McBride, Marty Stuart, Ken Mellons, Tammy Wynette, Hank Williams Jr., Rodney Crowell, Linda Ronstadt, Keith Whitley, George Jones, Rhonda Vincent, Patty Loveless, Ricky Van Shelton, Alecia Nugent, Mark Newton, Bradley Walker, Travis Tritt, Merle Haggard, Blake Shelton or Roger Miller just to name a few.
Jackson's "Little Mountain Church House" was voted the 1990 International Bluegrass Music Association song of the year and a recent version by George Hamilton IV was a 2005 Dove Award nominee for bluegrass song of the year. On February 25th, 1992, for his album with John Starling entitled "Spring Training", Carl was awarded his first Grammy. A few months later he received a Dove Award for southern gospel song of the year, "Where Shadows Never Fall", recorded by Glen Campbell. The beautiful ballad, "No Future In The Past", by male vocalist of the year Vince Gill was a huge songwriting success for Carl and was named the #1 song of the year for 1993 by Radio & Records magazine. In 1998, after hearing Carl’s demo, Garth Brooks decided to include the Jackson spiritual entitled "Fit For A King" in his "Sevens" project. All in all, Carl has had hundreds of his songs recorded. A recent poll by Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine found Carl to have written eight of the top 200 bluegrass songs of all time.
One of Carl’s more recent production successes is entitled “Livin’, Lovin’, Losin’ – Songs Of The Louvin Brothers” and was the 2003 Grammy winner for Country Album of the Year. The CD was released in September 2003 and contains other performances by EmmyLou Harris & Rodney Crowell, Patty Loveless & Jon Randal, Dolly Parton & Sonya Isaacs, Joe Nichols & Rhonda Vincent, Glen Campbell & Leslie Satcher, Johnny Cash & Pam Tillis, Vince Gill & Terri Clark, Ronnie Dunn & Rebecca Lynn Howard, Harley Allen & Dierks Bentley, Marty Stuart & Del McCoury, Kathy Louvin & Pamela Brown Hayes, as well as three performances by Carl himself; one with songwriting pals, Larry Cordle & Jerry Salley, one with country legend, Merle Haggard, and one with the incredible Linda Ronstadt.
Speaking of Merle Haggard, Carl played guitar, as well as sang and produced all the harmony vocals on Hag's current release, "The Bluegrass Sessions", except on one song.
Since those days in Mississippi thirty some odd years ago, two-time SPBGMA songwriter of the year, Carl Jackson, has realized many of his dreams. But with each dream that becomes a reality, a new dream lies ahead.
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