Cris Jacobs – An Xperience Interview

Cris Jacobs – An Xperience Interview – by Rob Smittix.

RRX: So, how’re things treating you these days?

CJ: You know, busy as always between road life and home life. I have two young kids. So there’s never a never a dull moment in life, which is good.

RRX: That it is. Yeah, there’s gotta be some kind of balance between the road and family. I would imagine that’s gotta be tough sometimes.

CJ: It can be. But it’s a work in progress and everybody’s understanding and we figure it out. There are pros and cons to it. When I’m gone, unfortunately, I’m gone. But when I’m home I get to spend real quality time that maybe working day-job dads don’t. So, it’s got pluses and minuses for sure.

RRX: Absolutely. Did you grow up in a musical home and do you have a musical home now yourself? With the kids and everything?

CJ: Yeah, I mean … I did. My parents didn’t play music but they were huge music fans and music lovers and had great taste. They were huge Deadheads so they loved the Grateful Dead. My dad had walls of live Dead tapes, you know? And Little Feat, Frank Zappa, the Neville Brothers, jazz, bluegrass, and all that stuff. So, I grew up listening to all that good stuff. My house now, it’s definitely a musical house. Both my daughters, they’re only eight and five, but they’re already taking piano lessons and they love to sing.

They’re obviously always hearing me play music and playing guitar. Music is very encouraged; they come see Dad work, and it’s gonna be ingrained in them that it’s ok to be into it and that’s a good way to express yourself. Hoping they follow in my footsteps if they want, but I’m not pushing it too hard. But knowing the joy it can bring you, I definitely wanna introduce them to it.

RRX: No, that’s the coolest – I could relate. So, you’ve got this new album, “One of These Days.” I’ve been checking it out, but it’s got a powerhouse of the features.

CJ: Yeah, man. It came together pretty great. It sort of started out as a pipe dream of wanting to make a bluegrass-centric record. Bluegrass had always been one of my favorite styles of music that really lit my fire as a youngster. I really wanted to learn how to play it and I spent a lot of time trying to play it.

I played in some bluegrass groups before kind of going more electric. But it’s always been a huge part of my musical DNA and I just kind of hit a point where I wanted to get back to it. A lot of things lined up for me, where I had recently met Jerry Douglas and I sort of hit it off with him in a nice, friendly way. So, when I had this idea in my head, he was the first person I called just to ask if he’d produce the record and he said he’d be into it.

We started lining some people up, and then as we were recording and the songs were coming together, we were calling people right then and there saying… “Hey, Sam Bush wanna come in and play a few songs? Hey Billy Strings, do you wanna play on this one? Lindsay Lou and McCrary Sisters …” It was all organic though. It wasn’t like I wanna make a star-studded record. It was just like, I wanna make a record. I wanna make it with Jerry. And then as the songs came together, it’s like… what does this song need? And that’s how it happened. I’m very, very lucky.

RRX: No, this is very cool. And it was crazy for me because when they sent me your information, I was like … this seems rather familiar. When I got your number to give you a call, I went to put it into my phone and I already had your phone number. So, I think this was supposed to happen a few months ago or something and just maybe never did. But now you’re actually coming to town to the Cohoes Music Hall, so now it makes even more sense to chat with you. It’s a really cool place, I think you’ll like it over there.

So what’s a Cris Jacobs show like? What’s this tour all about and what can we expect?

CJ: It’s gonna be great. I mean, we have a monster band lined up that pretty much is set to cover the gamut of my catalog. I have a killer rhythm section that’s been playing with me for almost 15 years. And for this tour, I have my friend Jay Starling who plays in Leftover Salmon currently. He plays dobro, lap steel, and keyboards. We’re gonna be doing all of the stuff from the new record. Plus, we’re still able to crank it up and do some funky rock and roll. Between all my last few records of music and the versatility of the band, it’s become a very dynamic live show where we can break it down to an intimate acoustic song, and then try to melt faces too with some electric stuff. I think it’s gonna be great. I can’t wait for us to get out there and by that point, we’ll be nice and warmed up because it’ll be a couple weeks into the tour.

RRX: Nice. So, where’s the tour taking you besides here?

CJ: We kick it off down in the Carolinas. We were supposed to do Asheville on Saturday, which obviously isn’t happening unfortunately.

But yeah, Georgia, North and South Carolina. And then actually for Halloween week I’m back home doing two nights at the arena here in town with Billy Strings. He’s doing a two-night Halloween thing with some special guests and I got the call for that. So that’ll be pretty fun. And then we pick back up the week after that; up your way and then a bunch of Northeast shows and then out to Chicago, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Indianapolis, Cleveland … it’s basically Midwest and East Coast.

RRX: Awesome man. I’ve really been digging the music and I’m all over the place. I mean, I’ll cover a hip-hop show, a jazz show, or a metal show even. Bluegrass kind of gets tied into country, which I love real country, and it took me a long time as a city boy to realize that. I just really didn’t like a lot of the pop stuff that’s being played.

CJ: No, I feel the same way. Yeah, Merle Haggard, Hank Williams, Waylon Jennings all day long.

RRX: Any day of the week for sure. I just got to thinking because I go out to a lot of these shows and it is my generation “X,” some of the millennials, and definitely the boomers that are still around who are really keeping live music going. I wonder about the younger kids, who don’t seem to be concerned about AI creating music and it breaks my heart.

CJ: I hate being the boomer-sounding “get off of my lawn” guy but the AI thing freaks me out. The fact that it can crank out a song that sounds comparable or even better than something that somebody poured their heart and soul into for hours or days is just really troubling to me. I’d like to believe that the heart and soul will still rise to the top. It’s the only thing that keeps me going honestly.

RRX: Me too, man. I appreciate your time. We’ll see you November 7th, 8 pm at the Cohoes Musical Hall with special guest Daniel Rodriguez!

CJ: Come on out. Like I said, it’ll be a dynamic show. There’s something for everyone. If you wanna dance, if you wanna cry, if you wanna sing along, if you wanna chill, if you wanna get rocked, it’s all gonna happen!

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