Jackson Free Press

When I became the Jackson Free Press' music editor last summer, I would have told you that I listened to every variety of music. I didn't think I would be put to the test on that point. I've learned a lot about the areas of knowledge in which I'm lacking, and I've also learned what I need to fix. Funny enough, that started with learning not to rely on emails.

From middle school to high school, while most people wanted to grow up to be rock stars, I wanted to write about rock stars. While it's slightly embarrassing, some of my first knowledge of music came from video games such as Tony Hawk Pro Skater and Amped. While my pixelated character was sliding down an impossibly long rail on a snowboard or skateboard, I was learning the lyrics to songs from Park, Taking Back Sunday and At the Drive In.

Sure, I wrote music and played in bands (and still do), but I've never expected my music to take off. I write music because I love it, which is the same reason why I write about music. If anything, performing only expanded the types of music I listened to and grew my interest in music journalism.

When I started working as the music editor for the school newspaper at Mississippi College, I still wanted to cover the music that I liked. I wasn't particularly interested in writing about anything else, even though I was pretty sure no one else at MC was dying to hear about the new As Cities Burn album. By the time I graduated, though, I was an adult. I understood that my idea of what a song should be wasn't law.

One of the things that I set out to do after accepting my job at the JFP was to make myself available to our friendly neighborhood music makers, which meant networking and taking in tons and tons of emails and Facebook messages.

A huge problem in local music that I noticed early on is that when the listeners don't know what Jackson has to offer, they assume it isn't out there. Having my email address as an open ear for Jackson's music scene seemed like the best way to stay ahead of big shows and big names. I didn't consider that the loudest voices would drown out everything else.

One of the more useful discoveries I've made since taking this position is that there's more music here than I even have time to check out. Plenty of vocalists and musicians are releasing songs from multiple projects at once, and multi-genre collaboration has become a regular, if sporadic, occurrence between artists such as Spacewolf and 5th Child.

Rather than being disheartened that so much slips under the radar, it's a relief to learn just how wrong people are when they say, "There's nothing to do in Jackson."

For almost a year, I've received anywhere from 70 to 100 emails per week from local bands and international media agencies, asking me to cover an artist or event coming to town.

In many ways, that's a great thing, especially when someone decides to send a link to a video or a free download for an upcoming release. It feels really cool to listen to music that won't even hit stores for a few months. It also helps me stay knowledgeable about what's going on in Jackson music, which is its own reward.

It can also be useful for one of my favorite hobbies: finding new bands and songwriters. Over the past few weeks, I've had a chance to listen to the latest music from a number of artists that I wasn't as familiar with, including Murder by Death, the Delta Routine and Seryn, each really impressive in its own right.

Local and regional bands haven't been slacking, either, whether it's Fides and Cody Cox shooting me press releases or Young Valley and Living Together saying they're up for an honest review.

Here's where the negative comes in, though. Email can only do so much of the heavy lifting for me. They don't tell the whole story of what's out there. You might have noticed that I haven't listed any R&B, soul, rap, jazz or blues artists so far, and that wasn't on accident.

While I do receive the odd press release from these genres or—and this is especially rare—a copy of a new release, I don't hear much from these music communities, and I don't want it to stay that way. I'm aware of how deep they run throughout Mississippi, but I'm not doing enough to bring them to the surface.

I'm lucky to know a handful of helpful people from the alternative, indie and even metal scenes who keep their ears to the ground and help point me in the right direction. That was the kind of music I grew up on, what I write and what I personally choose to listen to, so I have the most working knowledge about it. That is only a small fraction of what our city has to offer, though.

If you've picked up an issue of the Jackson Free Press in the past, you know we're committed to bringing out the best in Jackson. The most obvious way we do that is through news coverage, and if you aren't interested in music, skip ahead a page or two, you'll find exactly what you're looking for. The artistic output of our city represents us on a deep of a level, though, and it's just as important to expand knowledge of what we're doing right as what needs to change. It's easy to remember the nationally known acts that send three press releases and call to check in. But if I'm not delivering music coverage that reminds Jacksonians what's happening down their own streets, then I'm not doing it right.

Whether you've been obsessed with a new local album, dying to see an upcoming concert, or just can't stop thinking about someone who deserves some attention, feel free to send me information to me at [email protected]. That might mean a year's worth of emails on a daily basis, but if it can help bring Jackson's best singers, rappers, songwriters and bands to a broader audience, it's definitely worth a bit of hard-drive space.