busted flat records

Lynn Jackson

An authenticity runs through Lynn Jackson’s music that reflects a deep commitment to telling stories that ring true with listeners. Combine this with her gentle voice, rich instrumentation (violin, trumpet, flugelhorn, cello, piano and guitars) and sweet melodies and you get a sound that is more than just a little folk-pop.

Jackson is currently finishing her fifth studio album, Coming Down slated for release in May 2010, and will follow up with a tour across Canada this summer.

Her previous album Soft Stars (2008) was produced with help from Bob Egan (Blue Rodeo) and features Guelph’s Lewis Mellville on banjo and Feist’s Bryden Baird on horns.

The album signaled a departure from Jackson’s usual rootsy fare, to reveal a more experimental edge, with piano taking the place of the guitar throughout and with horns, cello and even beatboxing adding intriguing accents. Sing Out! (2008) says that Jackson’s sweet voice, a la Alison Kraus, offers up “spare poetic mood-songs and a wistful whispery voice that conveys a palette of emotion from longing and regret to freedom and nostalgia.” But it is often her song-writing itself that is the focus of reviews and acclaim.

With songs driven by powerful lyrics and melodies, the 35-year-old Ontario-based artist has shared stages with Ron Sexsmith, Fred Eaglesmith, Luke Doucet, Pat Robataille, Melissa Ferrick and NQ Arbuckle.

Her three previous albums, (Night Songs, 2004, independent), including Sweet Relief (Busted Flat, 2005), and Restless Days (2007, Busted Flat), all received regular radio play on campus and community stations across North America.

The Kitchener-Waterloo Record says that “Jackson continues to grow as a songwriter as she extends her lyrical palette to encompass both the personal and the social. [Restless Days] takes her further down the alt-country highway – she’s a sweeter version of Kathleen Edwards or Shelby Lynn.” Jackson was named Female Indie Artist of the Year for 2005 by the Kitchener-Waterloo Record.

Exclaim! magazine called Sweet Relief “an understated gem,” and Restless Days has already been earning similar praise from critics and fans. “[Restless Days is] a solid-sounding record that highlights her soulful voice,” notes Monday Magazine. “Whether she’s spinning tales about down-and-outers or singing love songs, Jackson’s voice is mesmerizing, and she manages to inject her mostly country style with the occasional bit of rock, bluegrass, and even reggae.”

Jackson’s influences include artists who write their own songs about interesting characters – song-writers like Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, Lucinda Williams, Ani DiFranco and Leonard Cohen. She listens for honesty, “which you can recognize when you hear it because you know what the artist is talking about,” Jackson states. “I like to write about the human condition, the things that people don’t talk about and just suffer through,” she says.

Echo magazine says that “Lynn Jackson is carrying on a glorious tradition. Like Cash, Dylan, Cohen, and so many other songwriting pillars before her, Jackson is writing for the people. Now three records into her career...she has strayed slightly from the intensely personal subjects that characterized her early work and has blossomed into a true storyteller, spinning yarns about the minutiae that defines the lives of us all."

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