2009 Story of the year for Jackson Cage

2009 was a big year for Jackson Cage that marked the transition from new local act to established and respected act on the Irish music scene.

The release of their debut album at the end of 2008 and concerted gigging enabled the band to gain a strong local following. They also made fans and friends internationally through sales of their album on iTunes, Amazon and CDBaby.
Special thanks go out to International Friends who helped get the music out to the world outside of Northern Ireland :

Just some of our international friends

Twang Nation
CheezeBallz.net
Country Start Page
Americana OK
Cosmic American Radio
Uncle Shag at Longtown Sound
Roots Highway
The Miller Tells Her Tale
South Australia Roots and Blues Podcast
HogTown Radio
Emyvale

January
Kicked off the year in style with an acoustic performance at the Out to Lunch Festival and a jam packed country club at McHugh's

February
Rolled into the Belfast Nashville Festival for a headline show, a performance of "Alabama" at the Harvest Revisited event and the highlight, Declan aka Shaky Horse performing "In the Round" with Nanci Griffith. Another highlight was our first ever TV Appearance on "utv live at the limelight".

March
The Botanic Arts Festival was the highlight in March and a support to touring band "Delta Spirit" in Auntie Annie's. The band also made an appearance at the Oh Yeah Music Centre on St. Patricks Night.

April
A headline show in the Empire Music Hall capped the start of Spring.

May
A performance as "The Band" as part of Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival's Last Waltzed Revisited marked May.

June
A well recieved New Moon Showcase at the Spring and Airbreak debuting some brand new tracks.

July
Another big night at the Spring and Airbreak for the "Big Gig", receiving GiggingNI.com's first 10/10 review

August
A massive gig at the Belfast Tall Ships Festival was one of the highlights of the year in front of what seemed like 1000's of people

September
Two cool performance's at the fantastic Belfast Open House Festival

October
An appearance at the Newtownards Guitar festival and a TV show appearance on BBC2's Blas Ceoil

November
A first gig in Dublin at Whelan's and a myspace airing for some new folk style down home raw demo's

December
Capping the year off in style by playing at the Black Box with compadres Ten Gallon Hat, Louisiana Joyride and Captain Kennedy. Also recorded the first new song for of the next release. 2010 is gonna be even better for the "Cage".....with new releases from the band and solo releases from members of the band...

Jackson Cage - Help Me Mama on BBC iPlayer

The Cottage Sessions

What is "The Cottage Sessions" you may ask ?

Well if you go to Jackson Cage Myspace http://www.myspace.com/jacksoncageband you will hear 3 demo tracks of new songs by the band.

The Cottage is our guitarist's cool place in the wild Northern Irish countryside.

In the cottage on Saturday 24th October, Declan, Paul, Marty and Shay had a little musical session for a bit of craic. The only difference is that we decided to record what we were doing, so all you good folks, who dig our sound, might get to hear the raw idea's that we are working on.

Everybody in the band is a big fan of the live feel, and the interactions between individuals is critical to the creation of a feel that you can't always get when you are in a studio. So if you can listen to your music with the "bark on" then you'll get what we were doing. IMHO it makes the songs come alive more and it allowed everyone to chill and have a laugh..so all you good people reading this may enjoy the vibe.

In all we tracked 10 songs, including a reworking of an old Jackson Cage stalwart, "Samaritan Street", only this time we used bare bones instrumentation to give a gypsy folk meets wild west feel.

We used the following instruments on the tracks:

• Paul's old Upright Piano, and his 6 six string banjo


• Paul's Yairi parlor guitar played by Shay


• Marty's Pedal steel


• Electric Double Bass and his Danelectro Bass


• Dec brought his Martin D-15 ( nice geetar )


• Shay also brought his Laptop and his Channel Strip.

We used a couple of Audio Technica mic's, a Rode NT1A and Pauls' "squid" mic...cool!!


So to the 3 myspace tracks :

Help Me Mama: this is a new track that we have been gigging as a full band for nearly 6 months, this version is stripped right down with Double Bass , banjo and Declan playing guitar, harp and vox

Lady of the Water : this is a really fresh track, only about 1 week old....so its a real exclusive and it features Declan on piano and harp singing at the old upright piano

Love Has No Feelings : this is also a really fresh track, never played it together as a band until Saturday. Its a tune by Shay and was a 1 take recording with parlor guitar and vox from Shay, Paul on Bass, Declan on appregiated acoustic and Marty adding some nice Pedal Steel atmosphere..really real

Have a good day.....

Free Taste the Moon MP3 Download

A free download of Jackson Cage track "Taste the Moon" is available here for those who wish to listen.


TastetheMoon.mp3

Blas Ceoil BBC2 29th October 10PM - Exclusive

Be sure to keep your eyes posted for an exclusive viewing of 4 brand new Jackson Cage tracks on Blas Ceoil 29th October 2009.

The show was record last week at Bryson's in Magherafelt. 2 tracks
will be aired on the 30 minute show, while 4 tracks will be available of BBC iPlayer and shall appear on Youtube shortly after that.

Jackson Cage Rock the Tall Ships

Saturday 15th August will live long in the memory...
Tall Ships Festival 2009
Picture the scene in Belfast when crowds reaching 800,000 over the course of 4 days and 70,000 visitors on site at one time on Saturday. Jackson Cage take to the stage at Clarendon Dock, for mammoth 2 hour set....who do we think we are, the E-street band, we wish, but it was an awesome gig and the thanks to the good folks who showed their appreciation for our music....

A friend even managed to video a song from our set, check it :
Exclusive, debut of "Rescue Me" by Jackson Cage

Open House Festival Gigs confirmed

Jackson Cage have been confirmed to play a few gigs at the Belfast Open House Festival in September. Among the line up this year is Steve Earle and The Alabama 3, so it is sure to be a hot one.

You can expect to find us at the ChilliFest Marquee playing a set, more details when they become available.

In the meantime go check out The Open House Festival

New Moon Showcase Gig confirmed for 6th June

Jackson Cage will be performing at the great "New Moon Showcase" in the Spring and Airbreak, Belfast on Saturday 6th June 2009, be there or be square, its always a fantastic night people.

The Last Waltz Revisited - 9th May 2009

The Last Waltz Revisited took place on Saturday past as part of the The Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival
and what an awesome show it was!

Taking part where numerous local bands including ourselves Jackson Cage, Captain Kennedy, Ten Gallon Hat, John Shelley and the Creatures, Katie and the Carnival, Wookalilly, Gerry Anderson, Anthony Toner,Cara Cowan,Dominic O'Neill, Paul Mc Mordie, Matt McGinn, Steve Toner...and on and on....

Great performances all round! Fantastic occasion....Its good to see a real music and arts community in Belfast flourishing and bristling with lots of talented performers....long may it run!

The Roost on Easter Sunday evening

Jackson Cage will be playing a special show at the Roost on Easter Sunday evening.....so put down yer chocolate eggs an get your lazy ass down....

In the Studio on Friday and a word on Betty LaVette and the Drive By Truckers

So its recording studio time again. This Friday Jackson Cage will head in to Einstein Studio's and begin on some new songs.

Its gonna be good, I love the studio, I just wish we had more time, and time is money as they say....

Most of the new songs have been gigged several times in the last couple of months, so in terms of form they are mostly together, but the studio usually provides new creative opportunities, so lets see what happens....

Some definite tracks we will be recording include :

1. On My Way


2. Lay With Me Tonight
   
3. A Bitter Rose
   

On another note :

An album I have been listening alot to recently is Betty LaVette - "The Scene of the Crime" . This was recorded in partnership with the Drive By Truckers at Muscle Shoals studio in Alabama. I cannot overstate the quality of this record, its a work of art, probably my favourite record of 2008. The songs are delivered so well, Betty's voice is a dream, what a singer. The emotion is so real, its like she is in the room with you when you play the record.

I recommend y'all listen to "I Guess We Shouldn't Talk About That Now", that song will absolutely blow your mind.

Jackson Cage on the bill with "Delta Spirit"

Jackson Cage will take to the stage in Auntie Annie's on March 28th with Delta Spirit.

Delta Spirit are making some waves in the US at the mo' and are being lauded as one of the best live acts in the country, so this is a gig not to be missed.

Feel free to check out their vibe : http://www.myspace.com/deltaspirit

St. Patricks Day Unglugged, Oh Yeah Centre, Belfast

Jackson Cage - On My Way

Jackson Cage - A Hard Night (in the Kitchen)

Nanci Griffith and Dec from Jackson Cage "In the Round"

So the Belfast Nashville festival ended on Sunday past and it was another great year. For our lead singer Dec, Sunday was a special day, as Dec took to the stage "In the Round" with none other than Nanci Griffith, yes you heard me right. So Nanci, Dec and Anthony Toner, played in Madison's bar as part of the Belfast Nashville festival 5th anniversary party. Each took it turn about to play a song. It was a true occasion and Dec and Tom ( fiddle ) delivered superb performances of "A Hard Night (in the Kitchen)" and "Samaritan Street". Nanci was well impressed, the audience gave all of the performers a warm reception, need I say more......

Belfast Nashville Festival Week

OK, so its been a busy week, what with the Belfast Nashville Festival going on. Harvest Revisited at the Oh Yeah studio's was a great night. We had ourselves a time, playing Alabama. We also had the pleasure of sharing the stage with some of Northern Ireland's finest musical talent. Stuart Bailie lead proceedings, guiding the audience through one of the finest albums of all time. This was our first time at Oh Yeah, hopefully we will be back soon. Last night we headlined a full house at the Roost and boy was it a good old time..it ended up with us on stage for approximately 2 hours. Special thanks to Paul Lidell who performed a great set prior to us taking the stage. Next steps for us, is "Studio" time, to record a new EP, yeah not an LP just an EP this time. We could do an LP in fact we probably could record a double album at the moment, but given our less than advantageous financial position we will be concentrating on getting the best out of 3 or 4 new tracks. Folks who have heard us live last night or at the Out to Lunch Festival, will know some of the new songs already. So keep on rockin' in the free world. Next gigs we have lined up are the Botanic Arts Festival in Botanic Gardens - 28th March and also the Empire - 30th April.

Live at the Limelight

Dec and Paul on the Late Show with Stuart Bailie

Stuart Bailies writes :

"By way of a warm-up for the Belfast Nashville festival, I invited Jackson Cage in for an acoustic session on Friday night. Paul and Declan brought the guitars and a mouth organ and they played succinctly. If you missed it, then attend to that Listen again facility to appreciate something fine. "

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/stuartbailie/2009/02/playlist_300109.shtml

Good Reverberations in the Black Box

Stuart Bailie sums up what was a great weekend gig at the Out to Lunch Festival....

"....The Band and their pal Bob Dylan had gone to ground to escape the drugs and the intensity of their wild years. The music started sounding more downhome and mysterious while the famous Basement Tapes were an insidious answer to the hippies and acid-eaters of the West Coast.

Such reverberations are resumed Such reverberations are resumed in Belfast in the music of Jackson Cage, who add more recent influences like The Jayhawks and Ryan Adams to their deal. "

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/stuartbailie/2009/01/ill_get_me_waistcoat.shtml

Out to Lunch Festival

We played an acoustic(ish) set at the Out to Lunch festival and shared a bill with Captain Kennedy and the Lowly Knights. The audience where fantastic and the atmosphere was electric, and it culminated in one of our finest performances to date. I was kind of embarrassed when a member of the crowd said we have reminded him a little of CSN&Y, chance'd be a fine thing methinks, but very grateful at such praise. We performed some new songs at the festival, our set list was :

A Hard Night (in the Kitchen)
Taste the Moon
Lay with me tonight (NEW)
A Bitter Rose (NEW)
On My Way (NEW)
Samaritan Street
Take me Home
To all the peep's that wonder what happened to our UTV performances, its due to be broadcast on February 16th, so keep your eyes peeled. There is a cool performance of "On My Way" in the set.