Rocky will be previewing a few songs from his new album, "Testify!," which will be out around July on High Life Records.

Check it out.

Hey y'all -

I'm down here in Texas visiting the family.  I come back every July and, for several years, I've noticed a real shortage of Blues acts playing in Austin.  Maybe it's the time of year, but I doubt it.  I look high and low to find bands playing Blues in town while I'm here, and it's always the same - not much of anything going on.  Sure, Austin claims to be the live music capital of the nation - and it may be.  There are hundreds of bands listed in the club ads playing nightly.  But, what was once the bastion of Blues, has now become more like any other decent-sized city in the number of Blues acts playing. 

Even Antone's has gone the route of booking all types of acts.  Last year at this time it was Quiet Riot or one of their original guys - this year it was Todd Rundgren.  Sure, Marcia Ball is at Antone's this Saturday, but more than half of the bookings (probably more like 75%) are now all sorts of acts from all kinds of musical genres.  It's just kind of sad to see a place like Antone's moving away from all Blues - what it built it's reputation on.  I can't imagine it's a shortage of Blues acts.  It may just come down to dollars and cents.

Bottom line here is, go out and support Blues whenever and wherever you can, whether it's Austin or Boston.

I'm back in L.A. Sunday and playing at All Corked Up in Santa Clarita on August 9th.  Check my other gig dates on my MySpace site or my website. Hope to see some of you at one of these gigs.

Rocky

There are two really great radio programs that Blues and Blues Rock fans will want to check out, if you aren't familiar with them.  Both programs have included songs from either my Squeeze Here and/or Blue Streak albums.  I personally want to thank both of these guys for the airplay, but also for the very nice things they said about my music.

Mark Kerr's Blues Nation program airs on Saturdays from 5-7 pm CST.  You can check out his show live on Kansas City Online Radio at: www.kconlineradio.com  If you can't catch it live, you can catch it as a podcast through the following week at: www.markkerrltd.com/bluesnation.htm .

Les Lewellyn added one of my songs today to his Road Rash Blues program which is also broadcast on Kansas City Online Radio at: www.kconlineradio.com from 12 noon - 2pm CST.  You can catch his show also as a podcast for the remainder of the week at: http://www.preyinglizardmusic.com/roadrash.htm .

Both of these programs are at the top of the list (literally) of the most listened to online Blues programs.  They feature a lot of great independent label, and some unsigned, artists. 

Check 'em out.

Rocky

It's been a while since I posted the last blog.  Since then, my latest album, Squeeze Here, has received two really good reviews.  The current (August/September) issue of Blues Revue magazine, the most popular in the U.S., has a review of the album in the Blues Bites review section.  While it's a brief review, it's quite complimentary.  My favorite line in the review is "A tough singer and guitarist ..."  Johnny winter is on the cover and there's a great interview with him. 

Just a couple of weeks ago, I got an email form Rootstime, a Belgian roots music website.  Attached was a review of Squeeze Here - in Dutch.  Thanks to a couple of friends and relatives who know Dutch, I was able to get it translated.  I ran the translation by the autor who gave it his blessing as accurate.  Here it is below, without the pictures and the site banner.  The entire piece, including the pictures, can be seen by going to the weblink at the end.  There are some pretty cool things said in this review.  Many thanks to all of my friends at radio stations and Blues sites that have helped keep Squeeze Here in constant rotation since it's release in June 2006.  To my friends in Europe, merci beaucoup.  Special thanks to Tom at BlueBird Blues radio (U.K.), Geoff at Helsinki's Blues Cafe radio (Finland), Paul at Midnight Special Blues radio (Paris, France), Tess at Blues Groove radio (Australia), Pat Graham and Chas Lewis (California)and everybody in the USA and other places I haven't mentioned.

ROCKY JACKSON
SQUEEZE HERE
Website: rockyjackson.com
myspace.com/rockyxjackson
E-mail: rockyjackson@dslextreme.com
Label: High Life Records
cdbaby.com/cd/rockyjackson

A lot of years of experience bring Rocky to creating this CD, "Squeeze Here," just like blues players Bonnie Raitt, Robert Cray and Keb Mo bring to the blues, but his stuff is more traditional. He is from Texas but has lived in California for a long time. He mixes his Texas style with the softer style of Chicago music. He plays lap steel slide and, with his raspy voice, it sometimes sounds like ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons. Put all of this style together and you get Rocky Jackson, a guitarist with class. He puts many different styles together to get his own and very unusual sound. But more than that, he is a singer with a soulful blues voice that I quite enjoy to listen to. Freddy (radio DJ) knows my favorite style (slide and lap steel) and knew that I would appreciate listening to this CD, and it really surprised me in a good way. On the inside of the CD cover it states "no fillers." We have heard that a lot, but in this case it is true, and my opinion is that it should state "This CD contains only the very best." This CD contains an enormous amount of good "good time blues" music. Rocky mentions Howlin' Wolf, John Lee Hooker and Jimmy Reed as musicians he looks up to, but their style is not so noticeable in Rocky's own style. The above mentioned people have pushed him in the right direction. This CD is full of professionalism from an artist who knows how it works and then does it. I do not want to keep going on and on but, those of you who are blues lovers, I encourage you to purchase this CD. Satisfaction guaranteed!

(RON)

www.rootstime.be

May 16th

Hey y'all -

I just got notified from Blues Revue magazine that they will be reviewing my Squeeze Here album in the August/September issue.  I haven't seen the review yet, but I'm hoping it is as favorable as the one that appeared in Blues Matters! magazine, published in England, several months ago. 

I'll be running an ad for the album in that issue also.

If you haven't checked out my website, it has the Blues Matter! review posted along with some others.

Go to www.rockyjackson.com.

Keep the peace.

Rocky

So here it is a few weeks later and several other songs from the Blue Streak album are getting airplay.  Big Tom, who broadcasts the Blue Bird Blues Radio program from England on live365.com, has been playing Back to the Crossroads, Black Cat Bone, and Let Me Love You Baby on his show.  Tom has been been very kind in that he has played a lot of my songs over the past 8 months.  I owe him a lot of thanks.  I owe a lot of thanks also to Geoff at Helsinki's Blues Cafe on live365.com as well.  He was the first DJ to play cuts from my Squeeze Here album right after it was released.  He has been playing Goin' Back to Texas, from the Blue Streak album, regularly lately.  I've also got to extend my thanks to Herm at Electric Blues Radio 56 & 16 at live365.com for playing a lot of cuts from the Squeeze Here album.  Bandit, the DJ at Bandit Blues Radio on live365.com, has been playing Blues for Texas from the Squeeze Here album for quite a while now.  Likewise, a lot of thanks to him.  I have to mention Tess, at Blues Groove on live365.com.  She has recently started playing What Kind of Justice Could Thar Be? from the Squeeze Here album.  Her program is braodcast from Australia, and a very hip program it is.  With her broadcast of one of the songs, the Squeeze Here album has now been played on four continents - North America, South America, Europe, and Australia.  There have been many other stations that have supported the Squeeze Here album, including many in Europe.  To see a list of documented airplay, visit www.rockyjackson.com and look in the "music" section.  There are also some CD reviews posted, with a new one from Vicente Zumel in Spain going up very soon. 

I have to finish this blog with a special thanks to Pat Graham who hosts the Blues Highway program on KLBC.org, broadcast from Long Beach College on Wednesdays from 6-8 pm.  Pat has been extremely kind to me, playing many of the songs from the Squeeze Here album, an recently a few form the Blue Streak album.  He's a great guy who I finally got to meet when he made it to one of our gigs.  He has a great mix of Blues in his program, and I'm honored that he has included my songs on many of his broadcasts.

Later - Rocky

PS - Squeeze Here is available on cdbaby.com.  Blue Streak will hopefully be available in a few months.  We had a little production set-back.

High Life Records is re-releasing Blue Streak, an album originally released in 1998 by Rocky Jackson and The Igniters.  A limited number of pre-production copies were sent to a few of the Internet radio stations that have been great supporters of Rocky's Squeeze Here album and have had songs from it in regular rotation for close to nine months.  Today Rocky heard a cut from Blue Streak being played on Helsinki's Blues Radio, broadcast from Finland and accessible on live365.com.  Geoff, the DJ played Goin' Back to Texas, a slow grinding Blues about ... well isn't it obvious.  You can hear a segment of Goin' Back to Texas on Rocky's MySpace home page.  It is also posted on Rocky's website (www.rockyjackson.com), where you can also see the redesigned cover of the album which, hopefully, will go into production soon.  You might notice that the cover looks similar to Bob Dylan's latest album cover.  The fact is, Rocky used this classic photo on the cover of the original release of Blue Streak several years ago.  Copies of Blue Streak were also sent to Pat Graham at KLBC.org, host of "Blues Highway" from 6-8 pm on Wednesdays; Herm at Electric Blues 56 & 16, broadcasting from Florida on live365.com; and Big Tom at BlueBird Blues Radio broadcasting from England on live365.com.  Many thanks to all of these guys who have played a bunch of the songs from Squeeze Here. 

Rocky