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Category: Music
..tr>| Pretty Pop | 
Jason Vigil's pop-rock revolution
by Jesse D. Stanek
Singer-songwriter Jason Vigil's father loved to play the guitar. But when hobbies eventually collide with the demands of adulthood, something has to give, and the beloved six-string eventually gathered dust in their Colorado basement. Young Jason saw more than just a used musical instrument. He saw an outlet for creativity and emotion. The Denver based pop-rock artist has made music his fulltime job — with the EP Sometimes Always, and a solid album, Heart Gone Sober, to his credit.
"I was basically being a kid, looking around the basement and I saw a guitar," Vigil said. "I thought 'Wow, there's a guitar in our house' and at the time a buddy of mine was playing, so me playing the guitar just kind of blossomed out of that. I still have that guitar but I don't really play it much anymore. You know, it's an older guitar and it has a lot of sentimental value."
Vigil's sound is pop. The songs don't pretend to be something they aren't, with sentiments straightforward enough for a schoolgirl with a puppy crush. And while some may turn up their noses at this style of music, preferring instead the lyrical prose of say, Neil Young or Bob Dylan, for Vigil, who cites Matchbox Twenty, U2 and Stone Temple Pilots as major influences, these are the kinds of songs he wants to write and the kind of music he enjoys listening to.
"Most of the time when I'm writing songs it is coming from a personal experience of some sort," he said. "It's either some sort of moment I've experienced or something that has inspired me. But when I sit down to write, most of my songs come from my life. I think the writing on the EP is much broader than my earlier stuff, you know I've grown as a songwriter and I've grown as a musician."
Denver has long had a thriving singer/songwriter scene, serving as one of the folk movement's earliest hotbeds outside the East Coast. The town and its music scene played a major part in the development of his career, Vigil said, and his music currently is enjoying airplay from radio stations in the Mile High city as well as in Boulder and Ft. Collins.
"Denver's scene is really expanding and growing," Vigil said with a hint of reverence. "I'm very happy with it right now. There isn't all of that crazy competition between artists, everyone helps each other and that stimulates the scene itself."
Jason Vigil plays Mick's Music & Bar, 5918 Maple St., Saturday, Dec. 20 at 9 p.m. Coles Whalen will open the show and tickets will be available at the door for $5. Visit micksomaha.com.
| ..tr> | 18 Dec 2008 .. -->by erics--> | ..table>..table>
6:18 AM
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