Événement

Bumper Jacksons

Skyflight Productions presents an evening with The Bumper Jacksons on Saturday September 14, 2013 at The Albert S George Youth Center at Barnesville Memorial Park in Barnesville, OH. he Bumper Jacksons are a big, fat party. Hot and sweet, their trad jazz and pre-war country repertoire paint's America's story from New Orleans' brothels to Appalachian hollers. Unafraid to scrap together new sounds from forgotten 78's, the Bumper Jacksons boldly and elegantly balance paying homage to the traditions while fashioning their own unique, DIY style.

Jess Eliot Myhre
clarinet . washboard . vocals . ukulele . kazoo . upright bass

A native Floridian, Jess Eliot grew up singing in church and swinging from banyan trees. After performing in hip hop and funk bands in college and DC, she moved to New Orleans and became mesmerized by the sounds of the street bands and second lines. She dusted off her lonely old clarinet, built herself the iconic frog washboard, and hopped on the wagon. She now performs along the Atlantic coast, from the Kennedy Center in DC to busking in your city's streets. She is forever grateful to the New Orleans Jazz Vipers, who let her sit in every week at the Spotted Cat and taught her to love the big, uproarious glory of the old, old sounds.

Chris Ousley
guitar . banjo . ukulele . vocals . mouth horn

A Maryland boy, Chris was allergic to the state's famous shellfish, so he tramped off to the hills of western Pennsylvania to study the 3 B's: books, beer and banjos. There he woodshedded with old hill cats in barns outside of abandoned steel and coal towns playing any instrument he could take a turn on. Hitting mountain trails, biking over rough terrain, rafting down rivers, all with a bottle of whiskey and a banjo on his back. Chris's deep jazz pocket and graceful Kentucky-style banjo is only outmatched by the snarlyness of his beard.

Together, Chris and Jess Eliot are the Bumper Jacksons. Their initial meeting fueled a riotous impromptu jam on the lawn of a radical bike house in Washington, DC. The music never quit since. A duo born from two very different parts of the American South, the musical synergy created is undeniable. They perform the old traditional sounds of America, heart-wrenching and youthful, and always in the spirit of raw adventure.