Jack Jacobson knows what it means to grind. A budding country star born in Reno; Jacobson has lived everywhere from Northern California to Nashville (where he spends about 50% of his time). But the road to stardom hasn’t been a straight one, instead it’s a bit winding, much like those dirt ones he’s often singing about.
Jacobson and his band started to find success before the pandemic, playing their first live show at Virginia Street Brewhouse in 2019, and they quickly booked four more. But it all came to a screeching halt in 2020. “We had to go back to square one,” he says.
Like many artists, Jacobson turned to social media to stay relevant. He started making weekly cover videos and engaging with followers on Facebook and Instagram live streams. When he played Randall King’s, “Hey Cowgirl” one week, the performance exploded on Twitter. King saw it and retweeted it. Two days later, Scott Gunter, both King and Cody Johnson’s manager, was in his inbox.
In June 2021, they got back on the road, playing 30 shows, sometimes with King.
In 2022, that doubled to 60. And in 2023, Jacobson and his band played 114 shows, often headlining on their own and at times opening for other acts.
August 2023 also saw Jacobson’s second EP titled “Reno,” produced by Joey Hyde, a Nashville talent who has worked with Ryan Hurd and Lindsay Ell.
Native Roots
“I don’t want to be one of those people who gets to Nashville and forgets where they came from,” Jacobson says. “Being from Reno is a special thing.” In fact, all of Jacobson’s bandmates are from Nevada, and his sponsors—aside from AT&T—are Nevada businesses. “We try to keep everything as homegrown as we can.”
In addition to several shows played at the Brewhouse, Jacobson also booked the Reno Rodeo Kickoff Concert in both 2021 (opening for Kip Moore and Travis Denning) and 2022 (opening for Justin Moore).
His roots in the city run deep, and while it’s hard to call anywhere home right now, the majority of his stuff, at least, resides in Reno.
Competitive Roots
Singing professionally was a dream realized later in life, after Jacobson dropped out of college and decided a nine to five wasn't the path for him. It is, of course, something he’s always loved, dating back to singing “Neon Moon” by Brooks and Dunn with dad’s country band at 4 years old.
While his music career is less than a decade old, Jacobson is no stranger to competition and hard work. He spent his early years traveling the world as a competitive trampoline gymnast on the U.S. National Team and later tried aerial gymnastics before trading his leotard in for a cowboy hat.
On Stage
Jacobson says his personal style of music is neo-traditional country. There’s a specific modern country influence, but he doesn’t want you to mistake it for Texas-style. “That’s completely wrong,” he says. Instead, consider his influences: Keith Whitley, George Strait, John Michael Montgomery, Randy Travis, Josh Turner, and Cody Johnson—to name a few.
“It is a high-energy, honky tonkin’ damn time, that’s what it is,” Jacobson says, adding live shows are bound to be rowdy. “We like to have a good time and make sure everyone else in the crowd is having a good time, too.”
For now, Jacobson and his band are playing a revolving door of venues. They are working to get more music out, but he admits the struggles of an independent artist are largely financial. “My goal is to put out an entire album,” he says, adding recording one song costs around $6,000.
Until then, you can catch the group on the road. The band’s territory is everywhere west of the Mississippi River—playing Iowa to California.
“Everything that we do, we do it, one, because we love doing it but, [two] because everybody in my camp has a like-minded goal… you’ve got to make sacrifices… to achieve that goal.”