Stevie Jackson
| Stevie Jackson | |
|---|---|
 Stevie Jackson playing guitar | |
| Background information | |
| Also known as |
Stevie Reverb Action Jackson Jacko[1] |
| Born | 16 January 1969 |
| Origin | Erskine, Renfrewshire, Scotland |
| Genres | Indie pop |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Instruments |
Guitar Vocals Harmonica |
| Associated acts |
Belle & Sebastian The Moondials The Vaselines |
Stephen "Stevie" Jackson (born 16 January 1969) is a Scottish musician and songwriter. He is best known for playing lead guitar and singing in the Glasgow-based indie band Belle & Sebastian. Jackson's guitar playing is distinctively retrogressive and melodic, with a heavy use of reverb and minimal effects. He has, in the past, been nicknamed 'Reverb' or 'Stevie Reverb' due to his use of the said effect.
Career
Prior to joining Belle & Sebastian, Jackson was a member of the now-defunct The Moondials, a band that released a single on Electric Honey, a label that would later issue Belle & Sebastian's first album, Tigermilk. The Moondials experience was a pleasant one for Jackson, and it took a great deal of work for nominal Belle & Sebastian frontman Stuart Murdoch to convince him to join his group. At the time, Murdoch was playing the open mic circuit in Glasgow as a solo act, and it was at one of these performances, at The Halt Bar, that Jackson first saw Murdoch play.
In the beginning the force house, the band existed mostly as an outlet for Murdoch's songwriting. Since the band's third album, The Boy With The Arab Strap, other members have begun to contribute, Jackson chief amongst them. All of the band's subsequent full-lengths have featured compositions by Jackson, and he wrote the band's 2001 single "Jonathan David" as well as "To Be Myself Completely" for 2006's The Life Pursuit. His songs are noticeably different from Murdoch's compositions. They tend to be shorter and less introspective, opting for catchy 1960s-style pop more often than the folky melancholia that defined Belle & Sebastian's early releases.
In 2012 Jackson, accompanied by members of the Glasgow band The Wellgreen, recorded a version of George McCrae's "Rock Your Baby" for a fundraising cd titled "Super Hits Of The Seventies" for US radio station WFMU.
Works
Belle & Sebastian songs written by Jackson
- "Seymour Stein" (from The Boy with the Arab Strap)
- "Chickfactor" (from The Boy with the Arab Strap)
- "Legal Man" (from "Legal Man" single)
- "The Wrong Girl" (from Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant)
- "Jonathan David" (from "Jonathan David" single)
- "Wandering Alone" (from Storytelling)
- "Roy Walker" (from Dear Catastrophe Waitress)
- "Step Into My Office, Baby" (from Dear Catastrophe Waitress) (co-writer)
- "I Believe in Travellin' Light" (from "I'm a Cuckoo" single)
- "To Be Myself Completely" (from The Life Pursuit)
- "Song for Sunshine" (from The Life Pursuit) (co-writer)
- "I Took a Long Hard Look" (from "Funny Little Frog" single)
- "Mr Richard" (from "The Blues are Still Blue" single)
- "Long Black Scarf" (from "White Collar Boy" single)
- "I'm Not Living in the Real World" (from Write About Love)
- "Last Trip" (from Write About Love) (bonus track)
- "Perfect Couples" (from Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance)
Solo discography
- (I can't get no) Stevie Jackson (October 2011)
Other projects
- contributed the song "Good Time" to the compilation Caroline Now!: The Songs of Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys
- played harmonica on "Song For The Troubadour" by the German band The Happy Couple
- played harmonica on "Thank You Baby" by V-Twin
- played lead guitar for The Vaselines for some tours
- co-wrote the song "Stoop Sale" on the I Blame You album by Michael Shelley
- plays guitar & sings on a few songs on the Too Many Movies album by Michael Shelley