Doors 4pm, Music 7:30pm

Jarrod Dickenson

Note: Don’t miss Jarrod Dickenson! He opened for McKinley James back in April..and he was fantastic!

Storytelling is something of a Texas tradition. Tall hats and even taller tales are woven into the fabric of The Lone Star State, and singer-songwriter Jarrod Dickenson can spin a yarn with the best of them. Hailing from Waco, now based in Nashville via Brooklyn, Dickenson spends most of his time on the road bringing his own particular brand of soulful Americana to a wide variety of music loving audiences around the globe.

Growing up in Central Texas, Dickenson began playing music relatively late, only picking up a guitar for the first time at the age of 18, but music had always been a constant presence in his upbringing.

“As a kid and especially into my teenage years I was always sifting through my dad’s old record collection,” he recalls. “I’d spend hours listening to people like The Beatles, The Stones, Simon & Garfunkel and Tom Petty. I think it’s safe to say that my love for and early education in music comes from my father. My creative side, however, definitely comes from my mom. She’s always been a very artistic and creative person. As a kid she taught me to draw, and throughout the years she’s been an amateur painter and is now a phenomenal quilter. I have no doubt that she could have made a career as an artist if she’d chosen to go down that path.”

At 20, Dickenson left Waco and moved south to Austin to finish college at the University of Texas. It was there that he began to cut his teeth as a budding musician and songwriter in the Austin music scene. He played virtually every coffee shop, club and bar in Austin for the next four years, during which time he recorded his first album, Ashes On The Ground. Shortly after the release of his first record he decided to give up his apartment in Austin, as well as the financial security of his day job, and hit the road; a decision that would prove to be quite literally life-changing.

“In early 2010 I decided I needed to leave my comfort zone. I loved Austin, but I wasn’t satisfied with simply playing the same gigs week in and week out. I wanted a change. I wanted to be on the road. So, I booked myself something like 26 gigs in 31 days all along the west coast. Now, I’d never even been to California at that point, so I had no logical reason to believe that anyone would actually attend these shows,” Jarrod remembers “but I was young and naive and ready to take on the world. That tour, in a financial sense, was a massive failure! Most of the shows I played were to the sound guy, the bartender and the door person, and every now and then, the odd person who just happened to walk in that night. I drove myself over 4,000 miles, lost a ton of money, and only gained a handful of fans in the process. Any sane person would have thrown up their hands, moved back home and gotten a straight job, but I had the time of my life! While that tour wasn’t a success in the traditional sense, it showed me that I loved being on the road. I loved traveling. I loved singing my songs in different places to anyone who would listen. I learned a lot of lessons about how not to do things on that tour, but I also realized in that moment that there wasn’t a single thing in this world I’d rather be doing.” Since that time, Dickenson has shown no signs of slowing down. In the last ten years he’s played hundreds upon hundreds of shows in over 15 countries.

Jarrod’s musical journey has also led to multiple cross-country moves over the last decade. He first moved from Austin to Nashville, TN, and then had a brief stint in Los Angeles, where he recorded his critically acclaimed second album, The Lonesome Traveler, with producer-engineer Ryan Freeland. That album opened the door for Jarrod to begin touring in Europe; a step that would not only play a significant role in the evolution of his career, but it would also forever change the course of his personal life. 

https://jarroddickenson.com/home

Cover: Special “Low-Dough Show”—-Ten Bucks at the Door