Jack Jackson

The photo says a great deal about stereotyped imagery that would be used in band photographs throughout American history. Taken in the mid-'20s, it shows frontman Jack Jackson sitting and playing his guitar, quite the sharp-dressed man in suit, bow tie, and white hat. The three guys standing in back of him, on the other hand, look like they fell off the back of a truck full of extras being transported to the location site for Deliverance. This was the band Binkley Brothers' Clodhoppers, basically an old-time country brother group masquerading as a new-fangled "hillbilly radio" act. Brothers Gale and Amos Binkley, who were sparkling fiddle and banjo players, respectively, might have dressed like backwoods folk out of a nightmare, but in reality were civilized Tennessee folk who also shared a successful watch repair business. For awhile, it became more appealing to be a picker than a ticker, however, as Binkley Brothers' Clodhoppers became both one of Nashville's earliest recording acts and an in-demand attraction on several competing radio stations. The hillbilly costumes were all part of this professional world and left a mark upon country & western music forever, as it is a genre where a majority of performers still wear some sort of costume on-stage. Jack Jackson chose a different sort of image from the range of in-demand "looks." He hailed from down the road in Lebanon, TN, and represented that extra-special something the brothers Binkley would bring in when a record was being cut or a really special concert appearance was in the offing. He did not have to rush around Nashville from radio station to radio station, stopping at a picnic lunch gig and so forth, as might be typical in a Binkley day, so perhaps this explains the more formal attire in the photograph. While the Binkley brothers rushed, Jackson strolled. This is not mere conjecture, he was actually billed as "the strolling yodeler" in an era when other performers went under stage identities such as Old Rockin' Chair and Pie Plant Pete. And while the popularity of Binkley Brothers' Clodhoppers began to wane in the early '30s, Jackson's solo efforts began to receive even more acclaim than his efforts with groups. He began cutting solo sides for Columbia in 1929 and was a regular performer on Nashville radio up until around 1934. "My Alabama Home" was one of his biggest numbers. His importance to the historic development of country music in that city has not been underestimated and he has been inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. There is a long line of artists named Jack Jackson that would be delighted to be confused with him, including a scat-singing British dance band leader and trumpeter, a Southern rock electric lead boogie guitarist, a radio DJ specializing in pioneering vocal gimmicks, an Elvis Presley conspiracy scholar, one of the first underground cartoonists, and a young Canadian retro-traditional country singer who could possibly be the old-timer's reincarnation, that is, if he wasn't dressed up like a cowboy. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, Rovi