Local Bands in Jackson, Tennessee

Stuck smack in between music meccas Memphis and Nashville, Jackson, Tenn. boasts its own contributions to the performance world. A generous handful of local bands continue to call Jackson home while other groups use it as a stepping-stone to the more prominent cities.

"This is a music town," said William Coats, a Mississippi native who has been the drummer of local rock band The Grove for the past two years.

"I enjoy being a big fish in a little pond," said Grove guitarist and singer Jonathan Singleton who has been performing in Jackson's bars for nine years. "People in Jackson respond to good, original material. If you have something that's musically viable, people will come hear you."

"We have a pretty good following around here," Coats said. "Our fan base ranges from college- age and up." The Grove released their first album, "More Than People," in the fall of 2003 and have a new album planned for release in a few months. Coats said a wide fanbase allows the band to sell more albums and get more gigs.

"It lets everybody know that, even though we're all in our 20s, we can relate to other people and they can relate to us," he said.

"It's hard to get a following in Nashville and Memphis," Singleton added. "Nashville is a tourist town. There are so many people playing, and the crowd is so diverse. You can play in a bar in Memphis a million times and never see the same 10 people."

Once the factors are weighed, Coats said the band's chances of getting heard are pretty much the same in Jackson as Nashville or Memphis. Nashville is overrun with artists fighting for record deals, he said, and a lot of the artists aren't great players, so the local people are burnt out.

"Down here, if a producer comes in it's different because we're just playing to sell our cds," said Coats. "People come here and say, 'Wow, this is something different. Let's see what they're about.'"

Christian band Saul 2 Paul won the recent competition at Jackson's ShoutFest. They now have a shot to compete for a booking aggreement with Jeff Roberts and Associates as well as a single release through SHELTERecords.