Jackson Cage

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/stuartbailie/2009/01/ill_get_me_waistcoat.shtml

I'm at the Black Box in Belfast on the third week of 2009, but I feel like adjusting my watch back to 1969. The mood is mellow and sweet and folksy. There are many young men with facial hair, and the dress is somewhere between Amish settler, Montana farmboy and Brokeback wrangler. I know that I've seen this look before and heard similar sounds in the past. And then it comes to me. I'm thinking of Robbie Robertson and The Band, getting it together in Woodstock, 40 years ago.

The Band and their pal Bob Dylan had gone to ground to escape the drugs and the intensity of their wild years. The music started sounding more downhome and mysterious while the famous Basement Tapes were an insidious answer to the hippies and acid-eaters of the West Coast.

Such reverberations are resumed in Belfast in the music of Jackson Cage, who add more recent influences like The Jayhawks and Ryan Adams to their deal.
- BBC, Stuart Bailie

I’m always fascinated when country music is honored and performed by folks overseas. I’m also interested in how new bands are able to use the web to do much of the heavy lifting traditionally done in the past by big labels with big money and a large staff. I get both of these plus great music with Belfast Ireland’s country rock band Jackson Cage. The Jackson Cage I’m most familiar with is a dour song about suburban futility by Bruce Springsteen on his release “The River.” Jackson Cage the band do exhibit some of New Jersey’s most famous hillbilly’s knack for narrative, but only inasmuch as he was willing to channel Dylan, Woody Guthrie and The Band to tell a compellingly stark tale.

Jackson Cage’s self-funded, self-released, self-promoted and self-titled debut album managed to hit #1 on the most popular Alt Country Albums on Amazon MP3 (it currently sits at #5 just after Ryan Bingham’s Mescalito.) What makes all this more impressive is that Amazon only sells MP3s to US customers.

Jackson Cage is one of those rare cases where a band exhibits a skillful grasp of great music roots while working contemporrary technology just as adeptly. Keep your eye on Jackson Cage.



http://www.twangnation.com/2008/07/25/jackson-cage-belfast-northern-ireland/ - Twang Nation

Jackson Cage, hailing from Belfast through the Jonny Cash back catalogue. Normally a seven piece, five members of the band are here today, minus the drummer and fiddle player.

They open with A Hard Night (in the Kitchen) the lead singer explaining they felt it fitting given it being a lunchtime show ’n’ all. It's a slow and laid back acoustic set, chilled out for a Saturday afternoon. Their sound is very much country with influences of the Band and The Eagles clear in their songs.

New songs showcased include ‘Be with me tonight’ and ‘Bitter Rose’, both slow and bluesy with strong vocals and good rhythms.

The last songs of the set are the fastest and most upbeat; ‘Samaritan Street’ has echoes of Hotel California with the guitar riffs and vocals; for the final song of the set ‘Take Me Home’ the lead singer excuses the absence of the drummer, urging the crowd to get involved with a healthy dose of hand clapping.

Special mention has to be given to the electric guitarist whose riffs and playing stand out in what is a well rounded and enjoyable set given they don’t usually play acoustic sets.

- NIChart.com

Now, having talked with Jackson Cage before the gig, it was finally time for Northern Ireland's country-rockers Jackson Cage to take to the stage. Suited and booted, styled with flowery shirts and cowboy hats, they drifted onto the stage and straight into the ballad that is 'White Line'. Despite having not that much room to manoeuvre around stage, after all they do have seven members, the chemistry between them was electric. The passion behind the performance and the creativity that seems to bless them in vast amounts enables them to deliver such great music whilst giving the crowd something to shout about - I should also mention that the floor was flooded with dancers (including the drunk ones - you always get them!) who were having a fantastic time! 'A Hard Night (In The Kitchen)', one of my personal favourites alongside the fantastic 'Sun River' (which they didn't play!), was a crowd favourite as well as the great 'Samaritan Street' but the crowd also witnessed the hilarious story of the mice that are invading singer Declan Doherty's house which he is trying to get rid of, one-by-one, and dedicated 'On My Way' to the poor mice that are inevitably going to see their end in the coming days. Jackson Cage, as well as the other bands, got the crowd moving (with THE BIG GIG host Damien Whinnery even taking time to have a quick dance) which made the night highly enjoyable. - GiggingNI.com

Jackson Cage
W/ Tall Ships followers!
Clarendon Docks, Belfast - 15/8/2009

"Northern Ireland's biggest ever event"

As much as I was disappointed that the Americana rockers Jackson Cage were not dressed as pirates as they walked onto the Tall Ships showcase stage in Clarendon Docks, they showed their usual extraordinary class to gather together a rapidly ever-building crowd of admirers. Starting their set at 7pm, with the marvellous Bounty, Tall Ship, in the background (famously used on the Pirates of the Caribbean set and also on US TV show Viva La Bam), as well as surrounding exhibits such as the gaming tent, numerous burger vans and the German beer tent just up a bit, they had to put on a good show to keep the crowd intact until it was time to wrap things up at nine o'clock - but if anyone could do that, it was these guys.

Firing straight into their set with the boozing guzzling foot-tapper 'I Ain't Gonna Waste My Time', a song that always rattles the crowd to a little jig, soon followed by 'Sun River', definitely my favourite at the moment, 'White Line','It's Wrong' - really the fantastic tunes go on. Slowing it down a little to the sensational number that is 'Taste The Moon' before ripping it all up again in the furious tale of 'Samaritan Street' - don't forget you can hear all these excellent songs on their debut self-titled album, available for download or hard-copy if you want to have prove that, in 40 years time, when Jackson Cage are rocking stages and storming bars up and down the US, that you had the CD which propelled them to that fame - and deserved fame too. Attracting a massive crowd, of spectators who have probably not heard of Jackson Cage, and keeping them just shows me that they are easy-listening, they are fantastic and most of all, they are going onto big things. These festivals are just the first in a very long line for these guys - catch them here while you can!


- GiggingNI.com

The unexpectedly folk enriched set of Jackson Cage was next in line, jaunty riffs and the traditional appeal made this band one which was difficult to walk away from and through the hugs received by the band nearing the end of their set it became apparent that a new fan base in Lurgan was most definitely being born.
- Lurgan Mail

Hailing from the lush land of Ireland, Jackson Cage, a 7-piece folk rock band crafts spare, heartfelt tunes full of twinkling banjos, guitars, piano and harmonica that feel at once homey and ethereal. Bits of Van Morrison, Neil Young, James Taylor and the rest of the major players of Laurel Canyon's 70s heyday give Jackson Cage's music an undeniable timelessness. Declan Doherty's voice is laden with such soul it's clear he's lived through everything he's singing about. The band's 2008 debut hit #1 on Amazon's Alt Country/Americana MP3 chart, and they began working on their second and much-anticipated sophomore album in November 2009. This new year, Jackson Cage will capture more ears than ever before. - SPIN MAGAZINE