Shirley Jackson

Shirley Jackson has been a featured performer on the blues and roots scene throughout Canada and the United States over the course of her career. Settling in the Maritimes from Western Canada in 1988, Shirley Jackson has been developing as a songwriter and honing her craft on stage with The Good Rockin’ Daddys and The SideCats as well as sharing stages with The Dutch Mason Blues Band, Joe Murphy & The Waterstreet Blues Band, A.J. & The Redhots, Theresa Malenfant, Frank Mackay & The Lincolns, Glamour Puss Blues Band, Tracy Nelson and the annual “Ladies in Blue” concert in Halifax.

As the story goes...

“Listen to your heartbeat, Listen to your soul
And know deep inside that’s where you truly want to go”

Children know at a very young age what it is they want to be and do but are discouraged from being dreamers. “What do you want to be when you grow up”, they ask. But in your knowing heart that you want to be a singer, songwriter, musician and the response is, “That’s nice but what are you going to do to make a living?”

My first music teacher was kicked out of music class because his teacher told him he couldn’t sing. He proved her wrong by learning how to play any instrument that had strings on it; guitar, banjo, mandolin. He gave my two sisters and I guitar lessons when I was nine, and my brother banjo lessons for a gallon of milk a week. In fact he hand crafted our first electric guitars and built my brothers banjo out of a brake drum. Definitely a banjo to sit and play. I have great memories of my father playing his lap steel guitar and harmonica and my mother always encouraged us to sing by entering us in the local talent shows. At the age of ten we had our first family band covering everything from The Tennessee Waltz to The Ventures performing at the local country dances.

On Stage Fright:

I tell the following story to my students when they experience stage fright from performing or being in front of an audience. I remember one show in particular when I was singing that my voice cracked into the microphone and I said, “Oh Shit”, which lead to the audience cracking up. I thought that full auditorium was laughing at me instead of the fact that a 10 year would say “shit” into the mic. I let that particular incident prevent myself from singing again for almost ten years.

Everyone wants to be a Drummer:

Music magazines, childhood visions of being a singer, musician, songwriter practicing in front of that imaginary audience, writing songs and reading music magazines resulted in getting expelled from math class and spending contemplative hours under “the clock” outside the Principal’s office. I had my mind made up I’d be a drummer. I had a drummer friend who gave me lessons and let me practice in his house all day when he went to work which lead me to enrolling as a percussion student at The Red Deer College School of Music.

The Beginning of Folk, Rock & Blues:

I find myself the singer in the ‘Bird Blues Band’ in Alberta covering blues standards to The Doors to Jethro Tull, playing drums in a rock band called “Chain Gang’ covering originals and Bonnie Raitt & Heart tunes, and guitar and percussion in a Folk Blues Band called ‘The Briar Rose Heavy Wood Band’.

The East Coast:

A place and people to fall in love with. Blues venues, great blues musicians and as a drummer playing with Phil Potvin in the Powerhouse Blues Band at The Pub Flamingo. As fate has a way of providing opportunities I ended up enrolling in Dalhousie University to complete my Music of Ed degree under the direction of Don Palmer and master percussionist Jim Faraday. The Good Rockin’ Daddys were formed out of the next few years playing with a variety of great musicians.

Change of Scene:

Teaching in a private school in California seemed like a good ticket to check out the West Coast music scene. San Francisco, California 2001. The Saloon, The Ivy Room, Biscuit & Blues, The Blue Lamp, The Sweetwater, Rancho Nicasio were the places to be and hear some of the best. Junior Watson at The Ivy Room, R.J. Mischo at the Blue Lamp, Little Charlie & The NightCats at The Sweetwater, Terry Hanck at Rancho Nicasio, Johnny Nitro & The Door Slammers at The Saloon. Sitting at the Saloon one day it was very interesting to hear our GRD cd playing in the bar. More opportunities to play with some great musicians such Snooky Flowers, (Janis Joplin’s original horn player) invited to play two years in a row at The Brown Street Bash in Santa Rosa.

Back to The East Coast.

Back in Nova Scotia, after 9/11. There is no place like home. Coming to the realization that life is where you make it happen and it was a good move to be back on the East Coast. With the Release of ‘Careful What You Ask For’ in 2001 The GRD were nominated for a ECMA and came the opportunity to do festival gigs with Dutch Mason, Theresa Malenfant, Rick Jefferys, Joe Murphy, AJ & The Redhots, a summer tour with Glamour Puss to Quebec lead the way for