We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jack Barksdale a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jack, appreciate you joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

For me, learning the craft of songwriting has been a long, gradual, and continuous process. I started writing these really bad and simple songs when I was about 7 years old. I was mostly writing cheap imitations of Johnny Cash songs, since he was my favorite artist back then. Two years later, I had gathered two or three songs that were okay. That’s when I started writing as much as I could and consciously working on how I wrote. That’s also when I found the music of Townes Van Zandt, who is still one of my biggest inspirations today. I’m always trying to listen to great songwriters and read great writers, because the more good you put in the more good you put out. I’m still far from being a great writer, but I hope that I continue to learn and get better.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m a singer-songwriter from Fort Worth, Texas. The reason I became a musician is when I was about 4 years old, I got a little Toys”R”Us guitar for Christmas. I strummed it, but it sounded terrible, so I asked my parents for guitar lessons because I wanted to be able to pick up an instrument and make it sound good. My hands were too small then. When I was about 7, my hands were a little bigger, so I got guitar lessons and I was hooked. For me, the most exciting thing in music is still just making something that sounds good.

I’ve come to find myself in a genre that I like to call Americana-folk. It has the Americana/singer-songwriter side of the spectrum while still leaving a lot of emphasis on traditional blues, country, and folk roots music. Some of my biggest inspirations for my music are Townes Van Zandt, Leonard Cohen, John Prine, and Tom Waits. If I had never learned about any one of these artists, my music would be drastically different, and I would probably be drastically different as well. I think my mission with my music is to try and open minds, widen perspectives, offer solace, and have fun while doing it.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

One big pre-existing notion that I had to overcome when I began making music is that there are guidelines or rules. It was such a relief when I figured out that as long as you think something sounds good, you can do it.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

For me, the most rewarding part of being a musician and songwriter is the fact that there is no roof. You can always keep learning and experimenting. There’s never a shortage of new avenues and excitement.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jackbarksdale.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jackbarksdalemusic/
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jackbarksdalemusic
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/JackBarksdaleTX
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCijRuSiuf96ivYJvhEHYkZg
• Other: https://linktr.ee/jackbarksdalemusic

Image Credits
Michael Lewis, Ryker Paige