Jan19_ArtsWorld1
BIG Arts in Sanibel gearing up for a rollicking season. Award-winning band the Bumper Jacksons, for one, are set to blow the roof off the joint with their blend of American roots rock on Jan. 17.
To get a taste of just how unique this seven-piece group is, one needs only to hear their “origin” story. First came a duo, of banjo player Chris Ousley and songstress Jess Eliot Myhre. Ousley reflects on a particular visit of theirs to a music festival in Berryville, Virginia, during their early days: “Late-night jams, community breakfasts, free-flowing moonshine and easy summer floats down the Shenandoah (drew) Jess and I to start coming every year.” Fast-forward to that festival’s 2011 incarnation for the birth of the unusual name: “It was Jess and I joining (a) band contest in 2011 as ‘The Lumber Jackson 5’ that started us off as a band,” Ousley explains. “Because of my terrible penmanship, it was read as ‘The Bumper Jacksons.’” Ha!
If a band originally called “The Lumber Jackson 5”—and who recently headlined a festival with children playing and hitting piñatas during their set—appeals to your rocking ways, the Bumper Jacksons are for you.
