Meet Jared Blackstone

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jared Blackstone.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I grew up as a preacher’s kid in Maine. My father, like his father, grew up playing guitar to Gospel and Country music in the church and my mother was a singer, so at the age of around four or five, I started playing guitar and singing with them at church.

As a teenager, I got into all the classic rock and blues. I started playing in a Kid band as the opener for some of my friend’s fathers and slowly started writing my own songs in High school, playing parties and dances.

After High School, my parents were relocated by the church and I was lucky enough to have a family friend that lived in New York City and as soon as I turned eighteen, I packed a suitcase, a couple of guitars and landed in a whole new world. For the first few months I kinda locked myself in an apartment and wrote songs, I was a country boy in a big city and things like the subway were pretty scary. I ended up getting a gig as a sound engineer at an off-Broadway play and on off nights started playing solo gigs in the village at the Baggot Inn. It was at one of those gigs I met a veteran in the business and began playing and recording in his band.

I knew was playing and recording with a lot of great mentors and musicians, but had no idea who I was really playing with. I soon found out when the congo player showed up late at a gig one night because he had just played at Madison Square Garden for a Woodstock celebration, I had been playing alongside Gerardo Velez who played with Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock! A singer position opened up in a band that had been courted by all the major labels and with the advice of Gerardo, I got on board.

Back in 90’s the labels had big money and were signing up as many bands as they could, Our band ended up with Atlantic Records and I thought I was on my way to the big time, Little did I know that right before our record release a thing called Napster would crush the whole record industry and bands like us would be on the chopping block.

When the checks stopped coming, I started playing in bands as a guitar player in the underground club scene and quickly formed my own band, Blood From Stone. We were playing a lot at CBGB’s, The Knitting Factory, Continental, and Arlene’s Grocery. Those were some crazy times and as with all parties, they do come to an end.

I moved out to Phoenix in the summer of 2008 and like most people fell in love with the weather. I reformed Blood From Stone and again hit the club scene out here opening up for national bands. It was at one of these shows that I was approached by someone to play an acoustic set at a wine bar and started playing a lot of solo shows and revisiting what I had done many years ago back when I started.

Through word of mouth, I began to get better and better gigs and soon found myself playing at the JW Marriott at Desert Ridge as well as The Four Seasons Scottsdale on a regular basis. With many people from around the country seeing me play, I started doing a lot of corporate gigs. I am very blessed to be in a place where I can play pretty much year round and make a living doing what I love.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It has always been a tough road as a musician and if you haven’t pawned or sold your guitar at least a few times to pay rent, then you’re doing something wrong. I guess with any kind of artist you are on your own and have to forge your own path, there are many highs and many more lows and a lot of people end up quitting and getting “Real Jobs”. I can’t blame them for that but it’s just not for me.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Jared Blackstone – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of and what sets you apart from others.
I’d say I’m most known for playing a lot of different genres and stripping down songs, making them my own. Over the years I’ve a massed a pretty big catalog to choose from and I keep learning new songs and relearning old songs to play. I keep in mind the audience and demographic I’m playing to, I don’t stick to a set list and try to play something for everyone. If I’m playing for an older crowd, you might hear anything from Elvis, Johnny Cash to the Beatles, but if I’m playing for a younger crowd I’ll pull out some Nirvana or Pearl Jam, Chris Stapelton, Eric Church, even Miley Cyrus, and Passenger, then again there really isn’t a song out there that Bob Dylan hasn’t written at least three times.

I really enjoy it when I see the little kids dancing and their parents singing along having a great time. It still gives me hope for the future generations of people wanting to see and hear live music and what certain songs mean to them. I still get people coming up to me, crying or smiling, and telling me their stories of where they were or what that song means to them. For me, that’s what it’s all about.

Any predictions for the industry over the next few years?
I hope the music industry corrects the way people buy recorded music. It’s become really difficult to make a living playing original songs and having a band on the road. Unfortunately, a lot of very talented artists and songs may never be heard.

The way technology has changed in making records is really exciting and how we can record with people from all around the world by sending tracks over the internet has been a huge money saver for the DIY musician. With that being said I do miss the days of cutting a live track with the whole band in the room, there are a great satisfaction and magic that comes from that. It’s extremely important to be able to play the songs you’ve recorded in a live situation, so when your audience sees you live it will sound like the record and I hope the new generation keeps that tradition.

I think the trend of DIY without the record companies will continue and hopefully, we can make enough money to make a living and keep it going.

As long as there are people out there wanting to see live music, we will still do it, but it wouldn’t surprise me if we are sitting in a green room studio and broadcasting to a live audience from our houses. If that happens, I might just film myself from the waist up and not have to wear pants.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jaredblackstonemusic.com/
• Email: jblackstone1977@gmail.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jared.blackstone1

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