Jackamo plays The Mill
By Julie Zapoli
Sun contributor
On Thursday, March 13, from 4 to 7pm, The Mill in Glen Arbor will once again offer live music. Partnering with Inn and Trail Gourmet, Detroit’s hottest indie-roots group, Jackamo, made up of Alison and Tessa Wiercioch on vocals and song writing, and Jimmy Showers, guitarist/song writer, will make their northern Michigan debut at The Mill.
With influences from the Milk Carton Kids, Neil Young, Van Morrison, and Joni Mitchell, the trio sounds like the Indigo girls meets Ryan Adams and the Cardinals meets Cowboy Junkies meets Dawes, and their harmonies never fail to enchant. Based in the Detroit area, Alison and Tessa started singing together while driving an old blue Sunbird (with hand crank windows and no radio) to high school each morning. They began each day singing the songs they heard growing up until their blood harmonies reached near perfect, and they came by it honestly—their grandfather was a tenor who sang in doo-wop groups throughout his life, and their cousin, Ben Schneider, is the frontman for the band Lord Huron.
“Family has always been our biggest support,” said Alison, “We are always surrounded by family and friends who believe in our endeavors, no matter how wild.”
The sisters attended the Detroit Institute of Music Education (DIME) where they met Jimmy (who was leaving the band, Fifth and Main) and made the connections that helped them launch a music career leading them to Rustbelt Studios in Royal Oak, their producers and engineers.
“Working with Steve Lehane, (who plays bass for full band shows), Steve Stetson (our drummer for full shows), Mike Harrington (pedal-steel for full shows), and Sammy Boller and Jake Halkey…honestly, we couldn’t do it without them,” said Alison. “They are the friends who’ve become our family.”
Jackamo has opened for The Accidentals, Boy Golden, and Sammy Boller, to name just a few, but has mostly kept their performances to and around down-state clubs.
“We’d really like to do a Midwest tour,” said Alison. “We’re recording and releasing singles, and we’d like to begin working on a full-length collection, but right now we each work about five jobs, so there’s that.”
Jackamo is the music you want to hear while sitting around a campfire on a crisp Michigan night.
“When you’re with your friends and your family and the people who mean the most to you in the world,” said Alison, “that’s what we sound like. Hopefully that’s what you’ll hear in us.”
