Bill Jackson ~ 1965: A Music Review

Now I don’t know but I’ve been told.

The poet’s fate is in the words they roll.

To carry that weight is a mighty load.

It’s a precious cargo on a lonesome road

Bill Jackson, Precious Cargo

Bill Jackson and Kerryn Tolhurst have crafted an album of the highest quality in ‘1965’, a seminal year for Bill and the music world. The first three tunes all could have landed as the lead off single, but it was Precious Cargo that received the nod. It would have been an apt title for the album as it’s carrying a full cargo of shiny diamonds. The lead single has a great back story and I’ll let the key participants outline its peregrination.

Firstly, over to Kerryn. “The opening song, Precious Cargo, was co-written by Mac Gayden (slide guitar player on J J Cale’s Crazy Mama) and worked with Charlie McCoy as a member of The Escorts in the early 60’s to Area Code 615 and still does. After Elliot Mazer produced The Dingoes album (Five Times The Sun) he moved to NY where I was living and we saw a lot of each other. When I made a trip to Nashville he put me in touch with Mac who he’d worked with in Area Code 615 and numerous other albums. We got together at his place and had bit of a jam and came up with a piece of music that Mac suggested should be called Precious Cargo. I went back to NY and made recording of it which I only recently discovered. I gave it to Bill and he came up with the idea for the lyrics.”

Now to Bill to outline his mission. “In 2022 Kerryn gave me one of his jams with Nashville’s Mac Gayden (he wrote Everlasting Love), which they had called Precious Cargo. My brief was to write a song around the two parts they were playing. I came at it from the writer/creatives point of view – the words and life experiences created are Precious Cargo. All this amongst the backdrop of all of those great early sixties Beat Poets and Folk Singers.”

Well that brief was attained with full honours. All the tunes on 1965 are eloquently written recounting interesting tales with a definite sense of melody and captively arranged elegantly (a proven Dingo method). The album could have been a soundtrack to an old American Western movie. Bill’s vocals ain’t no oil painting, but they have an authentic edge and grit – somewhere between Mark Knopfler and Jimmy Nail? He blows Dylanesque harp on quite a few of the tracks and Kerryn’s wonderful lap guitar permeates throughout the melodies. The other tune that could have been in line for the lead single, and my favourite, was Boots Of American Snakeskin. A real corker! Bill informs HRR, “It’s a song I wrote with my brother way back in 2008 after our first US tour – part fact/part fiction. Love Kerryn’s playing/arrangement/mix on this one…and John Bois on Bass!”

This album should send Bill on a journey of high acclaim if not commercial success (if that’s even possible these days – does anyone buy music?). You won’t find this on the rip off streaming companies as it’s only available on Bandcamp (CD, download and stream). Look out for the bonus download, a fitting tribute to an old buddy, the late David Olny – a cover of a previously unrecorded tune. David used to cover the Bill and Ross penned Something In Blue.

Ol Shep

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