For this week’s Local Music Monday, WUKY’s DeBraun Thomas features a native who moved away and is now back home making music.
Melissa “Tree” Jackson is a native of Lexington who moved back in 2010 after 10 years playing in bands on the east coast. Growing up in church is where she first found her love for music. Jackson says as a singer there is a lot she learned to appreciate in church.
“I love to harmonize, it’s like my favorite thing in the world, more than singing lead to be honest, when we would sing in church you know, I would always try to find that little pocket and sing really loudly and my parents would tell me to calm it down or my sister would poke me, aside from material wise, I love the honesty in old hymns.”
Jackson was part of the vibrant music scene in the 1990’s and in moving back became part of the music scene again in 2011 with the band Small Batch. In Small Batch Jackson shares lead vocals with Warren Byrom and Reva Williams. Jackson says the band’s sound comes from a shared trait among the three singers.
“Reva’s voice and singing style is extremely soulful, Warren’s is as well, I think that’s the one area most that we all sort of connected, our singing, sorta the way we pull it up from our toes a lot, we all have that in common.”
Melissa “Tree” Jackson performs the band Small Batch. Small Batch is currently working on an album to be released sometime in 2015.
More information about Jackson and the band can be found here.