MountainCity Meets the Illustrious Tom Jackson
Tom Jackson, Live Music Producer
Tom Jackson is a live music producer whose proven method of training artists and bands in how to captivate their audiences by “creating moments,” was a guest in Dave and Tara Powers’s home last week. It’s been said that he “is uniquely talented and skilled at transforming an artist’s live show into a magical experience for the audience; helping artists at every level to create a live show that is engaging and memorable and teaching them to exceed their audience’s expectations, creating fans for life.”
Considered the world’s best in his field, Jackson is in high demand as a speaker and performance coach. He has authored Tom Jackson’s Live Music Method, as well as All Roads Lead to the Stage DVD series, a 17-session performance workshop.
His clients include Taylor Swift, Shawn Mendes, Lecrae, The Band Perry, Jars of Clay, Jordin Sparks, Francesca Battistelli, Jaci Velasquez, and Casting Crowns, among hundreds of others.
Read more about Tom Jackson at onstagesuccess.com.
Special Guest
(Denver, CO – posted by Jeanie Rhoades) Tom Jackson arrived from Nashville last week to share his live music production method with MountainCity. They were excited to have the opportunity to work with Tom.
Dave met Tom outside when he arrived at their home in Colorado, offered to carry his bags and told him, “I’m going to be the most teachable student you’ve ever had. When you tell me to do something, I’ll just do it.”
They spent about an hour getting acquainted, sharing their stories and lives before getting to work.
Tom Jackson teaching Dave and Tara (photo credit: Lance Wieland)
Dave reflected later, “I’m working on so many different things creatively right now: the entrepreneurial side of developing a band, musically – recording and producing, communications and just trying to be as creative as possible. But sometimes you need an outside voice to come in and say, ‘Hey do this with your body while you perform.’ Tom’s whole method is helping artists learn how to, in a natural, true and honest way, communicate and perform what the words and music are saying in a powerful way.”
Tara agreed, “Oh yes, we had two extremely full and intense days of working. singing, and rehearsing with Tom. And it wasn’t about theatrics. But he was teaching us to take our songs, and our music and communicate them better for our live shows.”
“He made the point,” Tara continued, “that just as you rehearse songs to make them as good as possible when you’re going into a recording studio, why wouldn’t you also rehearse the movements that will better communicate the songs? He taught us that these skills are helping us honor our audiences and our music and the calling and gifts we have.” She added that Tom is funny and personable, but he’s serious about his craft and he worked them hard!
Dave said the same. “We went song after song after song. When you add actions in addition to the music and words already there, you can believe our brains were totally fried and it was great!”
MountainCity meets Tom Jackson (photo credit: Lance Wieland)
In the middle of their two days spent working with Tom Jackson, Dave and Tara got to welcome Tom as their guest on the weekly Facebook Live broadcast (can be seen each week on Wednesdays at 7:30 pm MST). They were able to share some of what they were learning as well as ask Tom about mistakes artists make in performing. Tom explained some of the most common performance issues he has seen.
It’s common for people to just sing songs instead of creating moments. He said many artists think the idea is to go up and play their songs and think that is enough. But it’s important to make an emotional connection with the audience, which is what his methods are all about.
He also talked about how even though artist’s songs don’t all sound the same as they perform them, they often look the same. He told Dave and Tara that for the audience, if the songs all look the same, they will also start to sound the same. Tom teaches artists to perform songs visually. “The idea here is to capture the integrity of the song,” he told them.
He warned against just going out and winging it. It’s a huge mistake by artists who want to be spontaneous. He teaches that “winging it” and spontaneity are two completely different things. He believes spontaneity comes out of form and that when there is structure, artists can enjoy freedom onstage.
The three of them enjoyed some lively discussion and shared valuable information for any budding artist.
Dave and Tara are anxious to put all they learned into practice. They can envision integrating some of Tom Jackson’s teaching into their early songwriting process. Dave says, “It’s going to be super helpful because we’ll already start dreaming about what a song will look like onstage instead of just writing a song and writing the music.”
Dave told us he enjoyed the whole process of learning with Tom. and felt more confidant about his own ability to perform at the end.
“But that wasn’t the best thing,” he said. “The best thing is just watching Tara flourish. It’s watching her spread her wings and become who she is destined to be. This experience really gave her an additional level of excellence in communication. Watching her learn the moves and her teachability, that was what was most meaningful to me.”
“In this whole MountainCity experience,” Dave told us, “that’s one of my absolute favorite parts of it – watching Tara opening up like a flower. She’s just amazing.”
Next Live Concert
You can see MountainCity live this week at The Fire and Ice Festival in Loveland, Colorado at 6 pm on the Main Stage.
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Dave would like to thank his sponsor Zenith Window Cleaning
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