The House Jacks
The original Jacks met each other while singing in a cappella groups at their various colleges on the East Coast. They all moved to San Francisco to form the House Jacks in September 1991. Since then, there have been several membership changes, culminating in the tight ensemble showcased and loved today around the world. They found thier name in the Yellow Pages under Heavy Equipment Rental: a "house jack" is what you use when you want to move a house. Anyone who's seen them perform live will tell you that the name is appropriate. "Raise the roof" takes on a whole new meaning with the House Jacks.
They have headlined in many famous venues around the country, including The Bottom Line and The Bitter End (NYC), The Great American Music Hall (SF), The House Of Blues (Boston), The Birchmere (Alexandria, VA), and The Iron Horse (Northampton, MA). In addition, they have begun to make waves in Europe, headlining at many well-known German venues, including: Spectaculum Mundi (Munich), Theater am Aegi (Hannover), and Cafe Schlotte (Berlin). In the fall of 2001, the Jacks toured Japan.
The House Jacks have appeared with James Brown, Ray Charles, Jon Secada, LL Cool J, the Neville Brothers, President Bill Clinton, Crosby Stills and Nash, the Pointer Sisters, the Temptations, The Gap Band, Tower of Power, Starship, Run-DMC, and many others.
The House Jacks are: Wes Carroll, Garth Kravitz, Austin Wllacy, Bert Bacco, Deke Sharon
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The Way It Makes Me Feel Completely What's For Real This Man's Pride Good Things Gone From Sunday Light of Stars After You Kashmir Jack It Up All You Need Is Love Summertime Ain't No Sunshine Dive Into You Bam The Tide All Of My Life Palm Sunday |
We first felt the true power and majesty of The House Jacks (our personal favorite group name in a cappella), in a packed South of Market nightclub in San Francisco in the middle 1990s, where several groups were performing in different parts of the club, but everyone was there to see the Jacks. I remember hearing the Zep standard “Kashmir,” being amazed at the vocal percussion (new to me) the full sound and sheer energy of this pioneering, influential handful of guys, blowing us all away with only microphones. “Good Things” is a “best of” anthology of 19 songs, beautifully packaged, masterfully mixed and recorded, and containing only a songlist and “Everything you hear came out of the following mouths:” followed by a list of the members of the Jacks, Roo Ahuja, Bert Bacco, Tristan Bishop, Wes Carroll, Andrew Chaikin, Kevin Fudge, Troy Horne, Garth Kravits, Rob Penn, Deke Sharon and Austin Willacy. Before each name is a little Zapf dingbat of various kinds of stars and dots that also follow each song name to let us know who is singing on which cut. There’s only four covers here, the aforementioned “Kashmir,” Lennon/McCartney’s “All You Need Is Love,” the Gershwins’ “Summertime” and the live Motown hit “Ain’t No Sunshine.” The other 15 are all written by various group members; “The Way It Makes Me Feel” by Sharon, “Completely” by Chaikin, “What’s for Real” by Kravits and Willacy, “This Man’s Pride” by Horne, “After You” by Sharon & Kravits, etc. Other favorites are the live cuts “Dive Into You,” “Bam,” “All of My Life” and the crazed, faux-everything theme song “Jack It Up.” Great stuff from first cut to last, from one of our favorite groups of all time!
Listen to From Sunday in Real Audio
| 2364 CD $14.95 |
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Bam Believe Summertime The Only One I Want Around This'll Do Give It Up The Leavin' Kind They Won't Cry For You Great Big USA No Ride Use Me Since U Been Gone Just Fine Rock You What A Wonderful World |
From one of the earliest practitioners of the modern a cappella sound the House Jacks have remained on the cutting edge of contemporary vocal harmony for many years. This latest release was recorded live in Europe where the group tours regularly and has built up a large and loyal following. There are 10 new original songs plus 4 covers and a new arrangement of audience favorite "Bam" on this fine release and the group rocks as always. Founding member Deke Sharon is well known in a cappella circles for his published arrangements and vocal percussionist Wes Caroll is considered to be one of the best mouth drummers around.
Listen to Rock You in Real Audio
| 1217 CD $14.98 |
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The Bone Why I'm With You This Man's Pride Athena The Fall I Will Wait Light of Stars Conversations Take It I Am The Man Broken Up Cereal |
The veteran, edgy House Jacks take some major creative chances with their new circus-themed "Fitchy & Grikko." The four Jacks, who just added powerful Los Angeles singer/composer Troy Horne to their exciting mix, bring us 12 original songs wrapped in one of the most graphically stunning (on a level with the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper" album cover in our opinion) liner notes of the year. This slick, 6-panel mixed-media art may or may not have anything to do with these 12 cuts, songs like "The Bone," "This Man's Pride," "Athena," "The Fall," "Light of Stars," "Conversations," "Take It," "I Am The Man," "Broken Up" and "Cereal"—possibly the Jacks are messing with our heads, or simply found a really cool computer graphic artist and told him/her to go nuts. It doesn't really matter because the music, as in all Jacks CDs, rocks! The guys are quite comfortable in any number of musical styles, soul, funk, pop, alt, techno—it's all good. As long as the Jacks keep reinventing themselves as artists and pushing the a cappella envelope, we will keep listening, dancing and applauding!
Listen to I Will Wait in Real Audio
| 7460 CD $14.98 |
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More Love Adventure Day What's for Real After You Maybe That's the Reason From Sunday Stop and Think Good Things Middle Ground Unbroken |
It sometimes happens that bands write their best songs early in their career. However, the House Jacks new CD - their first with wholly original material in several years - proves that those generalities don't apply here. Maturity can be a good thing! "Unbroken" contains their best writing since, well, maybe ever, with compositions from every member (including Austin Willacy, who's back). The strength of their material shows that marriage and family can contribute in positive ways to artistic development, as in Deke Sharon's joyous nod to fatherhood, "Adventure Day." The vocal chops of the Jacks have always been in the upper of the upper echelon, but now their performances are translating to CD with new passion. Part of the credit is due to the production - it's BIG. So every nuance of those trademark harmonies shines through, and the vocal bass and drum tones are brilliant. Take, for example, the title track: it's powerful, evocative, and could match anything heard on modern rock radio. The House Jacks early promise was just a taste of things to come.
Listen to "Adventure Day" and "Unbroken" in Real Audio.
| 7378 CD $14.98 |
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