Jack Harlan Music
Blood and dirt in these songs friend. Naked comes the truth to us all. With a breath from heaven, the New Station plays old worn thoughts -- rise up, rise up, oh great sour dogs and celebrate!!
Tell me about your history? How did you get where you are now?
Jack Harlan's visceral, sweeping tunes poke and prod the great mysteries: morality, death, redemption, love, guilt and loneliness. His brooding, occasionally tender and always compelling folk vision holds court with just his voice and guitar.
Born in Calgary, Alberta, Harlan grew up writing songs well beyond his years. A vast collection of records given to Jack from a missionary friend, opened up his world to the old folk sounds of chain gangs, civil war anthems and howling blues singers. A big contrast to the heavy-metal stadium rock music he had first grown to love. I started playing my Dads acoustic guitar, learned three chords, took all the scribblings from my journal and found a niche within myself to become a dark, tortured, little folkie that had a flashlight in the tunnel, said Harlan.
At 19, he took his scribblings public and started playing in hometown cafes, landing him a spot at the Calgary Folk Festival. Living the life as a destitute artist in a shared accommodation house filled with illegal immigrants, mice and faulty electricity, Jack decided to take up an offer from a family friend to become a funeral director and embalmer. Though headed for a new career, Jack didnt drop his guitar. He headlined the Folk Noir string of shows in Vancouver and soon signed a recording contract with Nettwerk Records and released Carnival of Mystery in 2002. Tandem magazine said His Nettwerk debut, Carnival of Mystery proves he can probe the dark side with scalpel-like precision.
His music has set the mood for Lynne Stopkewich's film Suspicious River and the season finale of the popular Warner Brothers show Everwood. Hes also gained fans through exposure on MTV Canada, Global Television, A-Channel, CBC and NPR Radio. Joel Ford of the Vancouver Film School chose Harlans life as the topic for a feature documentary.
And the critics have been good to him. Numerous artists have been tagged as The Next Dylan, and almost have many been tapped as heirs to U2. They rarely amount to much, said Splendid Magazine out of Chicago. Harlan not only has the talent to wear such a mantle well, but the potential to exceed the labels.
Harlans consoling plain-spoken vocal and his no nonsense lyrical approach display his ability to see beyond his years. The Edmonton Sun said ...he sounds more like Leonard Cohen, who is far scarier than Marilyn Manson will ever be.
Jack has played with the likes of Ron Sexsmith, John Mann (Spirit of the West), and Dido, and has gone from caretaker of the funeral home to caretaker of his music. He is currently traveling the US and Canada selling Cds instead of caskets out of the trunk of his car, having a better response and more success amongst the living.
Have you performed live in front of an audience? Any special memories?
currentley touring the USA and Canada
Your musical influences
I am folk noir. dark gothic roots music.
