Happy Wednesday Folks,
Today I’m thrilled to welcome you back to “Season Two” of the Good Folk podcast and to introduce you to The Official Bard of Baldwin County— aka Jackson Chambers— an up-and-coming queer folk musician based in Auburn, Alabama by way of the Mobile-Tensaw delta.
Before I tell you more about the Bard, a disclaimer: in the pre-recording rush for this episode, I somehow managed to accidentally set my microphone settings to omnidirectional, leaving my audio here marred by echo. I apologize, and I’ll hope you’ll listen anyway, as the Bard’s audio is crystal clear and I promise this conversation is worth your while. Additionally, the full transcript for today’s episode will be free to all subscribers, dropping in your inbox shortly. Catch up on the first twelve episodes of the podcast here, and read through past transcripts here. Thank you to the Bard for lending their song, Cicada Waltz, as the intro and outro music for this episode.
Raised in the hot morning dew of southern Alabama yard sales and the powdered-sugar dusted walls of their family’s bakery, The Bard makes music to satisfy an eclectic mind. Starting in high-school as the frontman for what was “effectively a shitty Green Day/Misfits cover band”, the Bard is a completely self-taught musician. Despite no formal training, the Bard has wasted no time in exercising their artistic muscles. Fans of lo-fi outsider musicians and folk-punk-revivalists will appreciate their carefully-crafted lyrics and occasional off-key yelps, while the old-time fogeys (and fogeys-at-heart) will enjoy their library of Americana standards.
"I never go into anything wanting something. I always genuinely want to just let everybody know that they're appreciated and we could never talk again. But I'm still going to tell you your set was great. Genuinely, if you're doing something cool, I want you to know. That's how you build communities.”
— The Official Bard of Baldwin County
While a country-goth by trade, the Bard is hard-pressed to stick to a genre for long, incorporating a diverse menagerie of weird instruments and deep-cut tributes. Their high and lonesome tone, alongside their frantic, flamenco-punk guitar playing make them an instant favorite for many new fans. Their newest EP, “the patron saint of something” is available on streaming services everywhere, and they can often be found busking on weekends in downtown Auburn, digging through dusty thrift stores, or on the airwaves of WEGL 91.1 FM, Auburn’s student-run radio station. Overall, they're very glad to make your acquaintance, and hope to see you again soon, ya hear?
EP 13: The Official Bard of Baldwin County