News & Reviews

February 21, 2010 - The Valley Monitor

December 10, 2009

Fresh Hay especially the songs Stephanie,Kaw-Liga, We Aint Homeless, and i'm completely in love with Long Black Train it has to be one of my top 10 songs of all time! keep up the good singing, dude!

A New Fan

August 17, 2009

Thanks for the great show Friday nite!! My residents are still talking about it this morning. It was great having you and thank you for all the effort you put into your shows. Will be looking at my calendar and letting you know as soon as I can about future dates.

Thanks again

Cindy / Green Acres of Huntsville

See the Guestbook for commemts as well.

Thursday, July 31, 2008

‘Fresh Hay’ CD a family affair

By LAURA ACUFF

Eagle Staff Writer

Bryan/College Station, Texas

Jacob Austin isn't the first teen to aspire to play in a band. Not many of his peers, however, can say they've fronted a group named after themselves.

With the release this summer of his debut album, Fresh Hay, the 19-year-old Anderson resident is hoping to transform his childhood dream into a career.

"There's a lot of people out there with less talent than some of these younger artists," Austin said during a recent talk with Spotlight, explaining that it's tough as a young musician to compete with those who have been in the business longer. "The artists are having a hard time getting out there.

"My strategy is to be so different that people will listen to it, and they'll like it, mostly because it's different."

His group, The Jacob Austin band, is a family affair. The teen takes center stage on vocals and the mandolin, while his father, David Austin, sings some harmony and plays the guitar. His mother, Liz Austin, recently joined the family onstage as well, rounding out their unique sound with a 36-stringed autoharp.

"We're not truly a bluegrass band. We're not truly straight country and not truly straight gospel," Liz Austin explained of the band's sound. "We're kind of a mixture of several genres."

But that's their goal, added David Austin, describing the sound as "gospel-grass." By not fitting perfectly into any single genre, they're making the music accessible to more people, he explained. In the end, however, they're still country, and Fresh Hay boasts several examples of mixing country with a little rock.

Jacob Austin, who started singing along to Barney on TV at the age of 3, first wowed his parents by identifying the keys of songs he heard on the radio. He started taking voice lessons around the age of 10 and joined Brazos Valley TROUPE about the same time.

TROUPE gave the young performer his first venue and, eventually, his first solo: a portion of the Schoolhouse Rock Preamble. From then on, he was hooked. While other kids practiced 12 or less hours a week, Jacob Austin clocked in nearly 40 on several occasions.

"I was very surprised and happy that he took the time to polish his delivery and his songs to that degree," David Austin said, explaining that the effort showed when his son was on stage. "It was just totally different from the other kids, because the other kids didn't get the face-time with the song, so to speak."

When Jacob Austin's voice started changing, he asked his father, who played guitar in several garage bands during the 1960s, to accompany him. The live accompaniment could offer greater flexibility of keys than the karaoke-style singing of TROUPE, the family figured. The Jacob Austin Band was born.

Jacob Austin's now-fully-developed bass flows unassumingly off the tracks of Fresh Hay, which can be ordered at www.jacob-austin.net.

Both Austin men authored lyrics and music for the self-released CD, and lyrics include everything from the death of a loved one to a shortage of picante sauce.

"We have always adhered to the thought that the music that you put forth and you write should reflect moral values instead of abnormal values," David Austin said. "We've tried to make ... more of a wholesome pattern for kids to follow.

"I think that's what a lot of kids are missing out on. They don't hear reinforcement of those values in the music that they listen to. In that manner, I think the Jacob Austin Band is trying to bridge that gap and say, 'Hey, don't forget about this stuff. It's important.'"

With performances lined up on weekends (their next one is Saturday at the Jacinto City Opry), the Jacob Austin Band practices up to one-and-a-half hours each night after David Austin gets home from work. The group spends most of their family time playing music.

While Jacob Austin hopes to graduate high school through home schooling and attend college -- possibly through online computer science classes -- he's just taking everything as it comes for now.

"I have two major passions, and that's computers and music. I'm having fun with each one. I'm happy that way," he said. "I think about how lucky I am to have done all this stuff and to be doing all this stuff, because there's a lot of people my age that would really love to do [what] I'm doing.

"It makes me happy when I think about it -- that I'm actually doing that stuff for real."

June 24, 2008

"I just listened to my copy (Fresh Hay)………..I hope it excites you as much as it did me. VERY NICE, everyone fit so well together.

A special “way to go” Jacob! Your vocals and mandolin are very good." - Mike M.

June 7, 2008

"I can't believe that big voice came out of this young man. What a surprise!" - A new fan

May 6, 2008

"When you (Jacob) sing the Star Spangled Banner I can hear you all the way on the steps of the church from the Park and it just thrills my soul!" - Pearl Steinkuehler