Greg Jacobs

Early in his career, singer-songwriter Greg Jacobs lived for several years in Stillwater, Oklahoma, the center of the emerging “red dirt” sound. The college town supported the relaxed artist’s developing path alongside those of country icon Garth Brooks, contemporary country performer Bob Childers, country-rock musician Jimmy LaFave, the Skinner Brothers, and country-rock outfit the Red Dirt Rangers. Jacobs later moved on to Kentucky yet stayed connected to the Oklahoma circle by making monthly visits to Nashville, where Brooks and the others had settled. During those sessions the group wrote and performed together, prompting Jacobs to relocate to Nashville himself in hopes of building a songwriting career. The plan soon faltered, because Jacobs favored introspective material while the city sought songs modeled on current hits. He returned to Oklahoma, where he continued refining his songs and performed at events such as the Stillwater Musicians Reunion while also serving as opener for Kevin Welch and LaFave. Momentum building, Jacobs entered the studio for Looking at the Moon in 1994 and followed it two years later with Reclining With Age. Both sets mixed country blues and country folk across deeply personal songs about life and love, created solely for distribution to friends and at live shows. By 1997 he had returned to recording with South of Muskogee Town, a fourteen-track collection of new material written with fellow Oklahomans that chronicled the state’s history. Independent imprint Binky Records signed him on the strength of the project, placing him alongside Stillwater acquaintances Childers and Tom Skinner. In 1999 he released Look at Love, an album centered on love and loss, then revisited the earlier title for the 2001 edition of Reclining With Age.