Blackie Jackett Jr at The Phoenix for CMW 2018

Take a couple of Finger Eleven guitar players, add a good friend, and a karaoke singing barmaid, and you’ve got yourself Blackie Jackett Jr.

We’ve brought you the Blackie Jackett Jr. legend before, and we’ve reviewed their current album, For A Good Time Call, but seeing this band on stage is a whole other experience. We can tell you that they’re talented, they’re smart asses, they’re profane and they’re so much fun!

For their Thursday night Canadian Music Week appearance there were seven members on stage. The usual cast of characters plus some backup players to bring everything together. They’d dressed the stage beautifully, they fit the space onstage perfectly and filled up the venue with their rocking country vibe.

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First, let me say, this was the fullest I’ve seen a venue for band number one. The audience was brimming with Blackie Jackett Jr. fans who proceeded to sing along and dance to songs from the new album. It was very good to see.

They opened the set with an intro, Start The Fucking Show and the crowd responded with cheers. This band knows how to start a party. Getting things going they played This Girl is Mean, followed by Mad and one thing’s for certain, they don’t take themselves too seriously. That’s something we can get behind.

Slowing things down BJJ delivered a beautiful live version of Stuck in Rewind. The sound of James and Sandra’s voices is perfection. By the time they started their cover of Jolene, the room was packed. It was clear that it was going to be something special.

Although we were in the middle of Toronto, it felt we could have been in any small town country bar. We can see that Blackie Jackett Jr. would be a perfect fit in any honky tonk around the world.

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Trish Cassling

Writer/Photographer/Editor

Toronto Music Blogger