Under The Fretboard: Jackie Venson

The foundational goal of Under The Fretboard is to share hidden-gem artists within the blues-rock genre who have limited exposure outside their regional circles. However, we also want to acknowledge genre-blending and crossover artists who possess noteworthy creative works with blues-rock lineage. Genre identities are becoming increasingly difficult to define in an era of electronic and computer-generated sounds, with the lines growing even more blurred by the presence of AI-generated music.

In this era where genre lines continue to blur, Jackie Venson has built a career by refusing to recognize those borders in the first place. Blues, soul, funk, indie rock, synth-pop, psychedelic textures, and improvisational guitar mastery all collide within her music, yet somehow the result feels cohesive rather than chaotic. What emerges is signature Jackie Venson.

Jackie Venson – Futuristic Blues Filtered Through Austin Neon and Late-Night Soul

For many artists, the guitar becomes a lifelong companion early in childhood. Venson’s story took a different route. Born in Austin, Texas, to a father who was a professional musician and an encouraging mother, her childhood centered around classical piano. She eventually picked up the guitar just one year before graduating from Berklee College of Music in 2011.

When Venson returned home to Austin, she began constructing her musical persona, trading keys for six strings and gradually developing into one of the city’s most compelling musical attractions. Forbes took notice, stating, “Jackie Venson is truly an Austin legend in the making,” and so did Rolling Stone, which called her one of “Austin’s rising stars.”

Her playing carried the emotional intensity of the blues, but her sound drifted comfortably into pop beats, atmospheric production, and contemporary R&B. Influences from Buddy Guy, B.B. King, and Albert King sit alongside echoes of Prince, Alicia Keys, and Sade. The result is a catalog that can shift from blistering blues-rock solos to funky reggae rap to dreamlike electronic textures.

Just two years into playing guitar, she put together her first studio project, the six-track EP Rollin On, in 2013, “just so I could have something to sell at my shows.” From there, Venson’s profile quickly began to rise. The next year, she opened for country artists Jason Aldean, Tim McGraw, and James Taylor.

Later in 2014, her first full-length studio release, The Light In Me, was a self-released effort that fueled her ascension. It was described as “a soul/pop/R&B album of wide-ranging influences but with a strong blues element.” She followed it with a pair of live releases in 2016, the EP Jackie Venson Live and the performance piece Live at Strange Brew, before returning to the studio for 2017’s EP Transcends and 2019’s Joy.

This established a pattern of mixing live releases between studio projects as she built a prolific catalog of albums. Joy marked her first widely acclaimed work, with the reggae-pop-leaning “Keep On” amassing more than three million streams on Spotify. Other popular tracks include the blues-rocker “Rollin’ and Tumblin'” and “Witchcraft,” which is reminiscent of 1980s rock. Many of the tracks on Joy are refined versions of material from her earlier work.

Venson is always experimenting with and redefining her previous material, as demonstrated by 2023’s Evolution of Joy, a complete reimagining of the album. That same year, she won Best Guitarist at the Austin Music Awards, becoming the first Black woman to receive the honor.

Then came 2020. New music production slowed to a drip, and live shows dried up altogether. Venson released Vintage Machine, which further evolved the Jackie Venson sound. The album leaned into streamlined production, funk rhythms, and retro-futuristic effects while remaining grounded in expressive guitar work.

She describes it as a rock album with its own individual flavor aligned with that of Prince: “It’s mostly pop rock, with a heavier lean on rock, but it’s also electronic, so it’s not classic rock. It’s like Prince rock, but it’s his very individual, specific flavor. And that’s how I feel about Vintage Machine: it’s rock, but my version.”

Probably the best example of her “Prince rock” approach is the track “Make Me Feel.” The record earned Album of the Year honors at the 2021 Austin Music Awards and reinforced what many in Texas already knew: Venson was no longer merely an emerging talent. She was becoming one of Austin’s defining contemporary artists.

Jackie wasn’t going to let a global pandemic slow her momentum. She shifted her touring energy into livestreaming and ranked tenth on Pollstar’s Top 100 Livestreamers chart for 2020, with streams totaling more than 2.8 million viewers. She also released a pair of live albums, Live in Texas and Jackie Venson Live at Austin City Limits, while adding a couple of remix releases under her techno pseudonym, Jackie The Robot, bringing her total to a remarkable five releases during the pandemic year of 2020.

Those efforts earned her Best Livestreaming Artist and Musician of the Year honors, in addition to the Album of the Year award for Vintage Machine at the 2021 Austin Music Awards.

The album most likely to appeal to traditional blues fans is 2021’s Love Transcends. The project focuses on Texas blues without the soul, pop, and techno textures found elsewhere in her catalog. This is the Jackie Venson who earned invitations to Joe Bonamassa’s Keeping the Blues Alive at Sea cruise, Slash’s S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival tour, and, most recently, the Tampa Bay Blues Festival.

The album consistently delivers quality tracks, with “Rollin On,” “Always Free,” and “Til This Pain Goes Away” among its top streamers. “See What You Want,” “Cover My Eyes,” and the title track are also worthy listens for blues-rock enthusiasts.

Live releases Joy Alive and the EP Jackie Venson on Audiotree Live were also released that year, with Love Transcends: Live in Austin following in 2022. In 2023, the aforementioned Evolution of Joy revisited and reimagined material from Joy, almost treating her own catalog as living material open to reinterpretation.

Alongside it came Ghost in the Machine, an adventurous project fusing electronic effects, funk grooves, and jazz-inflected experimentation, with a reimagined version of “Make Me Feel” serving as the standout track.

True to form, Venson followed up in 2024 with another live album, Ghost Live, before returning to the studio for 2025’s The Love Anthology. Upon the album’s release, she posted, “This album showcases the soul and R&B side of my musical personality, influenced by acts like Alicia Keys and Sade.”

The album features a number of instrumental interludes and carries a smooth-jazz feel in addition to the elements she mentioned in her post. By now, the pattern is unmistakable: every Jackie Venson release feels like a snapshot rather than a destination.

In March and April of this year, she released another live album, Live at Fitzgerald’s Historic, in two segments totaling 31 tracks. Venson’s considerable library of live albums is all worth hearing, as she does not hesitate to tinker with her material, constantly evolving her own sound.

Her live performances remain the cornerstone of the experience. Whether delivering explosive guitar solos or intimate vocal moments, Venson brings a sense of emotional immediacy that recordings only partially capture.

While some of Jackie’s work may not be for the blues-rock traditionalist, she takes a fascinating approach to making music. As she said in a 2021 interview, “I’m trying to get people to stop paying attention to genres. They don’t matter, just listen to the artist. ‘What does this music sound like? Oh, it’s R&B…’ That’s like saying this meal has salt in it. I’m trying to get people to take genres with a grain of salt. Just listen for yourself. Stop trying to put words on things that can’t be defined.”

That may ultimately be Jackie Venson’s greatest contribution to modern blues-rock. She honors tradition without becoming trapped inside it. In her hands, genres are not museum pieces. They are vibrant, shape-shifting, and transformative baselines for creativity.