Dave Jacques (Pt. 1)
Bassist Dave Jacques is on the show today. Dave was John Prine’s bass player for nearly thirty years. Three decades. That’s not just a gig — that’s a musical marriage. That’s knowing when to play, when not to play, when to push a lyric forward, and when to just lay the hell out of the way and let the song do its thing. This will be a 2-part conversation and Part 2 will come out one week from today.
If you know John Prine’s music, you know that the bass is doing a lot of quiet heavy lifting. Those songs don’t survive flashiness. They survive feel, restraint, and humor, and Dave understood that instinctively. He helped build the foundation under some of the most beloved songs in the American songbook, and he did it without ever getting in the way.
What’s remarkable is that Dave brought that same sensibility everywhere else he went. Whether it was Emmylou Harris, Buddy Miller, Townes Van Zandt, or countless other sessions and tours, he always sounded like himself — but somehow also exactly right for the artist.
In this conversation, we talk a lot about his years with John Prine — what he learned from standing next to and playing with night after night, one of the greatest songwriters ever, not to mention endless hours in a car with him.
I’ve had the pleasure of knowing and playing with Dave on quite a few sessions here in Nashville, and he was also crazy enough to join my band The Volcano Brothers, so if you find yourslef in Nahsville, come see us! You can also find Dave playing with a host of great musicians around town, my favorite being Kenny Vaughan’s Imperial Blues Hour.
You can get the latest on Dave and his projects over at davejacquesonbass.com
Enjoy my conversation with Dave Jacques!
This season is brought to you by our main sponsors Larivée Guitars, Audeze, Izotope, FabFilter, and Chase Bliss.
You can join our Patreon here to support the show, be entered in our incredible end-of-season giveaway, as well as getting access to the first 3 seasons of shows, which are now only available to Patreon subscribers.
Your fearless host, Steve Dawson can be found at www.stevedawson.ca
Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts - it really helps get the show heard by more folks! Just Click Here, and scroll down a bit to leave a review.
Thank you!