I first saw him play a duo gig with fellow working musician David Albertson out at Malt & Mash in downtown Sacramento, and was very pleasantly surprised. He had a fantastic repertoire of covers spanning the 80s, 90s and a little bit of the early 00s. As well, his vocal work across whatever song he was playing was top notch. I enjoyed it, and so did the swaths of people hanging out in that bar this particular night.
Back to tonight, though.
I meet up with him as he is setting up, nestled in the corner under the kaleidoscope of neon that covers The Donkey's walls. Jason is, for lack of a neater word, just plan nice. He says hi, shakes my hand, and sets right in to his continuing set up. His set up is fairly minimalist, at the outset. He's got his looper, his own PA, and his guitar. Hearing sound check earlier, his PA certainly kicks, despite it's size. He points to it, and explains,
"I got this cool little PA that packs a punch. I got it at Nicholson Music, out in Folsom. It's nice and loud, and it is great."
Anyway, I stand back and bother him about his recent music endeavors, while he is still setting up, and get quite an interesting story.
His solo work began in earnest about a year and a half ago, joining forces with Joshua Krage, of The Pressure Lounge and Thunder Cover, to get things going. he explains,
"I learned a ton from Josh. About how to quickly learn a lot of covers, how to put stuff together on the fly, how to take requests, that was a lot of fun."
And from there, he has branched out into his own tour de force, getting regular gigs for his solo stuff. He told me that this gig tonight is the 4th one he's had in 2 days. You wouldn't know it though, talking to the guy. His energy is earnest and unabated, and his focus is prevalent in how methodically he sets up his equipment.
I couldn't help but think, though, how does one guy snag so many gigs? Almost as if he read my mind during our conversation, he goes on to add, in regards to this line of work in the Sacramento area,
"As anybody who does this [kind of gigging] in Sacramento will tell you, knowing and having good rapport with Ryan Hernandez [multi-instrumentalist], is the greatest thing in the world. The man has really turned himself and his name into an empire (laughs). The other cool thing is that he was also one of the first guys to help out guys like me who are new to it."
He goes on to add, on a more technical note,
"If you’re professional, and know how to answer phone calls, text messages and e-mails, and you’re a reliable person, and he thinks you sound good enough to play at places, he’ll book you there. It’s been huge."
Slowly, but surely, the bar has begun to fill a bit more, and the conversation around us definitely become more lively. Being so involved in this local area, Jason has also earned a spot in Thunder Cover, the aforementioned band fronted by Laith Kaos, as their 2nd guitar player. He's joined with Joshua Krage in this band, making the whole story come full circle. In Thunder Cover, they travel around across to other states, bringing their bombastic stage shows to eager audiences. They employ a huge swath of covers that get people dancing, that's for sure. But, how did Jason come to be in this band?
He explains, that it all started with Jayson Angove, from Humble Wolf and formerly of Thunder Cover, too. They had known each other through mutual friends, as well. He elaborates,
"He [Angove] randomly hit me up, and was like ‘Hey lets do a duo gig, I’d love to play with you’, at The Purple Place, up in El Dorado Hills…he heard me sing live, and he said I sounded like Laith from Thunder Cover, then he told me he used to play drums for Thunder Cover at one point…Hey said I should really meet Laith…at this point Josh [Krage] had played a couple of gigs with them, then, when Laith needed a guitar player, he hit me up. We met, jammed, and meshed. Then we did a couple of gigs together to see if it was going to work, and so far it’s working. It’s a lot of fun."
With this solid base of work in his belt, one would think that's enough for one guy right?
Not so fast.
Jason is also in a band called Juliet Company, with his wife Anmarie Fielding Weeks. That story is pretty heartwarming, to be honest. He explains that the band started back in 2012, when he got back to Sacramento from the Navy. Him and some high school buddies got together and formed the band. Things shifted slightly when he met Anmarie, in a good way. He explains,
"When I met Anmarie on the open mic circuit, we met at the Torch Club open mic, and we both just kind of clicked, as really good friends. Musically, I really loved her songwriting style, she was just so unique, and her lyrics were so good, she’s a brilliant writer…the guys did too, and they said she should play with us."
From there, the band and Anmarie connected and soon enough, according to Jason,
"She wanted to do a full band gig at The Boardwalk, in Orangevale, and so we were her band for the night…It was Anmarie Fielding and we were her band."
They played that show, and the band was connected from there. Over time, as things do, people come and go, and life happens. It's worked out fairly organically for Juliet Company, in their own way. Jason explains,
"Right now, it’s just Anmarie and I, but when we do live gigs, we are fortunate enough to have a lot of talented friends…when we do full band gigs, we have a full rotating line-up of musicians who can help us out with that."
In addition to The Boardwalk, they have also played locally at Shine, The Powerhouse, and the like. Jason makes it clear, though, how he finds balance between Juliet Company and everything else,
"I try to balance it out so that my wife and I always make time to focus on our creative endeavors, too. Within the last two years, we have put out two records. We did a full-length [If I Have This] in 2016, along with an EP [All At Once] we put out 2 months ago."
Sure enough, right as the clock strikes 9ish, Jason shakes my hand and hops behind the mic to kick things off. I get another cold beer in my hand right as he kicks into "Your Love", by The Outfield.
Which was followed up by happy cheers and happy bar patrons.
As well as a smile on Jason's face.
And isn't that what this whole music thing is all about?
Be sure to check out the links above and give Jason Weeks Music a like on Facebook. As well, check out Juliet Company's bandcamp.com page, where all their releases are available. You will not be disappointed.
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