By Paul Mauceri
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Jason Reeves |
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When singer-songwriter Jason Reeves discovered the music of Bob Dylan and James Taylor in his teens, his fate was sealed. The now 24 year-old Iowa City, Iowa native began developing his own songwriting skills in the style of his two idols and the classic Laurel Canyon singer-songwriter scene of the 1970's, but with a more modern twist, taking cues from contemporaries like Iron and Wine and Sufjan Stevens.
He eventually dropped out of college and headed west to Los Angeles to pursue music full-time. Soon after arriving in LA, he met pop singer-songwriter Colbie Caillat, whose father Ken co-produced the watershed Fleetwood Mac album Rumors , among others, and the two of them, along with producer Mikal Blue, immediately began a prolific songwriting triumvirate, resulting in Reeves co-writing most of the songs from Caillat's breakthrough platinum album Coco. Reeves's EP Hearts Are Magnets (Dancing Squirrel) also contains songs from this creatively fertile period.
Reeves next released the full length The Magnificent Adventures of Heartache (And Other Frightening Tales) himself. His deeply introspective and insightful musings, exemplified in songs like "Someone Somewhere," "Just Friends," and "Photographs & Memories," and his warm, honest vocal delivery, struck a chord with many listeners online, resulting in him earning a #1 spot on the MySpace folk chart as well as an iTunes "Top Folk Album of 2007." In July 2008, Reeves signed with Warner Bros, who re-released TMAOHAOFT , giving it much wider exposure.
With an uncanny ability to distill the wonders and mysteries of life through song and verse in a way that belies his youth, and with such an auspicious start to his young career, Jason Reeves's story is just beginning.
