Stephanie Jackson is an eclectic musician who uses her guitar to express heartfelt melodies from a variety of genres. At the offset of each performance, she engages the audience with her love of music displayed in her unique, captivating sound.
Born & raised in Memphis, TN, where her mother sang opera and taught piano lessons in the home, Stephanie started playing the piano as a toddler and continued with private lessons throughout high school. Shortly after her 11th birthday, her mother introduced her to the guitar and put her in classical guitar lessons with Bunyan Webb, who had spent a summer teaching and recording with Chet Atkins. Within months, she was performing with her mother at corporate events, Christmas parties, and public concerts. In 8th grade, she won 1st place in a school talent show for playing “Oh Susanna” on four instruments at the same time – piano, guitar, tambourine & harmonica.
In the years that followed, Stephanie played in various bands on electric and acoustic guitar, developed bands, taught private lessons, and was adjunct music faculty at colleges in Oklahoma.
She returned to her roots in 2001 as she began arranging the music of the Beatles, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, and Elton John on her classical guitar. As she began playing a variety of settings, her repertoire expanded to meet the musical tastes of her clients with jazz, show tunes, the “rat pack”, Spanish/Latin, and blues. The addition of her harp guitar in 2009 has created even more opportunities for expanding, and is an instrument on her “Hymns” cd. She has recorded a total of 13 cds of a plethora of styles.4 of them feature her original music, and one is out of print.
These days, Stephanie is performing in a multitude of venues around the nation, with other musicians and vocalists as she orchestrates various musical productions, and devoting more time to writing music. In her own words, “I’ve just gotten started in my music career; this decade is going to be the best!”