Jackie Venson has had a good year. Her new album, Live at Strange Brew, dropped this fall, and she’s promoted it with a tour schedule that’s taken her around both Texas and the country. She did a three-night stand on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert backing musicians like Anderson.Paak and Mac Miller in September, and she’s poised for a big 2017 too.
As she gears up for what’s next, she’s also launched a new webseries, “How to Become a Musician,” that’s less about her own music and more about the craft of making music. The first episode, which premieres via Texas Monthly below, stars longtime Austin artist Carolyn Wonderland as the two talk about the “unscrupulous” way Wonderland launched her career—which involved getting gigs by pretending to be her own booking agent in order to seem more legit.
That’s the sort of tip that “How to Become a Musician” aims to dig into. “It’s based around the wisdom my father gave me growing up regarding being a musician by trade,” Venson says. “He would always drop golden nuggets of wisdom in the form of hilarious and catchy one-liners.” To that end, each episode opens with a quote from Venson’s dad. The future guests lined up include artists such as Dale Watson, Riders Against the Storm, and more.
“My vision for the series is to share the wisdom my father handed down to me in the form of entertaining stories from real musicians,” Venson explains. “In a career where there is no instruction manual, I hope aspiring musicians find this useful.” At the very least, they’re likely to find it entertaining.
