[gratis inträde] l.a. edwards, jade jackson

Luke Andrew Edwards was born in the one-stop-light town of Julian, in the California desert. He is the second of seven children who tenured there in what’s lovingly called “The Rock House,” a modest home with an infamously leaky roof and questionable foundation. Though many of its repairs never came to fruition considering the many mouths to feed, this place and its inhabitants serve as the bedrock upon which this artist has built a life; family before all. Amidst the clamor and daily negotiations that a large tribe inevitably brings, music was a balm in the tumult, but not in the way one might imagine. There are no memories of road trips listening to classic rock on the FM band or children feigning to be a Beatle in front of taped concerts on television. The household was deeply religious and cloistered from much of popular culture. Rather, their first sonic experiences came from hymnals and classical music on cassette tapes borrowed from the local library.

Whether Luke’s musicality was spurred by its taboo nature in the home, or more peaceably, simply woven into the fabric of his particular being, it is a force that has remained a through-line in his life. Before performing under the moniker of L.A. Edwards, he and the eldest brother, Jesse Daniel, borrowed their mother’s old VW Westfalia and set off across America to busk its street corners, presumably hoping to cross paths with fate or at the least, wrest some semblance of adventure off of their bookshelf and into their own lives. Luke’s first foray into recording music under “L.A. Edwards” proffered an EP titled “Secrets We’ll Never Know” in 2015. The collection leans on influences gathered later in life like Tom Petty and Jackson Browne. It was around this time his brother Jerry was taught to play the drums in order to accompany the band and tour through California’s dive bars and living rooms. Though it was a self-produced freshman release, one can listen and note that the songwriting was anything but derivative, as is so often found with artists beginning their journey. Every verse built a narrative, every chorus stuck.

In their ambling around the West Coast, Luke befriended Ron Blair, bassist in Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers. In 2018, Ron produced True Blue, a 10-song album cut live in his home studio that expounded sonically on the previous recording, trading in jangly mandolins for electric guitar and Hammond B3. The record sounds fleshed out, lush, as Blair’s production was carefully tended to as a gardener might care for a newly sprouted seed. He provided the landscape in which the Edwards brothers’ sound could continue to grow.