The ability to observe without evaluating is the highest form of intelligence” – Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti.
Jacey grew up in rural Massachusetts.The beautiful countryside and epic seasons lent great imagery to a budding composer. From the earliest of ages Jacey has been obsessed with rendering experiences through words, music, and film. For various reasons Jacey picked up a guitar and went the path of the self taught. Friends and bandmates would share chordings and other techniques. This is the proverbial blessing and curse, yet out of this path he developed a rather unique picking style. Singing was a constant, as was writing poems and lyrics. In his formative years he sang and wrote songs for several bands, hitting and sustaining really big notes which was all the rage at the time. good luck finding something more cathartic.
Moving to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1993, Jacey settled into musical hermitage, never really plugging into the ever evolving Bay Area scene. During this period he composed hundreds of songs, a collection of them became "Northern. Lights Bridge" and "You're Not The Only One Lost" recorded with hero/friend Kid Andersen at his Greaseland studios in San Jose CA.
Jacey has been working with Joe Morishige for 18 years, they have had a multi-media collective called Kelp Monkey which has an EP "Mostly Acoustic EP" and a 14 song LP "Songs Under The Cherry Tree". Jacey and Joe wrote the albums together and had local musicians fill in the roster. For this project Jacey stuck to signing and lyrics, despite writing the guitar parts for Better, Same Road Love, We Go Away From Here, Mariupol, Sodium Pentathol, and Morning Song. Wisely yielding to Joe's meticulous rhythms, poignant expressions, and exquisite execution was a no brainer and played to strengths. It is notable that Jacey prefers the wonder of music creation over anything else.
This page honors that individual work Jacey has compiled, but he could not have manifested this work without the support of his wonderful wife and son, his dear friend and bandmate Joe Morishige, the transcendent Kid Andersen, his (finally!!) guitar teacher Johnny Soubrand, and last but not at all least his vocal mentor Carl Franzen, who has re-tooled Jaceys vocal technique for maximum sustainability and professionalism.
Jacey is greatly influenced by Jim Croce, Janis Joplin, Pink Floyd,The Doors, Led Zeppelin, The Moody Blues, Alice In Chains, Bad Company, Tori Amos, U2, The Eagles, Simon and Garfunkel, Metallica, System of Down, Tool, and is just now exploring the origins of rock cultivated by the better and lesser known Blues and Jazz greats.
