Calgary band Jackson Reed and The Silverbirds seeing success everywhere, except in Calgary

Calgary band working toward a dream A local band is seeing success across North America, but Jackson Reed and the Silverbirds finds cracking Calgary difficult.

While Jackson Reed and The Silverbirds has seen some success in North America and Europe, the Calgary band has been struggling to see that same success here at home.

"It's been interesting being in Calgary," said Reed, lead singer and guitarist.

"It sort of feels like it's been easier for us to get these crazy opportunities elsewhere, which doesn't really seem like that should be the case because we're from Calgary."

Kenton Dobrowolski, freelance music producer, worked on the band's cover of Little Red Corvette by Prince, and says the remix fits today's audience.

"I love it," he said. "It pays a lot of homage to the old school rock and roll."

"I don't know how people are doing that these days, to be honest. Like, going up there with a live band and actually going through the struggle of recording real instruments when everything's so easily accessible on a laptop these days."

Dobrowolski is a big fan of Reed and the work he puts in to promote the band.

"He's ferocious. He's out there doing the outreach and reaching out to everybody and knocking on doors and saying, 'Hey, check out this song,'" he said.

"It's obviously been getting a great reception, we've seen something like 50 or more radio stations (playing it) internationally, which as a producer, that's always exciting that the music is getting heard and making an impact."

Reed has also made the jump to become a podcast host with a show called Guess That Record, which launched in 2022.

Some of the show's past guests include Andy Summers from The Police, Dweezil Zappa, David Paich from Toto, Jim Vallance, Jenna Andrews, Paul McCartney's horn section The Hot City Horns and former Prince engineer Susan Rogers.

Reed says for his most recent episode he interviewed Billy Joel's drummer Chuck Burgi in-person before their show in Seattle.

Burgi then brought him to the after-show party where he got to hang out with everyone in Joel's band.

"It was wild, but they were all so cool," Reed said. "It was definitely the highlight of my career for sure, to be able to be in the same room with those people and to be talking with them, it was awesome."

Reed's show has made it to the top of the Apple podcast charts in the category of music history, and is being syndicated on radio through CKMS in Kitchener, ON and CKXU in Lethbridge.

Reed is supplementing his music and podcasting career by helping others with their podcasts.

"I currently work as a producer on other people's shows, and that's what I've been doing while I'm pursuing music, because I mean, music is what I want to be doing full time," he said.

Reed is still hoping to make it big in Calgary and focus on writing and playing music.

"We do have our fans here, and I think it's getting better," he said. "We're starting to play regularly at places like the King Eddie and the Ironwood."

Jackson Reed and The Siverbirds will be performing at the Cavalry FC game on Sept. 28, and is also headlining a show at the King Eddy on Oct. 3.

The band's music has been played on more 50 radio stations across North America, including major cities like Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, LA, NYC, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland and Boston.