Jesse Cobb

My musical life started around the age of 11 in the small rural community of Dairyland, Wisconsin. Inspired and motivated by two older brothers and a father that played banjo, fiddle, and guitar, my first love was guitar. After having the guitar appropriated by my oldest brother, I took up the only instrument left in the house, an old plywood mandolin with half the strings missing. Practicing every spare minute, between chores on the family farm, I soon discovered Sam Bush and the New Grass Revival. I’d never heard such sounds from a mandolin, I was blown away! I learned everything I could find from Sam on an old record player in what could be compared to a literal woodshed. Some of the other early influences were, Gus Ingo, Jerry Stuart, Jethro Burns, Bobby Osborne, Mark O’Connor. The Cobb Brothers Family Band had it’s first “gig” in the local school we all attended playing fiddle tunes, and original instrumental music. Word soon spread about the hillbilly music coming from this family in Dairyland and before we knew it we were playing most weekends in a tri state area of WI, MN, and MI. The family band split up with the split of our parents around 1993. Brothers Shad, Jed, and I all took jobs in the logging woods and music took a backseat to survival for awhile. The next seven years saw me moving to the UP of Michigan to run sled dogs, working as a plumber in Eau Claire WI, and completing a GED to find better work. This landed me at a railroad bridge repair company called Osmose Wood Preserving in Madison WI where I would spend three years or so crisscrossing the country from Florida to Oregon. By chance late in summer of 1999, my brother Jed phoned from Oklahoma to my temporary home in Oregon and asked if I wanted to go to Alaska. Five days later we were on the Alaska Highway, camping and taking in the beauty of the Canadian wild. We both found work where we could around Anchorage but soon the music bug bit me again. I really missed playing my mandolin. My dad and brother Shad, talked me out of joining the army and, thankfully, into making a move to Nashville to give music a try once again. I arrived in Nashville around Feb. 2000 and knew immediately that I had a lot of work to do if music were to be my career. I would go to the Station Inn jam every Sunday night, all the pickin’ parties I could find, and I started to really use my ears instead of relying on learned licks while improvising. I had so many great teachers either directly or indirectly, there are too many to name. My first gig in Nashville took me on a tour of Canada with the Fox Family Band. That provided an introduction to Ronnie Bowman which was an introduction to Jeremy Garrett and Andy Hall, eventual band mates with the Infamous Stringdusters. While in Nashville, I did a bunch of sessions, played with whoever I could, jammed every chance I got and developed a style that includes influences from just about anything I’ve ever enjoyed listening to. 2010 saw a huge change to my life as I married my best friend, Nicole Day and her two sweet daughters, Kayla and Mackenzie. Trying to balance family life with the constant touring of the Stringdusters, took its toll on all of us and I split from the Stringdusters very suddenly in the fall of 2011. This may be a rather rambling biography, trust me this is the abbreviated version, but I believe all the things I’ve seen and done in this life have made me the musician that I am today. I also think that it’s important for people to know who they’re listening to. I hope this gives you some insight into my style. I try to play every note with the sincerity that it needs, I try to sing every song with the emotion that it deserves. I continue to write, play, and sing music everyday. I owe it to myself and everyone that has influenced me to keep at this. I am unbelievably blessed to have the gift of hearing the music that I do and hope you continue to enjoy what comes out~JC Mandolin player