Jackson was born in
McComb, Mississippi west of
Hattiesburg and he attended
McComb High School. When he was a small boy he lived one block away from the train tracks. Trains fascinated Jackson and when old enough he hopped the train to travel short distances. At the age of twelve the railroad police caught onto his juvenile hobo act although he retains a lifetime love of the railroad. Through his family he came to hear blues music igniting his second love. Jackson studied music at
Jackson State University in
Jackson, Mississippi. He played in the
juke joints around McComb, and his musical learning continued to the extent that by the late 1980s and into the early 1990s, he was employed as a
session musician by both
Malaco Records and
Alligator Records. By 1993, Jackson was serving as the musical director on the television program, ''Blues Goin' On''. In 1994, Jackson played on
B.B. King's
Grammy Award winning album,
Blues Summit. He turned his hand to record production in 2000, with co-production credits on the
Bobby Rush album,
Hoochie Man, which was nominated for a Grammy Award the next year. In 2002, Jackson provided backing vocals on "Only a Dream in Rio" on
Cassandra Wilson's album,
Belly of the Sun. The following year, Jackson was one of the performers in ''Warming by the Devil's Fire
, one of the film documentaries in the series, The Blues'', produced by
Martin Scorsese. Jackson was the music producer for the film's soundtrack. In 2005, Jackson co-wrote and produced the track "Hello", on Morris Mills's album,
Love & Coffee. While Jackson's own composition, "Casino in the Cotton Field", appeared in the
Lifetime Television Network film,
Infidelity (2006). He spent time touring his own work which saw him appear in locations across the globe. In June 2012, he performed at the
Chicago Blues Festival. The same year he was inducted into the
Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame and in 2013, Jackson performed at
Super Bowl XLVII. Jackson had said in March 2015, "I like to talk about the triumph of the blues. Looking at struggle and rising above it. It’s an art form derived from the necessities of life, having to navigate oppression." He was a guest performer on the title track of Bobby Rush's 2016 album,
Porcupine Meat. It earned Rush a
Grammy Award nomination for
Best Traditional Blues Album, putting Jackson in competition with Rush for the award. ==Discography==