Of the hundreds of bars Jason Marcum has played, one stands out to him as the shadiest: Columbia’s Corner Pocket. “It’s a bar that sits in the back of a Waffle House at a huge truck stop,” Marcum says. “So you can imagine what kind of traffic comes in there.”
Playing more than 280 shows a year, the Charlotte singer-songwriter’s material includes rainy strumming (“Snapshot”) and Wallflowers-style shuffles (“Train”). For his upcoming seventh LP, Marcum says to expect a slicker sound. “I’m trying to write songs that are hooks, with catchy choruses. It’s rock ‘n’ roll with a lot of harmonies—but it’s not bubblegum, like Jason Mraz.”
Marcum, a former Greenville resident, is also shaking up his look. Onstage he and his band will be wearing mod suits, which the singer says recall The Who’s early style. For sessions at Atlanta’s Olive Street Recording, Marcum traded in his Gibson J-45 acoustic for a black Strat and other electrics. He names the country-rocker “Five Star Baby” as his favorite from the new batch of songs, which he says were partially inspired by …Kiss?
“The way they simplified things and made the song and hook stand out…,” Marcum says. “That’s the direction I’m going in.”
Jason Marcum plays City Tavern at 10 p.m. July 3.
For more on Marcum, check out www.myspace.com/jasonmarcum.
