Jacob Banks

One Liner: Soulful dude with a great voice doing some R&B-type tunes.
Wikipedia Genre: Soul, R&B, hip-hop
Spotify Says Similar To: Jordan Rakei and Izzy Bizu
Home: Birmingham, England

Poster Position: 12
Slot: ?

Thoughts:  The second most popular song on this guy's Spotify just wants to take me to damn CHURCH!  Check out "Silver Lining" first thing, which has 1.8 million streams.

Weird video, looks like the artist himself posted a clip of the movie Perks of Being a Wallflower with his song over the top.  But beyond that - Absolutely beautiful freaking song. I mean, damn, son.  Powerful, arresting voice.  Simple instrumentation that complements but then stays out of the way.  And the lyrics, poignant and touching: "you are magic my amazing grace, full of wonder please just stay the same, stand by me don’t you fade away, you are my silver lining; I'm a train about to crash, but you take me as I am, through it all I know the sun will rise again, you are my silver lining."  Belt that stuff out, homie.

Two albums and then a recent single/EP - 2013's The Monologue, 2015's The Paradox, and then 2017's The Boy Who Cried Freedom.  That above song came from The Paradox.  His most listened-to track on Spotify is one from that first album, called "Worthy," which is heading for 5 million streams at 4.8 right now.

Another powerful tune.  This guy hammers it, just itching the tip of the falsetto for a sec before dropping the hammer in the chorus.  Great voice, for real.  Then the top song from the new single/EP is "Chainsmoking," which currently has 1.2 million streams.

The start of that, with the soulful cadence of a chain gang working their way down a highway ditch, only to have the beat kick in (a LOT like that Welshly Arms song "Legendary" that I listened to a lot last year when they came to ACL), is a cool effect.  Some of this gets to a rap-esque beat (parts of "Grace" and "Monster") but most of it is more lush and soulful sounding than rap tunes.  This guy is great, although I can't say that seeing him at ACL seems to make a lot of sense.  Seems like the kind of guy I should see at a small club or theatre.  Great music, yes.  Going to see him, doubtful.

Will I Watch His Show?  Probably Not.