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The world of queer folk artist and guitarist Jack Schneider is one strewn with eccentricity and nostalgia, where music brings forth the simplicity of times past without denying life’s ever-present complexities. Harkening back to the storytellers and troubadours of the 1970’s, Schneider’s music recalls artists like John Denver, Cat Stevens, Willie Nelson, and Bob Dylan. And the evocation isn’t merely aesthetic: with a body of work rife with analog recordings and Super 8 films, Jack is as true to his inspirations as he is to himself.
Born in New York and raised in Georgia, Jack began making trips to Gruhn Guitars in Nashville when he was in high school, seeking to quench his insatiable thirst for knowledge of fretted instruments. Despite attending New York University, he spent most school breaks and long weekends in Music City, working summers at Gruhn’s; it was there that he met and befriended Vince Gill, among other musical heroes. Within three years of his college graduation, Schneider was on the road with Gill, touring as an acoustic rhythm guitarist and writing his own music behind the scenes.
After releasing a series of revolutionary spirited “vanishing albums” during the pandemic—full-length records accessible for a week at a time each, after which they were removed from streaming services and unavailable for physical purchase—Schneider recorded his debut album live to tape at Sound Emporium Studios during the summer of 2021. The live sessions featured a star-studded cast of players: David Rawlings, Vince Gill, Stuart Duncan, and Dennis Crouch among them. Titled Best Be On My Way, the record was released in November 2022 to critical acclaim, including an album preview in Fretboard Journal and a review in Folk Radio UK, which called it an “engaging, musically understated, but highly accomplished debut” that “evokes not only the early balladeering Bob but also dusty shades of Tom Rush, Eric Andersen, and Lowell George.”
In the wake of that release, Jack embarked on numerous tour runs throughout the United States, opening for artists from The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band to Bella White and performing at the last of Gordon Lightfoot’s American shows. Back in Nashville, he made his debut artist performance at the Grand Ole Opry, where he has long joined Gill as an instrumentalist.
It was also through Best Be On My Way that Jack began working with Matt Andrews, a two-time Grammy Award-winning engineer who mixed Best Be On My Way and whose track record includes work with Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, Old Crow Medicine Show, and countless others. Along with up-and-coming songwriters Camille Thornton and Liv Greene, Andrews and Schneider formed Sunshine Grocery, a group whose debut record, Sunny Side of the Moon, is slated for release in the latter half of 2024.
In addition to his work as a songwriter and guitarist, Schneider has acted as producer for several rising Nashville artists. The child of an interior designer and a painter, Jack’s inherent understanding of visuality comes to play not only in his music but also in his passion for film photography and all things analog. Several of his music videos have been shot on Super 8, and one—“Josephine”—was featured by Kodak. With a reverence for folk music and an instrumental prowess that captivates audiences everywhere, Jack Schneider is a sharp answer to the ever-urgent question of modern day artistic authenticity.
