My Mississippi is the 2nd Single to be taken from the Hastings based singer songwriter and guitarist’s 9th LP, Everything’s A Song (out June 7th).
Jason McNiff
My Mississippi
‘My Mississippi was inspired by Huckleberry Finn. Of course, I’ve never even been to that part of the US, so I had to sing about the Thames. If someone asked me how I would sum up my 25 years in London, I think the best answer would be that I spent a lot of time smoking (tobacco) and looking at the stars, just like Huck Finn.’ Jason McNiff
My Mississippi is taken from the Hastings based singer songwriter and guitarist’s 9th LP, Everything’s A Song (out June 7th). The album was produced and recorded by Matt Armstrong (bass & drums) in his basement studio on King’s Road, St Leonard’s-on-Sea during the late summer and autumn of 2023. It features 9 brand new songs, plus an English translation of Italian partisan anthem, Bella Ciao.
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Jason McNiff was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, in the mid Seventies. He was drawn to the guitar from an early age and by the time he moved to London in 1995, he was set on becoming a professional musician. Copying the guitar style of Mark Knopfler, he crawled the capital’s dying blues circuit, jamming, and learning from older players, eventually landing at the Easycome Acoustic Club in Nunhead. This Wednesday night folk club was, and still is, run by Andy Allan, aka Hank Dog (of Hanks Dogs and Sex Pistols fame) and it was Andy who produced Jason’s early records, Off the Rails (2000) and Nobody’s Son (2003) – the latter voted Americana Uk’s album of the year. Around this time he met and opened many times for Bert Jansch. He remains an important influence.
He moved to Hastings in 2019, setting up the ‘Sundowner’ – an early evening show featuring music from Jason, plus a special guest. For 5 years, he hasn’t missed a show, bringing artists from all over the Uk, Europe and the US to his local pub, the Jenny Lind. He also curates the’ Coffee House Sessions’, another weekly event which aims to recreate the vibe of Soho clubs from the 60s such as Bungies and Les Cousins.
In 2021 he released ‘Dust of Yesterday’ which garnered excellent reviews, including ‘pick of the week’ in The Times.
Jason performs together with Gibraltarian poet, Gabriel Moreno, in an homage to Leonard Cohen called ‘Waiting for the Miracle’. Since 2023, they have played sold out gigs across the country.
