by Noe Pena

    On May 3rd here in College Station Jacob Stelly brought the music back to Shiner Park with three other bands to include The Cameron Sacky Band, Treaty Oak Revival, Parker Ryan and Charlie McCabe. Since the days of Cross Canadian Ragweed, Shiner Park then known as Shadow Canyon, concerts were stopped and Jacob Stelly wanted to bring music back to a venue that was loved so much. With Each band playing an electric show Jacob Stelly, a Texas A&M former student, brought us a night to remember. Before the show I was able to sit down and talk to Jacob Stelly about this concert and what it means to him to be able to come back and play at his alma mater. 

    Coming out of A&M Jacob Stelly spoke on how coming out of College Station was instrumental to his music career and without this town he may not have had one at all. Planning to go to the smaller school of t.u. in Austin, Stelly came here chasing a girl but later attributed this move to allowing him to dive into writing music. The support he got here in College Station he was able to have a group of people who believed in him and came out to support him at venues like The Tap here in Aggieland. 

    One of my favorite questions I like to ask artists is what artists before them inspired them to play music. Stelly mentioned a few bands and artists that he enjoyed and influenced him. Starting with two bands that came out of the 70’s The Band and Van Morison as some of the early artists that inspired him. After listening to music by the two bands I could hear some aspects that he brought from these bands that were present in his live show. The last artist he mentioned was Parker McCollum, a recent breakthrough country artist that has just made his name on the big stage. At the age of 18 Stelly snuck out of his house to go see McCollum perform at Hurricane Harry’s and knew at that moment that he would want to be on the stage performing music. Since then Stelly has created a relationship with McCollum and mentioned how giving and inspiring McCollum has been to Stelly. 

    The Texas Music Scene is known for its legendary venues. I asked Stelly about any venues he would love to play in the near future. The week before this concert Stelly played at the Moody Theater in Austin with Texas Country Music Legend Pat Green. Other venues Stelly mentioned were Gruene Hall the oldest honky tonk located in Gruene Texas and being able to headline at Cain’s Ballroom considered the “Carnegie Hall of Western Swing”. 

    Jacobs Recent single written with Slade Coulter titled “Burnout” released earlier this year. We went deeper into the song asking what went into the production of the single. Stelly stated that while he was in Mexico with Coulter they ended up in his hotel room at around 3 AM. Having the first line of the chorus Stelly decided to show it to Coulter and started to throw other ideas out there and within twenty five minutes most of the song was written. Two weeks later Stelly called Coulter so they could finalize the song and decided to start recording it. In the studio Stelly felt as if the song was missing a certain element and decided to call up Coulter and have him be on the single and it became an amazing experience for Stelly.     Looking into the future we can see that Stelly has made his mark in the music industry and has a bright future. If you haven’t before I highly recommend going to see one of Stelly’s shows and listen to his music on all streaming platforms. If you’d like to know more about him and any new music updates you can follow him on instagram at @jacobstelly_ and online at www.jacobstelly.com