Welcome to our new Program Coordinator Jason Jefferies

Music Maker Foundation would like to send a hearty welcome to our new Program Coordinator Jason Jefferies!

Jason was most recently the General Manager at Explore Booksellers in Aspen, CO. He is also the Co-Director and Co-Owner of the North Carolina Book Festival, and was previously the General Manager and Marketing Manager at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, NC. He is also the host of the Bookin’ podcast, which currently has over 41,000 listeners.

“My band was tight. Our music was great! We were making money. But our lyrics were terrible. Legendarily terrible.”

So why the jump from books to music?

“When I was younger, around 18 or so, I was in a band, and I had been playing clubs for a few years already,” Jefferies says. “My band was tight. Our music was great! We were making money. But our lyrics were terrible. Legendarily terrible. I knew I wanted to be a songwriter for a long time, so I started reading all of the classics with the hopes that something would rub off and help our songs tell better stories.” 

Did it work?

“I hope so!” Jason says. “You tell me!”

Jefferies also interviews musicians on his podcast. “Some of my favorite episodes of Bookin’ feature musicians or music industry-adjacent authors. Jeff Tweedy from Wilco, Mark Lanegan from the Screaming Trees, Richard Thompson, Susan Rogers (who was Prince’s sound engineer), Stephen Hyden, who wrote a wonderful book about Radiohead. 

“I’m a huge music nerd. I can and will talk about music all day, every day.” 

Jason is a guitar player and singer who plays solo gigs, along with gigs with his bands the Numbers and the Heritage USAs, who are based in Raleigh, NC. He also plays drums for Deadwoods out of Carbondale, CO.

What is Jason most looking forward to about working with the Music Maker Foundation?

“What’s not to look forward to?” he says. “Tim and Denise have cultivated a fantastic group of musicians to work with, and a stellar atmosphere to work within. But when I was visiting the soon-to-be studio space in Fountain, NC, I had the privilege of sitting with Freeman Vines and playing several of his guitars. That was the best experience I have ever had in a job interview, and I think that is what I look forward to the most: just sitting with these amazing people and getting to know who they are and what drives them to create.”

Jason can be reached at jason@musicmakers.org.

He encourages you to reach out and say hello!