A few short years ago, you'd probably find him in his FJ cruiser traveling along the highway somewhere between Liberty, Texas and Bossier City, Louisiana to visit his parents.
Nowadays - Jacob Stelly finds himself packed in a van with his best friends traveling to some of the biggest country music venues that there is to offer.
Background
Jacob Stelly is a rising star in the Texas Country music scene and a recent graduate of Texas A&M University. His song Fade Away reached a milestone of over 1 million streams and his most recent release Bad Bad Things is featured on the Texas Music Pickers Red Dirt Top 25.
The purpose of this article is to give a backstage look into the incredible personality that shows through on stage in all of his performances.
However, before we dive into more of Stelly and what makes his music so successful - let's take it back to where it all started.
Early Years
About forty-five minutes east of Houston is a small town by the name of Liberty, TX.
Liberty is where it all started for this young musician, as he grew up much alike your typical teenager - playing a few sports and spending countless hours playing video games. When asked about his venture into playing sports, Stelly told the story of how he tried to translate his FIFA skills from the Xbox to the high school soccer team.
In his first game, Stelly's scoring ability from the video game to live action was quite impressive, as he scored three goals. Unfortunately, those goals just happened to be for the other team.
Despite his lack of soccer talent, Stelly enjoyed his time growing up in a small town. In addition to Liberty, he would also spend much of his childhood near Bossier City, Louisiana with his father. When asked about growing up in small towns, Stelly responded with,
"There's something to be valued about growing up in a town where you know everyone. It gives a sense of community that not everyone gets to experience."
Going forward, he decided it was time for a change of pace, and the summer before his senior year of high school, Stelly asked his mom for a keyboard - this is where it all would start.
When the Music Started
During his senior year, he would devote much of his time to learning songs on the keyboard. Some of his favorites to jam when he first started playing included songs like The Scientist by Coldplay and Easy by the Commodores.
In addition, although Stelly's affinity for country music was always prevalent, it wasn't until the last semester of high school that he picked up a guitar. He recalls finding a pink electric guitar at the bottom of his closet and from there Stelly said,
"It was like someone was pulling me by the shirt. Someone or something was just begging me and dragging me along into the music business."
The remainder of his time in high school was spent teaching himself songs by his favorite artists and beginning to define his own favorite style of music. Stelly likes to attribute much his musical inspiration to musicians such as Jim Croce, Van Morrison, and Parker McCollum.
By the time Stelly graduated high school, his personality had already begun to develop into that of an all-out performer - it just took him finding his way at Texas A&M to realize it.
His Time at Texas A&M
Stelly continued to perfect his craft during his first year in college while also diving headfirst into the social life on campus.
His fun-loving and positive personality catapulted him into a network of supporting friends who encouraged him to chase his dreams. During his sophomore year, Stelly took the chance on himself and decided to start pursuing music.
"One of my goals in college was to headline a concert at The Tap. I knew I had to start out with some other gigs, though."
Stelly recalled the first time he reached out to a venue about a potential gig by saying,
"I remember I emailed asking to play an acoustic show and the manager responded and asked how much I charged. This took me by surprise because I was hardly expecting a response, much less the opportunity to get paid. I told her $100 and remember that I let out a scream in the library whenever she accepted my offer. It was incredible for me to make $100 to play a show at that time. It's a moment I'll never forget."
Since that first show, Stelly has grown into a spectacular performer and amassed a supportive and loyal following for his career. He's played shows all over the country and even gets to live out a goal of his in a few short weeks as he'll be headlining The Tap in College Station, Texas on September 11th, 2021. Tickets to this show and Stelly's other upcoming performances can be found here.
Music As A Career
Stelly is now a Texas A&M Former Student and is pursuing music full-time with shows on his tour booked up almost every weekend.
As a full-time musician, Stelly has really begun to learn the intricacies of the business, noting how much behind the scenes actually goes into putting on a performance. In addition, he expressed gratitude for his manager - another notable musician - Dalton Domino.
"There's a whole lot more that goes into it than you realize and Dalton has taught me most of it. When he [Dalton] said that he wanted to manage me because he believed in me - that's when I really decided to pursue the whole music thing."
In addition to the performances that Stelly puts on, his lyrics and melodies within his songs are on the level of some of the best songwriters you can think of.
Stelly describes his writing process as something that changes with almost every song. Often times, he enjoys starting with a cool guitar tune or picking pattern and allows the lyrics to come later. He described how he tends to hear a song that he likes and it inspires in him something that he can put his own twist on and then immediately begins humming out a melody for a new track.
"Writing is almost therapeutic to me. I do it all day, every day."
Writing used to be something Stelly would do during his alone time and it allowed him to be extremely creative. Now, he tends to crank out new tunes all of the time with his fellow musician friends, Slade Coulter, Jordan Nix, Jack Pirtle and more. The writing process has become more fun for these guys since they all work so well together and put on extremely memorable shows with each other.
There's a great camaraderie within the Texas Country music scene and I'm excited to see the next show these guys perform.
Final Thoughts
I've had the privilege of knowing Jacob Stelly for a few years now and I can attest to the quality of character that this guy possesses. He's a friend to everyone and a stranger to no one.
As his career continues to evolve, I hope he continues to utilize the spontaneous, fun-loving, and grateful personality of his to enhance his following. If you haven't been lucky enough to meet this guy for yourself, I hope this article was able to serve as a spotlight into the life and personality - of the man behind the music.
Stelly's music is available on all platforms and you can find the most up to date information about his shows on his website www.jacobstelly.com.
If you enjoyed this article, it would go a long way in helping me if you would click the subscribe button below. Completely free to you and just helps provide me the opportunity to write more articles with awesome people like Jacob Stelly.
Vin
Comments