Jackson and the Janks

Songwriter and band leader Jackson Lynch emigrated from Ireland to New York’s Lower East side as a child, where he pickup fiddle, guitar, and a reverence for roots music. He studied under mentor John Cohen, and American folk revival musicologist. He shaped his songcraft performing with the Downhill Strugglers string band and as a busker in New Orleans, where he formed the first iteration of the R&B dance band that became Jackson and the Janks.

Utilizing a deftness for harmony and arrangement, the barry sax and sacred steel on the Janks first release with Mashed Potato Records (self titled 2023) set the band apart with a compelling and timeless raw sound – quickly becoming one of the most treasured and esteemed bands in the New Orleans Americana scene.

After returning to New York City in 2019, Jackson continued to perform Janks material – collaborating with a rotating cast of players from both the jazz and old time worlds – culminating in a second album, “Write It Down” released on Jalopy Records in 2025, a label born our of love and preservation of roots music through their theater and music school in New York.

From the captivating live act to the commanding appeal of the compositions, Jackson Lynch brings his observant nature, his love of a good time, and his encyclopedic appreciation for musical history and tradition to his writing and performance with the Janks.  The result is a sound that is rich, grimey, and genre-melting – one that honors the music which informed it, and keeps the improvised edge and clang of a live party.