Jacob and the Bear

Lunchtime at The Courtyard became livelier on Tuesday as the new band Jacob and the Bear performed a concert on the Courtyard stage.

Jacob Reynolds, founder of the band, and bass player Jason Navo left the rest of the band back home in Nashville as they performed an acoustic show for Georgia State.

The newly formed band has been traveling around the east coast trying to establish themselves and get their music out in the airwaves.

“Our main thing now is trying to get our music out there,” Reynolds said while discussing the bands goals. “You have to be so different to stand out, but then you gotta sound like everyone else to get on the radio. It’s kind of a catch 22.”

However, publicity is not the only thing Reynold’s band seeks. The singer/ songwriter expressed his wish for music to focus its attention back to the traditional rock and roll bands that seems to be latent in the music industry today.

Reynolds finds that the industry is individualistic and involves a whole lot of mixing.

“Music is moving in one direction…probably away from bands, and we’d like to get it back to bands to where you’re actually playing the instrument [and] putting in the work.”

Reynolds continued to talk about the industry before the show mentioning that one of his favorite bands is Maroon 5, and they too have shifted with the evolving music industry that tends to lean towards hip-hop and pop today.

“I don’t blame them for what they’re doing. They’re making a lot of money.”

Reynolds said he and the band would be willing to shift towards pop if the opportunity presented itself. Yet, he expressed overall he would like to keep band alive no matter what the genre is, and to let music be music.

“They’re pretty ballin’,” student Carly Hayes said as she listened to the band.  “It all starts with one simple note from an instrument. I agree with bringing [music] back to the roots,”

Hayes stated after learning about the band’s wishes to bring back bands in mainstream music.

Elisabeth Maheni, was extremely fond of Reynolds, but did care for the idea of a band accompanying him.

“His voice is raspy [and] masculine. Drums and a bass all change how the song is played,” Maheni said.

Jacob Reynolds formed the band in 2010 under its original name, The Jacob Reynolds Band, but changed the name to Jacob and the Bear when he and the rest of the band started to focus more on writing original music.

“We’ve been doing the original thing for about a year,” Reynolds explained. “So we changed the name to Jacob and the Bear…our original project.”

Reynolds only really started taking music seriously a few years ago. Reynolds was a minor league pitcher for the Cleveland Indians from 1998-2000. Reynolds eventually left baseball and took a 180-degree turn straight towards the music industry.

“I got a late jump on music,” joked Reynolds as bass player Navo laughed. “I went to an open-mic night one night and liked it…and been doing it ever sense.”

The band, led by lead singer Jacob Reynolds performed for an hour singing several cover songs from bands such as Maroon 5, Incubus, and John Mayer, while also singing some of their own originals such as “Easy.”