”I was more of a music connoisseur than I was a musician,” explains carpenter turned country singer, Jessie Nickes. “I was originally born in Georgetown, South Carolina, an awesome little port town. I lived there with my grandparents until I was five years old, when I moved to the mountains of Western North Carolina with my mom and sister. I’ve sung my whole life, but I never played an instrument until I was twenty years old. After High School I worked a few jobs here and there and started playing billiards from 1990 to 1994.”

Jessie’s life of felt and chalk came crashing down as quickly as a white ball skidding into a corner pocket, “My sister was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. I come from working-class people and times being the way they are, people don’t have insurance, and she didn’t. I decided I needed to take a look around and see if there was anything I could do to make enough money so that if I had to take care of her that I might be able to do that, I certainly couldn’t do it playing billiards.”

His love for his sister led him to take seriously the talent he’d known he had since childhood, “I started writing, playing the guitar and playing locally with other musicians. The next thing I know, I start writing some pretty good songs and people start saying it was good. I ran into a guy I used to build houses with when I was a kid; his father was also a contractor. I played for them at their house one night and we talked about what we needed to do to get this off the ground. They invested the money to get me started. Then, a lot of good things started happening, one after the other. I was fortunate enough to be introduced to former members of The Marshall Tucker band, talked to them about recording an album. They listened to what I had to record and liked it, so I contracted them to cut an album.”

After recording his album, Jessie felt the natural step was to move to Nashville. “I realized Nashville is the place you go when you have a record deal, not to get one,” he says chuckling. “A hundred thousand people in Nashville all trying to be singer/songwriters, it’s real hard to stand out there.”

After recognizing that Music City was not the place for him, Jessie moved to Texas. “I ran into some really talented people and started playing the circuits and playing venues, trying to sell my albums, basically, sampling the market to see if what I was writing and doing was actually marketable. It turns out it was pretty successful, so I was enthusiastic about it.”

Since settling into the lone star state, Jessie can breathe a little easier about his sister’s health. “She is doing very well. She was in the Air Force when she came down with MS, she had ten or twelve years taking care of it on her own but they are taking care of her now.”

The self proclaimed ‘workingman’s artist’ says, “My concerts are wholesome family oriented shows. No drinking on stage, I don’t curse in my act, everyone dresses appropriately. It’s family oriented. If you wanted to bring your grandchildren, you won’t have to be embarrassed.”

“Music is paramount to me. If I couldn’t write and sing, I would feel like my life didn’t have much meaning. Not everybody can express themselves that way. It’s so humbling to think that the great Creator blessed me with the ability to do that. I don’t do religious songs or nationalistic songs, per se. I don’t want to paint myself into a corner or present myself as representing one thing or another, but I do think my writing is pure inspiration by Jehovah God. I feel like I can’t do anything without Him and that I am everything I am because of Him.”