Make Way For JMSN

Ethan McConnell

Music Journalist

SXSW has only just begun, and I have gotten the great opportunity to already have attended many shows just within the first two days. For music, the festival does not cheap out on providing nothing but the best and most interesting artists to the great city of Austin. With SXSW, you have artists from all over the world coming in, whether it be from in the state to oversees. Now there’s way too many showcases going on, and I can only be at so many places at once so I will be going into detail on my experience of one artist who’s been in my rotation for quite some time and hopefully after reading this, he’ll be in yours too. 

JMSN 

Music pioneer Christian Berishaj is far from an upcoming artist. The 38-year-old Detroit native has been in the game for a bit of time dating all the way to 2012 doing works with Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, Snoh Aalegra, and KATRYNADA, gaining the title of, “your favorite artist’s favorite artist.” What JMSN brings to the table sonically is an alternative take on R&B electronica soul, transporting you back in time to the peak of the 80’s and 90’s. Not only that but he does all his producing and arranging by himself, you got to give him his props. For someone who has grown up on R&B, blues, and soul music, tuning into his discography sounded like familiar artists in the respective genres.   

Review 

Starting off the week strong with countless shows going on, Inn Cahoots was the venue hosted by the You Can in Michigan campaign to help showcase ideas from leaders and innovators that are helping reshape the great lake state. Along with the panels were performances by not only JMSN, but also Michigan artist Stoop Lee. The venue was quite small and with an even smaller stage, and entry was very limited to those who had RSVP’D online beforehand. By the time I had beat Austin traffic and waited in line I had just barely got inside, missing Stoop Lee’s performance but still graciously got a good spot near the stage to watch JMSN’s performance. The crowd turnout was a good bunch of people, with some being diehard fans of JMSN or just lovers of Michigan. Once the performance had commenced, it didn’t take long for the energy to rise. As soon as JMSN took the stage, he was greeted with immense applause and praise, and it was reciprocated during his set when he would thank his fans, the band and the great city of Austin. To start of the set, Berishaj began with “Cherry Pop”, an electrifying track with moving bass lines and syncopated drums to set the groove, in other words a great way to get the crowd going even it was your first time ever hearing this artist. Moving in deeper in the setlist you go into mostly instrumental tracks like “Groovy” leaving the artists to improvise and provide sliding guitar solos to help enhance the crowd’s energy through the set. From start to finish you had amazing crowd response, with some attendees singing their hearts out and others dancing around bumping shoulders amongst themselves.