Live at Jackson Station

"Jackson Station was no ordinary juke joint. The old train depot on a rural South Carolina highway was home to late-night magic, occasional mayhem, and hot live music. In his highly compelling and well-researched account of the roadhouse, author Daniel Harrison reveals its colorful history in a story of family, the blues, diversity, and ultimately, tragedy. It's a distinctively Southern tale of a uniquely Southern place."—Michael Miller, former music writer, The State (Columbia, S.C.)

"I imagine that, if I hadn't frequented Jackson Station, I'd have not become a writer, for better or worse. Way to go, Dan Harrison, for directing a light on this place that changed people's lives in a nowhere spot of South Carolina."—George Singleton, author of You Want More: Selected Stories

"Like a great bluesman, sociologist Daniel Harrison knows how to tell a story. In Live at Jackson Station, Harrison tells the story behind one of South Carolina's notorious juke joints: Jackson Station. Harrison shows how this former railroad depot turned roadside tavern continued to serve as a liminal space from 1970 until its closure in 1990. Through in-person interviews with former musicians and Greenwood locals, Harrison shows how emotions felt at Jackson Station helped transition the physical structure beyond the chasm of time."—Vernon Burton, Judge Matthew J. Perry Distinguished Chair of History, Clemson University

"Jackson Station in the 1980s was a remarkable social laboratory in the midst of a slowly changing but still redneck-dominated part of rural South Carolina. Daniel Harrison's thoroughly researched history of this blues-themed musical night spot and its sudden and tragic demise documents a chapter in the gradual social change that has been taking place in this part of the country."—David Evans, Professor of Music Emeritus, The University of Memphis

"Harrison delivers this explanation of Jackson Station with a mix of historical and qualitative literary nonfiction, social history, ethnomusicology, and cultural sociology... an engaging, accessible book."—Social Forces