Jackie Greene is an Americana and roots rock musician whose colorful career has included a string of acclaimed solo albums, a stint as lead guitarist for the Black Crowes, a supergroup with Joan Osborne, and collaborations with members of the Grateful Dead. Throughout the 2000s he cut a diverse path, imbuing his music with an earthy undercurrent of folk and blues, delivered with rock & roll swagger on highlights like American Myth and Giving Up the Ghost. After a period of collaboration with other bands, Greene returned to solo work in the late 2010s, first with the full-length Back to Birth, followed by a series of self-produced EPs that marked a cross-country move from New York to California.

Born Chris Nelson in Salinas, California, Greene grew up outside of Sacramento, where he eventually began his music career. Inspired by artists like Ray Charles and Bob Dylan, he began writing his own songs and soon became a fixture of the city's bar and open-mike circuit, eventually signing on with local indie Dig Music. A multi-instrumentalist, Greene played most of the instruments on his 2002 debut, Gone Wanderin'. A soulful bit of roots music, the album brought him to a national audience and led to his first tour during the fall of 2002. Rusty Nails, a collection of self-produced material from 2001, was released by Dig in 2003, followed by the live-in-the-studio DVD video Broken Hearts Dusty Roads in 2004. Greene's third outing, Sweet Somewhere Bound, appeared on Dig later that same year, and was later licensed to Verve Forecast, which reissued it in 2005. He also landed one of his songs, "I Will Never Let You Go," on the soundtrack to the film Brokeback Mountain. Produced by Los Lobos' Steve Berlin, 2006's American Myth introduced a richer, more honed sound and stands as a career highlight. It would be his only proper album for Verve, with 429 Records handling his next release, 2008's Giving Up the Ghost. Also during this period, Greene joined up with Phil Lesh Friends, one of several extracurricular ensembles that would mark his gigging résumé.

Following the pop-infused but still heartfelt Til the Light Comes in 2010, Greene took further time out to perform with the supergroup Trigger Hippy (with Joan Osborne and the Black Crowes' Steve Gorman) as well as with the acoustic trio WRG (with the Grateful Dead's Bob Weir and the Black Crowes' Chris Robinson). During this collaborative period, he continued working with Phil Lesh Friends and even joined the Black Crowes as lead guitarist from 2013 until they disbanded in 2015. Greene returned to the studio to record his seventh album, again with Berlin in the producer's chair. The acclaimed life cycle-themed Back to Birth was released in August 2015 on Yep Roc. At the beginning of 2017, Greene issued a two-part EP series, The Modern Lives, Vol. 1 and its 2018 sequel, Vol. 2. Each was a six-track set which found Greene assuming the roles of engineer and producer, as well as playing all of the instruments. Both were recorded in his Brooklyn basement, after which Greene left New York, moving back to his native Northern California. His next release, 2019's 100% Greene, was a solo acoustic affair captured live at the Throckmorton Theatre in Mill Valley, California. ~ Bradley Torreano, Rovi