Name: Jackson Smith (he/him)
Hometown: Dallas, Texas
Year: Junior
Field of Study: Marketing
SCOPE Position: Editor-in-Chief

Howdy! My name is Jackson Smith and this year I’m the Editor-in-Chief for SCOPE! This is my third year in SCOPE Productions and I can confidently say that it has been the highlight of my time here at Iowa. I’ve met so many great people and have had a blast getting more involved with the music scene here in Iowa City.

Three Favorite Albums:

• American Beauty by Grateful Dead
• Are You Experienced by The Jimi Hendrix Experience
• Stop Making Sense (Live) by Talking Heads

Spotify Playlist

Jam to Jackson's playlist!

Listen to SCOPE Selects: Jackson Smith on Spotify

Favorite Concert Experience

It's tough to choose a favorite concert experience, but I think mine would have to be seeing Mac DeMarco open for Tame Impala at Red Rocks in 2016. It was only a few months after Currents was released and I wasn't really familiar with either artist at the time. My sister convinced me to go to the show and I'm extremely grateful that she did because I believe it helped shape my music taste for the next few years.

Hobbies / Interest / Fun Facts / Campus Involvement

Besides being a director in SCOPE, I work concessions at the Englert Theatre downtown. My coworkers are great (a handful of them are current SCOPE members and alum) and it's a ton of fun getting to see so many great acts perform in such an intimate setting. When I'm not catching up on my class work, there's a good chance you'll find me at a local venue catching a show or playing pool at Gabe's.

The Deep Cuts

The Grateful Dead are without question my favorite band. I’ve seen Dead and Company five times and it’s something that I try to do at least once every summer tour. I added a handful of my favorite live Dead songs at the end of the playlist and ended it with a Morning Dew that I could listen to on loop. When I was 13 I moved to Shanghai, China and it's an experience that I believe had a large part in shaping who I am today. It taught me the importance of change and embracing the unknown. A few of the songs remind of this, particularly Change by Blind Melon and Everybody's Talkin' by Harry Nilsson. If you listen to anything on this playlist, listen to the first and last songs.

Also, I had to include Canned Heat. Anytime I hear it I can’t help but be in a better mood- you know that boogie is for real. Anyone who has seen the masterpiece film Napoleon Dynamite can probably relate.