Wayne Jacobs

WAYNE JACOBS is an award-winning professional singer songwriter. While a teenager in the 1980s, Wayne went to night school for three and a half years where he was taught by a folk singer called Pauline. He wrote a couple of songs, one for his mum and another called One Way Ticket. Pauline said Wayne had good potential as a songwriter. While his children grew up, Wayne put his guitar away. But, over the last ten years, he’s been playing and writing again. For his 40th birthday, Wayne’s wife Joanna gave him his first Fender Squire electric guitar.

Wayne has had some great success with his songwriting. He has written songs for the 2012 London Olympics and one to celebrate Big Ben’s 150th birthday. This led to a tour of the famous clock tower where Wayne walked up 334 steps to the top and sang his song to MP’s, tour guides, tourists and clock makers. He has also written Christmas carols for the Tower Of London which were sung by a choir.

 

As a performer, Wayne beat off 10,000 other hopefuls to reach the area finals of Live And Unsigned: Open Mic UK and also reached the finals of the World Championships of Performing Arts at the London Palladium. Should he win, he will represent England in Hollywood. Wayne has also appeared on the Pat Marsh show on BBC Radio Kent.

In 2010, Wayne released an EP called “Sounds Good To Me”. It was produced by Paramount Group in Nashville after wayne entered their songwriting competition and won the Directors’ Award. The EP three country tracks, “”Let Me Take You Home””, “”All Kids Need A Second Chance”” and “”My Tennessee Girl””.

“My Tennessee Girl” was inspired by the film “Walk The Line”. Wayne loves Johnny Cash and in the film he composed his song to the sound of a train. So, while at work, Wayne envisaged what it would be like in Nashville, rolling in to work on a train with his girlfriend, who wears his ring, waiting for him on the platform. Every time she met him, she would always buy him a coffee and an ‘Egg McMuffin’. The song reached number one on Nashville-based station wildhorseradio.com.za

In September 2010, Wayne performed in the Regional Finals of Open Mic UK. His song “”Let Me Take You Home”” helped Wayne beat off thousands of other singers in this prestigious competition which searches for the best in new talent across the UK.

In April 2011, Wayne released his first country music compilation EP, “Sounds Good To Me”. It is available from our Online Music Store for £5.99. He also secured success in more awards. “My Tennessee Girl” was voted number one on Wild Horse Radio in Nashville. Also, Wayne’s “Embarrassing Dad”” was a semi-finalist in the international Song Of The Year competition.

In September 2012, Wayne won UKCountryRadio.com’s Listeners’ Club Award with his song “”Kentucky Whiskey””. Wayne described it as “”a dream come true””.

In April 2012, Wayne released his latest song “”I WantMy Daddy””. The song is inspired by a US TV show Wayne was watching in which a firefighter from Davies County, Kentucky, was seriously injured in a crash involving a truck while he was directing traffic. The firefighter’s wife and daughter saw the whole thing from the opposite carriageway. The incident shocked the state of Kentucky, and also inspired Wayne to write his latest song. Again, the song reached number one at wildhorseradio.com.za

In 2013, Wayne wrote “Rockin’ In The USA” about a Karaoke bar called “Lonnie’s Western Room” in Nashville.

Wayne describes it as a “smoky dive” where they sell buckets of beer, a cash-only bar with an electrifying atmosphere and amazing wannabe country rock singers.

The demo of the song was professional produced by Tom Manche and his team in Nashville.

Also in 2013, Wayne was injured in a motorcycle accident. While sitting in his armchair feeling sorry for himself, he had an idea to write a song about a homeless man in Nashville. After Googling the subject, he came across a news story from 2012 in which a man with a grudge against homeless people, drove around in the dead of night, got out of his truck, put a gun against the head of a homeless man sitting on a public bench, and shot him in cold blood. This inspired Wayne to write his next song, “In Cold Blood”.

Wayne Jacobs won UKCountryRadio.com’s Listeners’ Club Award in both 2012 and 2013 for his songs “Kentucky Whiskey” and “I Want My Daddy” respectively.

Commenting, UKCountryRadio.com Station Manager Allan Watkiss said, “Congratulations to Wayne on winning our Award. His winning song “I Want My Daddy” contained all the key ingredients of a fantastic country song – lyrics based on a true story, coming from the heart, which make you think. Wayne has also invested heavily in the production of his song to ensure a strong vocal and musical delivery of the finished track. The standard of our five finalists for our Listeners’ Club Award was particularly high this year, proving there are some extremely talented performers and writers in country music in the UK.”

Shortly after winning the 2013 award, Wayne released his first ever trucking song called “Devils Truck”. The demo was produced in Nashville by Justin Morgan.

 

Wayne’s first release of 2014, “Saints & Sinners” told of a cowboy with a gambling addiction which was upsetting his girlfriend called Angel.

At UKCountryRadio.com’s Seventh Birthday Party And Awards in September 2014, Wayne won his third consecutive Listener’s Club Song Award. The Award was presented for his song “”In Cold Blood””. Shortly afterwards, Wayne was presented with the trophy by UKCountryRadio.com’s Allan Watkiss when they met at the Tower of London.

Shortly after winning his third consecutive UKCountryRadio.com Listeners’ Club Song Award, Wayne released the song “”May We Never Forget””, inspired by the wording on a plaque at the Ground Zero Memorial Museum in New York. The song is a tribute to those killed in the September 11th terrorist attacks in the US, and to those fighting for peace around the world. Once again, the song was produced by Tom Manche in Nashville. It went on to win Wayne his fourth consecutive Listeners’ Club Song Award in 2015.

In May 2016, Wayne released “YankeeBoy Blues”. The song, recorded by Brad Anderson, is about a Yankee boy who wants to trade his roots for cowboy boots and a down home life in Houston, Texas. Wayne performed the song at the Chelmsford regional final of Britain Does Variety 2016

September 2016 brought further success for Wayne with his fifth consecutive win of the UKCountryRadio.com Listeners’ Club Song Award for his song “Paws Of War”. The song, produced in Nashville by Tom Manche, is based on a true story about US soldiers in Afghanistan and the dogs they promised not to leave behind. It is included on the 6-track EP “New Nashville Country Songs” which was released shortly after the Award win.

Also in September 2016, Wayne released “Falling Feather”. The country love song is a new country version of a song Wayne had written in 2010

2017 was another successful year for Wayne – winning the UKCountryRadio.com Listeners’ Club Song Award for a sixth straight year with his patriotic song “Stars And Stripes Of Freedom”. Wayne chose to receive his trophy at the top of The Shard in London. He was also a finalist for UK Country Artist Of The Year and UK Male Country Singer Of The Year at The UK Country Music Awards.

Wayne released a new six-track EP “Stars & Stripes” featuring a selection of his patriotic songs and the new song “Signs Of Love”. The love song tells of a man fishing on the banks of the Mississippi river and thinking of his one true love.

Wayne’s first release of 2018 was the fabulous Father Daughter Dance. He wrote the song for his daughter’s wedding in 2017. She cried when she read the lyrics.

Once again, the song was produced in Nashville by Tom Manche with vocals recorded by Ronnie Kimball

In May 2018, Wayne received a Platinum Disc Award from music distribution service Airplay Express. It’s in recognition of worldwide downloads of the song “Signs Of Love”. The song went on to win the UKCountryRadio.com Listeners’ Club Song Award in September 2018.

Wayne then wrote his first ever country gospel song, “Little Bit of Heaven”. He was inspired to write the song after listening to the Maren Morris hit “My Church”. The song is about poverty, homelessness, helping others and seeing ‘A Little Bit Of Heaven’ in everyone. The song was given a “Multi-Platinum Award” by Airplay Express to recognise worldwide downloads.

In the summer of 2019, Wayne released the single “Man’s Best Friend”. Longtime family friend Leslie Ann encouraged Wayne to write the song which is a true story about Zach Scow from Marley’s Mutts Dogs Rescue Centre in Kern County, California.

Zach was down on his luck and hooked on drugs and alcohol when he nearly died. He turned his life around by finding a new purpose rescuing dogs in the area.

Once again the song has been produced in Nashville by Tom Manche with vocals recored by Ronnie Kimball. Zach and his dad cried when they heard it.

Towards the end of 2019, Wayne received the devastating news that he had kidney cancer. Thankfully, his kidney was successfully removed in an operation in February 2020. 

He used his time in hospital to write a new song, inspired by his previous wedding-themed song “Father Daughter Dance”.

Like the previous single “We Say I Do” is dedicated to Wayne’s daughter and her husband. The song was recorded by Ronnie Kimball and produced in Nashville by Tom Manche.

In the summer of 2020, Wayne teamed up with fellow UK country artist Kerr Donnelly to co-write their first song together, “Dancing Under The Stars”.

If any record producers or publishers would like to find out more about Wayne and his music, then feel free to contact him.

Wayne is supported by the team at Country Music Social Media and his songs are included on their compilation albums.