Axe grinder: Texas singer-songwriter Jackie Venson is starting to escape a tagline. Winning Best Guitarist at this year’s Austin Music Awards pushed Venson past all of the gender references that typically surround a woman with an electric guitar in her hands. Combining power, skill, and dreamy vocals, her music draws comparisons to Jimi Hendrix and Prince, and Guitar Player magazine noted the classically trained musician’s “unique ability to blend blues, rock, R&B, and soul into a idiosyncratic sound that’s unmistakably hers.” Venson plays The Festy in its new urban setting with a lineup that includes Robert Randolph & the Family Band, Dawes, and Samantha Fish.
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