Double Time

Jonathan Jackson's two lives were easier to keep separate just a few months ago. He performs music, and he acts. But a new record contract, and a newly announced television deal, keep him busy in both realms. And both suit him just fine.

"There is some place where you find common ground between artistic mediums," Jackson says in a recent phone call. He notices that phenomenon now as he writes songs. As an actor, his goal is to fully embody a character, to think as he thinks and feel as he feels. That's now how he approaches music, too.

"I'm doing less autobiographical songs and getting into the headspace of these characters," he says.

Jackson fully embraces his dual professions and the places they collide. One of his television characters, the bad boy Avery Barkley from the popular drama "Nashville," makes his living playing music. Jackson's real life music project, Enation, released a 2014 album, "Radio Cinematic," playing up the intersection of the two. It's the latter project that has Jackson occupied right now, as Enation's current tour is crossing the country. The group, which also features his brother Richard Lee Jackson, performs tonight at George's Majestic Lounge in Fayetteville.

The focus on the road ends soon, as he will reprise his role as Lucky Spencer on the ABC soap opera "General Hospital," at least for a few shows, Entertainment Weekly magazine reports.

But he says he tours any chance he can get. Filming of the next season of "Nashville" ended in April, so the band is out on the road. The songs he plays on the country music drama are somewhat different than those he writes for his band. Enation finds influence in acts such as Bruce Springsteen, U2 and R.E.M. But there's common ground there, too. His character falls outside of the country norms, playing more Americana than many of the other musicians on "Nashville." One of the songs he wrote for the television show, "The Morning of the Rain," made its way to his most recent Enation album, and it's a song the group plays live, he says.

In addition to rock and pop influences, "Radio Cinematic" also contains Christian references, but Jackson stops short of calling it Christian rock. He says for the same reason songs made by practitioners in India aren't necessarily labeled as "Buddhist" songs, his tunes shouldn't be appreciated along narrow religious lines.

"I've never connected or related to music made like that. It's an anomaly of our culture," Jackson says.

Jackson says "Radio Cinematic" is a search for meaning, in the tradition of some of his musical heroes -- Springsteen, Bob Dylan and Peter Gabriel.

"I'm just trying to be authentic as a songwriter," Jackson says. And authentic to himself, which means he's both a musician and an actor.

NAN What's Up on 06/19/2015