Jackamo remembers their first show at The Shelter.

It was December 2019, and the indie-folk band had played an opening set at the Detroit music venue.

“We opened for Brother Elsey just right before COVID,” said Alison Wiercioch, one of the band’s vocalists. “That was one of our first times playing as a full band.”

At the time, Wiercioch had performed with sister and vocalist Tessa Wiercioch, guitarist Jimmy Showers, bassist Steve Lehane, keyboardist John Raleeh, and drummer Steve Stetson.

“There’s something special, too, I think about a venue like The Shelter,” said Showers, who makes up the core of the band with the Wiercioch sisters. “I feel like the best place to see a band is at a small club show.”

Now, seven years later, it’s a full-circle moment for Jackamo: they’re gearing up for a February 21 headlining show at The Shelter.

“We said, ‘OK, we want to do a headlining show,’” said Alison Wiercioch. “We want to see what we can do and what type of room we can try to fill.”

The show will feature new music and old favorites from Jackamo, who’s been diligently working on their debut album at Royal Oak’s Rustbelt Studios.

“With the album coming out [later this year], we’re trying to find our sound and what we want to sound like,” said Tessa Wiercioch. “I feel like we almost went back to the basics. We thought, “Well, what are our biggest inspirations, and who are our influences?”

Those influences range from Lucinda Williams and The Staves to The Milk Carton Kids and The Lumineers.

“I was really inspired by The Lumineers’ album, III,” said Alison Wiercioch. “There were all of these music videos with stories, and I was following the storyline—I was enthralled. I looked forward to every time they would release a new music video for the songs. I think we have that idea of interweaving these songs together.”

To learn more, I spoke with Jackamo about their music ahead of the show.

Q: What plans do you have for your show at The Shelter?

Tessa Wiercioch (TW): We might strip it down for a couple of songs. We said, “Let’s keep it simple, start with our older songs, and then just play it all the way through, what we have coming out [later this year].”

Jimmy Showers (JS): On drums, it’s Steve Stetson, and he’s the best drummer ever. On bass is Steve Lehane, and he’s responsible for producing, doing some engineering duties, writing with us, and mixing the record. He’s also the best bass player.

Then, it’s Ali, Tessa, and me. We also have Ryan Harrison playing guitar, and Mike Harrington playing pedal steel. The silent eighth member is Jake Halkey, who engineered the session for this record. He’s going to mix our sound. … Jake is like the fifth Beatle.

Q: Masha Marjieh and Plushies are opening the show. What will they help bring to it?

Alison Wiercioch (AW): We’ve known Masha Marjieh as long as Steve [Lehane], Steve [Stetson], and the crew at Rustbelt. We’ve become friends with her, and she is absolutely incredible. We’re really excited for everyone to hear her stuff, too. She’s like an inspiration and a role model to all of us.

TW: Ali and I have sung with her live a couple of times.

JS: Masha also has a killer band. I know her nieces sing with her often, and Erik “Mushy” Maluchnik from Tempermill Studio in Ferndale is her guitar player. I think sometimes Kenny Turdick is her drummer, and Noah [Eikhoff] is [her bassist].

The opening band is a new band in Detroit, and this is like their third or fourth show. They’re called Plushies, and they’re a really cool band.

Raelyn Galatioto is a friend of mine from Wayne State University, and we were in the same master’s program together. She drums and sings in the band, and her girlfriend Sabrina sings and plays guitar. A new member in their band is Cinquex of the band Checker.

Q: You’ve been working on a new album. What can you tell us about it?

AW: We are putting one cover on the album. We’re doing a version of The Church’s “Under the Milky Way,” and we all love that song. We went in right before Christmas to record that just as a cover.

TW: We were going to release that separately. That is such a staple of a song; we were shocked that not a lot of people have covered it.

AW: Then, we thought, “This fits the vibe of where we’re trying to go with this album.” The album came together almost from that cover, and we said, “What is going to fit nicely with this type of vibe?” It’s a new take on it, but it’s still keeping the roots there—it’s putting the Jackamo jazz on it.

JS: Our version of “Under the Milky Way” is atmospheric and kind of moody, and the 10 songs on the album feel like a complete thought. We like the idea of a record being a time capsule of what the band sounds like.

Q: You’ve been recording with Steve Lehane, Sammy Boller, Steve Stetson, and Jake Halkey at Rustbelt Studios. How have you developed a strong collaboration with them?

JS: It’s my favorite thing about working with those guys. Since we’ve known each other for a long time, it  does feel like a collaboration. We can just have a musical conversation with each other, especially with “Under the Milky Way.”

There’s not a lot of guitar on that record; there are a lot of keys and synth. Steve [Lehane] produced that, and it was fun not having the clock ticking, so we could be free to try stuff. We ended up recording a piece of gear called an Omnichord; it’s a Japanese instrument from the ‘80s.

Everyone tried to embody the “Yes, and” [brainstorming approach] as a way to work together. A couple of the songs we wrote together started with someone saying, “Hey, I have two chords. What do you think of these two chords?”, and then we jammed those two chords for a little bit. Then someone said, “Well, what about this third chord?” And we said, “Yes, and …?”

TW: They are both our friends and the professionals who are helping us record. It makes us feel very comfortable. Coming from just being the three of us, the drummer is the piece that has to fit, and [Steve] Stetson does a great job of that.

AW: Steve [Lehane] and Steve [Stetson] wrote two of the songs with us on the album. This time recording, it was really cool to do pre-production with Steve [Stetson]. When we all gathered together and went through what songs we wanted to record, we were starting from scratch. It was a really collaborative effort, and everybody had a voice in it.

Stetson’s drumming on this record is just out of this world. He does such a great job, and it’s so incredible to listen. It makes us all really happy and smile because we’re fans now, and we’re doing this collectively.

It takes time to build relationships like that, and it’s cool to see that all come full circle from where we began. It’s taken us, maybe a minute, to make an album. We want to be sure that it’s the right fit, and it is, and we’re very happy, proud, and lucky.

Q: “Lucy” is your newest song. How did that song come together for you?

JS: This one is going to be on the new album. Ali started playing guitar over the last year, and that’s been great as a songwriting tool. This one is a total Alison Wiercioch composition.

When we knew we wanted to make a record, we wanted to assemble a group of songs to record. We were all pitching songs to each other and to our band.

“Lucy” was the first one of Ali’s composition pitches. It’s interesting to see how Ali, as a guitar player, approaches the instrument differently than I do. It’s led to some cool, creative discoveries, including that tune. We used a lot of fuzz pedals on that.

AW: We had a different name for the song at first, we had Sadie. I have a little bit of a lisp, and I said, “We have to chill on the S’s.” And then, we thought about Lucy and said, “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds. Oh my gosh, Lucy!” We realized “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” resonated with this song.

TW: “Lucy” fits the fictional character that it’s about.

Q: You’ve released several singles lately, including “Camberwell.” What inspired this tale of heartache and loss?

JS: The title is from a book by Vladimir Nabokov called Speak, Memory, and he references the Camberwell Beauty butterfly. I was reading that at the time, and it does tie in nicely. Nabokov’s book is about a place he can never return to, and he was living in exile when he wrote it.

AW: The Camberwell Beauty butterfly is also called a Mourning Cloak. We resonated with that, too, for the song. It’s mourning a relationship.

That relationship could be romantic or familial, and it’s mourning that loss. We thought, “Camberwell is a beautiful name,” as we were writing the song, and it all came together.

TW: The line is: “Camberwell Beauty / Still as can be / Wanted nothing to do with you / Oh, wanted nothing to do with me.” Right around that time, it was intriguing writing about an object, or writing about something that you can’t necessarily know what it’s feeling.

It was interesting to tie that to the perspectives of two people. A butterfly is just flying around while something serious is going on between two people.

Q: “Second Best” is about not being someone’s top priority. How did a personal relationship spark this song?

TW: We wrote it in 2020. It’s realizing that you’ll never be a person’s number one because they won’t ever have a number one. Those lyrics came from a place of understanding this person and knowing that you’ll always be second best. It’s coming to terms with the fact that you’re second best and realizing that’s OK.

Q: You also released a “Live From the Lobby” acoustic version of “Second Best.” How does that version capture your sound and spirit as well?

TW: That was always a goal for us because we started Jackamo as a trio, and we have evolved to this full band sound. We were excited that we still have that ability to just perform as the three of us if need be. We wanted to showcase that with a song, and we liked both versions of “Second Best.” We thought that was a good song to show that with.

Q: “Rest Easy” is about losing a loved one. How did a personal loss inspire this song?

AW: Our intention for it wasn’t actually what we were thinking when we were writing it. We wrote it during COVID, and we thought, “Oh my gosh, burnt coffee, that’s great. Let’s throw this in there.”

When it comes to “Rest Easy,” we were thinking about letting a relationship go to rest. It was more about a relationship, but it took a turn, and we based it on Rudolph [Jackymack], who inspired our [band] name.

And then last year, Tessa and I lost both of our grandparents. They lived a great life, and in turn, that song meant something different to all three of us.

Last year, it changed what it meant. I think it’s exciting that our music is evolving not only in sound, but also to us personally.

Q: What plans do you have later this year?

JS: We’re excited to get the record out, and we’re booking ourselves at the moment. We’ve played a lot in Detroit, and Detroit is a great place to [play], but we’re trying to play in front of new audiences.

Ali and I were the session band with Ohly, Christian Ohly’s [project], on the west side of the state at a really cool venue called The Stray [in Grand Rapids]. There’s a whole market on the west side of the state we haven’t done much with yet.

TW: I think we’ve only played in Grand Rapids once in the eight years that we’ve been performing as Jackamo. That’s definitely a goal for the fall.

AW: We’re hoping to travel to Chicago or Cincinnati. We want to get a Midwest tour in the fall.

Jackamo performs February 21 with Masha Marjieh and Plushies at The Shelter, 431 East Congress Street, Detroit. Doors are at 7 pm. For tickets, visit Ticketmaster’s website.