Jack grew up as a Navy brat, living in California, Rhode Island, and Alaska. After high school in Alaska he moved to Dallas, which had a vibrant music scene.

With a promise of work in the local clubs, Jack moved to Houston and quickly found himself playing with many local artists like Rick Gordon, Shake Russell, and John Vandiver, among others. He played in the local scene on bass or guitar, backing up acts in clubs like Anderson Fair, Theodore's, Corky's, and the Texas Opry House, while also fronting his own band.

Artists like Townes Van Zandt, Lucinda Williams, Lee Roy Parnell, Gurf Morlix, and Blaze Foley were playing in the same clubs, and Jack soon joined forces with a great bunch of musicians from Bryan, Texas--Rick Richards, Rick Poss, and Kline Reeves--that became the art rock band, Taxi Dancer. 

Most of the '80s and half of the '90s was spent with Shake Russell, first as a bassist in that band and, for the final 6 or 7 years, as duo mate and lead guitarist, sharing the writing and singing. As a duo, Shake and Jack were a fixture in the music scene in Texas and beyond, releasing several albums together.

Recording all those albums, Jack learned about and fell in love with the art of recording and in '96, he opened his own studio, White Cat Recording in Houston. 

Since then, his time has been divided between recording/producing and performing solo and with a band. He has released five albums of his own and has played with many artists, including Ray Wylie Hubbard, Greg Trooper, Tracie Lynn, Susan Gibson, Danny Everitt, Michael O'Connor, Hayes Carll, and Randy Weeks, while producing and recording dozens of titles at White Cat Recording Studio for other songwriters. 

In 2012, Jack released his fourth solo CD, A Real Good Place to Start. The title speaks to the creative process, where, in order to move forward, you have to reinvent yourself to some extent with every new project.

2013 saw the release of a fifth solo project, entitled Grit and Jangle.

Jack currently spends most of his time at White Cat Recording Studio, engineering/producing artists, and performing live whenever the urge strikes!