Critics say he is the next big thing in pop music. But he is rock-star cool about his potential

There’s a song on Jackie Greene’s new album, Giving Up the Ghost, that sounds like an outright dismissal of the first commandment of rock ‘n’ roll—that music can change the world. In I don’t live in a dream, the singer and songwriter considered by some an heir to the Gram Parsons roots-rock maverick tradition, confesses, “I don’t live on the moon ... I don’t live in some land forgotten ... I don’t pretend to make the world feel better ... I walk the same Earth you do, I live right here with you.”

It’s a reflection of the way the 27-year-old musician has come to see himself. He’s more a regular Joe than the Next Big Thing in pop music, something that’s been predicted for him routinely for at least five years.

“I think every record I’ve put out there’s been somebody who’s said, ‘This is it—this is the one!’ After a while you stop listening and just do what you do,” said Greene.

Greene seems quite content to continue, for the time being, living the life of a critic’s darling with a devoted cult following. His music covers a lot of ground, from the Coldplay-with-a twang of the single Shaken to the Neil Young & Crazy Horse rock grandeur of Animal to the country soul of Don’t Let the Devil Take Your Mind. Another Love Gone Bad comes off like a lost Dead track.

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