If you’ve been to our website or follow us on social networks you’ve probably seen the name Jessica Lea Mayfield. She’s quickly become one of our favorite artists. When I received her new album in the mail, I put it in and instantly knew I was going to to like her. I ended up downloading her first album With Blasphemy So Heartfelt and worked forward through her catalog.
Tell Me sticks to the same formula as her first album, except every little thing about it is stepped up a notch. She maintains the ability to be haunting and melancholy, but on Tell Me she lets the blue sky shine through every now and again, like on the aptly titled “Blue Sky Again.” She shows hope where she rarely showed it on her previous LP.
Helping her along her way is her connection to The Black Key’s and their explosion onto the American music front. In 2007 she collaborated with The Black Key’s and this time around her album is produced by Black Key’s Dan Auerbach. This sound shines through on several tracks, but especially the dark and lonesome “Somewhere in Your Heart.”
At only 21 years old JLM is way ahead of the curve, but she’s not new to music at all. She’s been involved in the Southern Americana side of music since touring and playing with her families bluegrass band at age 8. In fact her entire story is kind of a music fairy tale. Dan Auerbach who produced both of her full length albums, got a hold of 1 of the 100 EP’s she recorded in her brothers bedroom when she was 15. Since then she’s toured with Cake, The Avett Brothers, An Horse, The Black Keys, Lucero and more recently Ray LaMontagne. All of this happened before she turned 21.
Her vocal delivery is half singing and half spoken story telling, flowing through gentle melodies that are just catchy enough to stay in head. Her lyrics hold nothing back ever, whether it’s about being sexually promiscuous as in “Sometimes at Night” or she is singing about being dismissive of love, like she can find it whenever she wants. It’s like she has a little love chip on her shoulder after the heartbreak she opened up to on her first album. Most of the time she sounds she could care less, that’s all part of the magic of Jessica Lea Mayfield. She doesn’t need to belt it out to make you believe what she has to say. The entire album is calm and collected.
