This post comes from 9B contributor pledge Old Sad Bastard. Lemme know what you guys think.

I know shamefully little about South Dakota, beyond recollections of a family trip when I was about four. And while I haven’t done too much to rectify the situation, other than scoping out google images of National Parks, I have had the pleasure of enjoying some new music from one of the state’s finest songwriters.

You may have heard Jami Lynn’s “Sweet Thing” as the opening cut of the latest 9B podcast. The song is also the first track on her new album Sodbusters, which she is self releasing. Lynn previously released an album (2008’s Dreamer) as Jami Lynn and the Aquila Band. She is accompanied on this “solo” album by her former bandmate Josh Rieck. Lynn’s voice shifts easily from indie rock croon to a full bodied gospel to a traditional folk storyteller, making each song unique, even when the arrangements, mostly banjo and guitar, are similar. The playing is good, and the spare instrumentation allows Lynn’s voice, along with Rieck’s harmonies, to carry the songs through. However, the haunting old-world acappella “The Falling of the Pine” is a standout track for me as is really lets her voice speak for itself. Her website identifies it as a song she discovered while researching her thesis on American folk music, and describes it as “a ballad from the time when “square timber logging” was popular during the Golden Age of Lumbering in northern Minnesota.” It conjures Frank Turner’s forays into old English folk music, and she clearly shares his interest and pride in the history of her music.

The album mellows a bit after the midway point, trading banjo licks for more guitar finger picking. Now, a few years ago, I’ll admit that I would have lost interest at this point. I wandered into Americana, like many punks who started looking for something new after turning 22, over a bottle of whiskey and memories of the stuff my dad listens to. It took some time time for me to understand where softer, more, eh, nuanced music fit into life. Now, however, the more music I hear, the more I come to appreciate musicians like Jami Lynn who don’t go trying to re-invent the wheel, but don’t settle for the same tired standards either. So even if the last quarter of the album is too soft for your taste, don’t drift off: the closer, “Don’t Let Her Love Go”, is another great vocal song, accompanied only by percussion, leaving you to walk away from the album with the tight harmonies in your head and a solid Americana album under your belt.

Jami Lynn – The Lame Soldier
Jami Lynn – The Falling of the Pine
Jami Lynn – Don’t Let Her Love Go

Jami Lynn’s Official Site, Jami Lynn on Facebook, Buy Sodbusters

This post comes from 9B contributor pledge Charles Hale. Lemme know what you guys think.

You know how new music can sneak up on you and sink in you like the venom from a rattlesnake? The Cave Singers’ third album No Witch is sneaky like that. The venom’s like you heard them for the first time while catching a ride with a girl you had met a few days before. Your car was in the shop, you needed a ride to work at the warehouse where you moved piles of boxes into other piles of boxes and you’d asked her for the ride the night before while sitting at the bar with her and some mutual friends. You’d done this a few nights before while the two of you put the stools on top of the bar at closing time and she’d said something like “wow, I don’t know if I’ve ever met anybody exactly like you” and you said “me, I’m the lucky one. Bourbon drinks and late night quiet, see you soon.” and she told you that’s what she meant.

No Witch was playing in her fairly old Chevrolet when she picked you up and you thought it was Iron & Wine on a shit ton of espresso for a minute but you finally had to ask. She told you who it was while turning up the volume. When “Black Leaf” started she was banging on the steering wheel like you figured your heart would be thumping later, when you’d see her after work at the bar and she’d drive you home and you’d lean in for the kiss.

Each song was rhythmic and charged with memorable guitar work and hauntingly effervescent lyrical delivery. Traffic was terrible and the ride to work was taking longer than normal but it didn’t matter to you because of the girl and The Cave Singers and by the time “Haystacks” played you thought that if things went as you were hoping; No Witch would be a great album to play next week when she stayed over at your house for the first time. You imagined moving with her to these songs that despite being rustic and grimy had heapings of soul to them.

You were so confident and engrossed that between songs you hit the power button and asked her if she would meet you at the bar later. “I want to get out tonight,” she said. “But I have to pick my boyfriend up from the airport and I don’t know what he’ll be up for.” You were crushed and pissed at your friends. They could have given you a heads up and you hit the power button again. The somber tones of the singer’s voice wrapping around you like the hoodie you wished it was cold enough to be wearing right now so you could cover and hide. Clearly you had read something wrong and you wondered if she could feel your face blushing. Suddenly you were reminded of how long of a shift it would be today.

Or, maybe you were just sitting at home on a Friday night watching music videos on Youtube because you hadn’t met the girl you asked to drive you to work one day even when you didn’t need the ride. One band leading to another and another till you found yourself listening to “No Prosecution If We Bail” four times in a row and your hair tingling a bit each time the singer howled. So you opened more beers and found more songs by these Cave Singers and ordered the album hoping you’d meet a girl interesting enough to play No Witch for in her fairly old Chevrolet.

And maybe she’d be wearing glasses and have two paperback books stuffed in her glove box.

Either way, No Witch is Essential Listening.

The Cave Singers – Black Leaf
The Cave Singers – Haystacks
The Cave Singers – No Prosecution If We Bail

The Cave Singers Official Site, The Cave Singers on Facebook, Buy No Witch

This post comes from our 9B Norwegian correspondent Rune Letrud. Lemme know what you guys think.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to Egil Olsen!

Egil Olsen, singer/songwriter from Ørsta. Egil Olsen from Norway. Egil Olsen, who is too big for China!

Egil Olsen, who easily have made one of the fines albums that this year will bring.

A couple of years ago, when Olsen turned 30, his wife surprised him by getting a number of highly prolific musician friends to play at his big birthday party and they even made a tribute album filled with his wonderful subtle songs.

After only two published records, one’s own tribute album isn’t something that happens to everyone. But then, it’s not just two everyday records he has released to date. I am a singer / songwriter from 2007 and Nothing like the love I have for you from 2009 are both pillars in their own right in any record collection with respect for itself.

The road leading to this album has been long and tortuous for Egil. Right from the days of his first band Uncle Institution, through his solo “success” with songs like “Santa Claus Is Gay” and “Walkie Talk To Me” – before he disillusioned he ended up in Hollywood, where many of the songs on I am a singer / songwriter were written and recorded. Despite the success and critical acclaim he received for Singer/Songwriter and it’s follow-up, Olsen was left far from satisfied.

In his own words:

“I often say that I found myself in Hollywood when I made “I am a singer / songwriter” And I did. I also found love with “Nothing like the love I have for you”. However, still on a high from love and the success with my new album, I felt a great need for more. I was more restless than ever, and found myself daydreaming and trying to escape. Greener grass, etc. To find myself in Hollywood was not enough, so I went back for more “

And found he did. Not only himself but along the way he also found Jonathan “Butch” Norton; former drummer from the Eels as well as session musician for everyone from Rufus Wainwright to Tracy Chapman – not to mention the drummer in Lucinda Williams band.

Together they recorded a batch of songs in the Hobby Shop in LA – before life, again, brought Olsen home to known shores in Norway. Back to Sunnmøre and the phenomenal Ocean Sound Studios at Giske before the album was subsequently completed in Egil Olsen’s own home studio – and here it is in all its glory for us to listen to and treasure.

There is nothing on this album that gets in the way of anything else, everything that enters the soundscape is building up to something concrete in the melody or the text. Some had to actually take their ears to work the day this was screwed together
…
It’s one thing how the sweet melodies wind their way into the listeners ears and never completely disappear from your head, but his greatest strength is the charmingly naive and at times very direct lyrics he writes. Lyrics that really enhance the product, far above similar albums that I’ve listened to lately.

In most cases he writes about what has happened to him in a way that’s universal enough that you won’t have to have come from the non-urban areas in Norway to feel at home. Take, for instance, the fantastic song “In the middle of Norway”:

“14th of April 1980
I was a brand new born baby
but this seemed like such a lonely place to be
born in the middle of Norway
… …
Cold – gray
Nothing was ever more than ok
in the middle of norway
… …
I’m not that brave, I’m Just Afraid
two give up and go home
get a life and a loan
and get stuck in the middle of Norway “

Another shining example is “Do It Yourself” where Olsen gives us a
broad range of invaluable advice along the way:

“If you’re bored and nothin’ happens
do it yourself
If you perform and nobody’s clappin’
do it yourself”.

We also hear a little about his frustration over living in the capital city of Oslo (where he previously vowed that he would never live) in comparison with his stay in LA where he elegantly boils it all down to the fact that it is easiest to have your home with you in your head all the time, then no matter where you are, you’re always home.

“Location location location
gotta do something soon
but as for now
I’ll just instead
live in my head “

I could go on because this album does not have one single weak moment. Not a weak point. Melodically, production or lyrically. It’s much easier that YOU go out and buy this album. YOU have deserved it, and Egil has deserved it. Even if you don’t like music, just buy it for the fantastic drawings on the cover, also done by Egil Olsen.

Egil Olsen – Location, Location, Location
Egil Olsen – In The Middle Of Norway

Egil Olsen’s Official Site, Egil Olsen on Facebook, Buy Keep Movin-Keep Dreaming

This post comes from 9B contributor prospect John Allman. Lemme know what you guys think.

There’s a timeless feeling that comes with listening to John Paul Keith’s latest disc, The Man That Time Forgot.

It crosses so many styles but never feels anything less than cohesive. And the songs, whoa buddy, the songs really catch your ear.

Speaking of buddy, there’s a good chance that if you blindfolded a friend and made them listen to the first three songs on the disc, without telling them the artist, they would think that you had unearthed some long lost Buddy Holly record.

The jangly guitars, falsetto crooning and driving backbeat has all the hallmarks of Holly and the Crickets, and that my friends, is a good, good thing.

I was amazed at how familiar the songs felt, even upon first listen. They’re comfortable in a way that is comforting, not in an uninspired, same old same fashion. This is just solid song craftsmanship with catchy hooks and smart lyrics, everything that you want to make you hit repeat on the stereo instead of digging through a bunch of discs for something else to play.

The first part of the disc sounds like the soundtrack to a classic film chronicling the lives of young lovers and students trying to get by in the 1950s. Tracks like “You Devil You,” “Bad Luck Baby” or the standout “Anyone Can Do It,” were made for summer days driving to the beach with the convertible top down.

There are several top-notch rockabilly rave-ups that would be right at home in a drive-in exploitation film like “High School Confidential!” starring Mamie Van Doren. Songs like “Dry County” or “I Work At Night” would be perfect playing while all the tough guys and bad girls are driving out to the quarry to drink and get wild and let hands wander up under Angora sweaters or down the front of gabardine jeans.

Keith slows things down with two plaintive ballads, “Song For Sale” and the title track, “The Man That Time Forgot,” which also comes highly recommended. The dark and somber lyrics creep under your skin: “Everything we were is everything we’re not/Here I am/The man that time forgot”

Oddly, one of the best songs is the only song that seems out of place. “The Last Last Call” plays like a classic 1970s country radio staple sung by Conway Twitty or George Jones. Thematically, it doesn’t fit with the 11 songs before it, but musically, it’s a stellar track, a true ‘tears in your beer’ lament sung spoken-word style like a poor drunk’s sober up sermon to the world.

John Paul Keith – Anyone Can Do It
John Paul Keith – Dry County
John Paul Keith – The Last Last Call

John Paul Keith’s Official Site, John Paul Keith on Facebook, Buy The Man That Time Forgot

This post comes from 9B contributor pledge Mike Ostrov. Lemme know what you guys think.

I had heard one Ryan Sheffield song in my life, but it got me really excited, and coincidentally he was coming to Gainesville just a few weeks after I’d heard about him. So I twiddled my thumbs until his date came, went to work that day, came home, watched The Simpsons, passed out. I woke up at exactly the right time I needed to leave by to see the show at a venue and in a town that are notoriously late-starters. But, lo, when I got there, the local girl was just starting her set and thanked Ryan Sheffield and another band, Waller, for coming on down and letting her use their guitar. Woe was me, I missed them, but I bought their CDs because they obviously killed it and were a stand-up group of guys and gals. So here’s the super special double review of the recorded efforts of bands from the show I never saw:

Ryan Sheffield & the Highhills – Head for the Coast (Buy)

Ryan Sheffield is from Asheville, NC and he was helped out on this album by multi-instrumentalist and producer Bryan Highhill. Sheffield has much in common with current folk bands like Defiance, Ohio and The Wild—they share a life-is-worth-living-even-if-it’s-just-because-of-your-loving-friends songwriting ethos. But Head for the Coast is set apart by Highhill’s contributions: the trumpet, melodica, and flugelhorn.

What this album does:

• Gets a massive production value out of two main players and a couple contributors.
• Sheds some reassuring light on a dank folk scene. It might be the perfect foil of a Kill Country album.

What this album doesn’t do:

• Let the minor wealth of instrumentation detract from the front porch feeling.
• Induce vomit from too much happy-go-lucky-ing. The uplifting parts all come from convincingly downtrodden places.

Ryan Sheffield & the Highhills – One For The East Bay

Waller – My Poor Queen (Buy)

The real treat in the whole non-story of that show was coming was the Atlanta-based group Waller. My Poor Queen is a mighty seven-song mini-album. Vocalists Jason Waller and Tiffany Leigh Blalock trade-off leads like a co-ed Freakwater. The album goes from dry to wet–crisp bluegrass-infused country songs blend into a few swampy, even gospel-y, grooves. Standard, but rich, instrumentation from harmonica, banjo, and upright bass fills in the sound while allowing the songs some breathing room. The strength of the album is in the singers. Waller and Blalock harmonize wonderfully and wail just as good on their own. The album feels a lot like Georgia—it reeks of mesquite and red clay. There’s certainly some Steve Earle influence to be found in there, his respectful levity in dealing with bluegrass; also some of Gillian Welch‘s sparsity. My Poor Queen is up on Waller’s bandcamp for less than a tank of gas, so listen to the whole thing there, and I highly recommend picking it up.

Waller – Attleboro Drive
Waller – Hurricane Pills

This post comes from our 9B Norwegian correspondent Rune Letrud. Lemme know what you guys think.

Let me introduce you to Howard Iceberg.

A man who is sadly overlooked on the Americana-scene, with the exception of his home town of Kansas City, where friends just a few weeks ago arranged a tribute show called “Raising the Titanic, An Evening with the Music of Howard Iceberg” – where over 50 musicians who came together to play their favorites from Howard Icebergs amazing repertoire. At the show he also released the seven cd-box Welcome Aboard – consisting of 105 songs spanning the last 8 years of his production.

The man known as “Kansas City’s Rock-Shaman” is actually named Howard Eisberg, and during the day he is a successful and busy lawyer. He turned 64 in May, and only started writing songs and performing around the age of 30. And in that time, he has written over 800 songs. Of which about 500 exist as simple sketches with Howard and his guitar, recorded in Pat Tomek’s studio. The remaining 300 have a little more meat on the bones, and has an ever-changing musician clientele.

I was first introduced to the concept that is Howard Iceberg when I met Pat Tomek, drummer of The Rainmakers, on their comeback tour of Norway. I was wearing a “No Depression” t-shirt, and one of the first things Pat said to me was that “have you heard of Howard Iceberg? The people in No Depression are big fans.”

Pat introduced me to a musician and songwriter who’s constantly writing songs and recording them in Tomek’s studio, in what Pat referred to as “draft form.” Howard calls the process “The never-ending recording project”. I first got a sampler with few songs, and I have to say that the feeling of hearing Howard Iceberg for the first time is almost indescribable.

What grabbed me was his lyrics. And first and foremost, in my ears I hear Howard Iceberg sounding like a Dylan around the time of “Blood On The Tracks”. He writes songs what I will not hesitate to place in the landscape around Dylan, Townes Van Zandt, Warren Zevon and Neil Young. But mainly it’s because Howard writes about people, relationships between people at all stages of their lives, about why we do what we do – and often have questions that you always pondered, but failed to put into words. Howard basically writes 4 minute novels, where you take part in the lives of characters who are painted with so strong and bright colors that before the song ends, they are presented as real people who you in many cases would like to meet. All in a way that was Dylan’s biggest strength around the time of “Blood On The Tracks”.

My honest opinion is that if Howard Iceberg took 15 of his strongest songs into the studio with his current band and got T-Bone Burnett to produce it, the world would be left with one of the strongest albums in modern rock history. When I came into contact with Howard and subsequently told him this, he told me that he simply doesn’t have the time to polish the songsin the studio. He hopes someone else can take the sketches when he one dayhangs up his guitar, and see if they can be polished into something durable.

It is important not to underestimate his bandmates in this process, among all the past and present Titanics there are incredibly talented musicians. And his current, regular band, consisting of Scott Easterday, Gary Paredes, Dan Mesh and Pat Tomek are all great musicians, and they really suit the concept that is Howard Iceberg & The Titanics.

The seven CD’s in the big box Welcome Aboard are loosely divided into
different themes, and all have their thin red line that can be followed through each CD. KC music writer Danny Alexander has written fantastic liner notes, and guides us comfortably through the tracks on each CD, which elegantly puts Howard’s lyrics in context. Only the first cd is currently available online, with plans to release the rest in the coming weeks.

Alexander has named Volume 1 Lonesome Town, and loneliness and the quest
for true love are returning themes. To name a few of my favorites from Volume 1 is difficult, but I have to mention the wonderful “In This Lonesome Town”, and the duet with Abigail Henderson which is not only one of the best songs on this album, but one of the most beautiful songs I’ve heard.

…he sings in “The Wrestler”. And follows up with a story about loss of hope and faith – in which truth plays the lead role, and an organ and the female voice is the supporting cast that elevates this track to become one of the absolute highlights of this album.

In the Dylanesque “Kathleen”, who might as well be the sister of the girl from the North Country or picked from the “John Wesley Harding” album, we find one of the best lines of lyric on the cd. This is poetry:

The absolute highlight on this album is the lovely “Calling You Back,” where the main character hunts for a lost love – and all the while offers up lines like this;

So, my dear friends. Do yourself the largest favor of your life: Familiarize yourself with one of the music world’s best-kept secrets. Listen to Howard Iceberg and become absorbed in his fantastic universe today! Volume 1 is currently available on iTunes and Amazon, with the next volumes to be released in the next weeks. The physical box-set will also become available via other channels – feel free to contact me if you wish to learn more details as they become clear.

Howard Iceberg & The Titanics – This Lonesome Town
Howard Iceberg & The Titanics – The Wrestler
Howard Iceberg & The Titanics – Calling You Back

Howard Iceberg & The Titanics on Facebook, Buy Welcome Aboard: Volume 1

This post comes from 9B contributor pledge Charles Hale. Lemme know what you guys think.

Remember that one parade you saw that time. It was in the backyard a few yards down from yours, they were having a cookout, with beers and instruments and a couple of small kids, and you were wishing you had friends like that. You watched them having a good time and wondered what their jokes were about and then a parade broke out. Four or five guys began marching and their costumes were only the clothes they had on and the music they played was catchy and fun but you had to work a little bit to find the melody but once you found it you were humming along.

That was Centro-Matic who started the accidental parade and they were playing their new album Candidate Waltz. And the music was so good you were expecting them to march right out to the street and play their music for the people that surely must be waiting with flags waving and sunglasses on. But instead they stayed in the backyard and played with their eyes closed.

If you know anything about Centro-Matic it’s probably about how prolific their bandleader Will Johnson is. There are all the CM albums plus the South San Gabriel albums and the solo albums and with all these songs it’s unfair to expect all of them to be amazing. But Candidate Waltz is another very solid set from Centro-Matic. Is it better than my favorite Distance & Clime, or the popular Love You Just The Same, probably not, but Centro-Matic songs take a good while to set in. There are new pops and crackles on Candidate Waltz but what’s still there is carefully crafted and intelligently written songs. Very intelligent. Shit, their roadies are probably more intelligent than I am. Listen to “All The Talkers.” It’s about people in a bar checking out a band. The first half of the song is loud and cluttered then about halfway through the bar closes. People meander to the bar to close their tabs and try to figure out how to get home. The song slows, the melody wallows and wanders. Finally the door guy pushes the talkers to the sidewalk but they’re stoked. Just like you were when you watched the parade from two houses over.

Centro-Matic – All The Talkers
Centro-Matic – Iso Residue
Centro-Matic – Talk You Down

Centro-Matic’s Official Site, Centro-Matic on Facebook, Buy Candidate Waltz

This post comes from 9B contributor pledge Mike Ostrov. Lemme know what you guys think.

In her ten-plus years of making music, Athens-Georgia-based singer-songwriter Madeline Adams has never done the easy thing and settled into one sound. I try to tell people that Madeline songs sound like Neil Young and Flannery O’Connor getting drunk at sports bars, writing songs on cocktail napkins, and having Teenage Joni Mitchell sing them with Crazy Horse backing her. But with Black Velvet, her fourth studio full-length (and the inaugural release of Athens label This Will Be Our Summer Records), she’s even harder to pin down than that. Her 2003 debut offering Kissing and Dancing is a treasure chest of folk-punk strummers; she followed with the wintry, heartwrecking Slow Bang in 2007, and in 2009 she let loose her first album with a full backing band—the southern rocker White Flag. Black Velvet features the same band as White Flag (including one of the best drummers I’ve ever heard, Jim Wilson) and an expansion of her southern roots-bop sound.

Lyrically, the album is devoted to small-town lives or the lack thereof, wandering n’ wondering, with lots of animal imagery. But Madeline does it with better storytelling, especially in the song about Johnny Cash working a day job while he rots in heaven. Musically, there’s a dose of sugar in the rock, but the kind found in a sweeter bourbon, the electrifying kind, not the sorority house punch. If the radio still did its job, “Hurry Up Pronto” would be the song of the summer: rollicking, lyrical, with radioactive levels of catchiness. There’s also the trippy “Red Light Bulb,” the stripped-down “Night Owl,” and the devastating “Dollar Beer.” The Black Velvet Band can handle any of these paces, but perhaps they’re best on the shifty numbers “Dead Moon” and “Gather the Feathers” which both change tempo and really highlight the chemistry between Madeline, Jim Wilson, and the rest of the band.

Her voice is ethereal. Her writing substantial. Her band is tight with a capital “IGHT.” Black Velvet has the songs to cool off your summer, and it’ll stick around to thaw you from the chest-out in winter.

Madeline – Hurry Up Pronto
Madeline – Johnny Cash
Madeline – Gather The Feathers

Madeline’s Official Site, Madeline on Facebook, Buy Black Velvet

This post comes from 9B contributor pledge Mike Ostrov. Lemme know what you guys think.

Politicians didn’t read the Patriot Act and it seems they hardly read song lyrics either. Tom Petty has asked Minnesota Congressperson and (as of yesterday, official) Republican presidential candidate Michelle Bachmann to stop using “American Girl” as her campaign theme song (AIV Note: A request she seems to be ignoring). It’s easy to misunderstand “American Girl” because of it’s incredible guitars and catchy bass, and because it says the word “American” a whole lot, but it’s still a dark, ambiguous, song about a girl who contemplates jumping off her balcony into traffic. It’s a song about the debt of fulfillment and surplus regret that characterizes American youth. Living in Gainesville, I’ve seen herds of frat boys serenade their girlfriends with this song, but Bachmann’s usage is even more backward. However, it’s not as backwards as a scene in the movie Chasing Liberty where Mandy Moore, as the daughter of the President, gets dressed by way of dancing to this song. Or maybe that is how it should be used. I can’t tell anymore. At any rate, it’s an easy fix for Bachmann–just switch your song to Carrie Underwood’s “All-American Girl.” No potentially dangerous insight there.

But the moral is this: guitars, unlike politicians, are good at masking sinister creations. That’s why smart people become songwriters and not politicians. Hasn’t anybody learned from Ronald Reagan’s infamously thickheaded use of Springsteen’s “Born in the USA,” one of the most stark criticisms of American war mentality and cultural detachment ever committed to popular song?

Tom Petty rectified this situation in under a day, so he still rocks. Below is the demo of “Born in the USA” which takes a bit more of a straightforward angle.

Bruce Springsteen – Born In The U.S.A.
Tom Petty – American Girl

This post comes from 9B contributor pledge Old Sad Bastard. Lemme know what you guys think.

When I first saw Jessica Lea Mayfield play live, on tour with Lucero in 2008, she was supporting here first record, With Blasphemy So Heartfelt. I was won over by her live show, especially her brother’s upright bass antics, and picked up the album immediately. After listening to it I gained a healthy appreciation for Mayfield’s songwriting chops, memorable voice and biting lyrics. I also had her squarely pegged in my mind as “country”, whatever that means.

I was expecting more of the same when Tell Me was released this year, but was pleasantly surprised. As the album took over the college radio charts (at least here in California) I discovered a much more sophisticated album that is still catchy as hell. If you ask me, this is a country album that nods none too subtly to Mayfield’s rock influences, and to producer/co-conspirator Dan Auerbach’s time in The Black Keys. The twang is still there, but this time its is augmented with some dreamy pop and psych rock moments. The arrangements still feel spare and transparent, but go far beyond traditional Americana with added keys, synths, and even electronic beats. (Yes, a drum machine. Don’t knock it till you’ve heard it.) “Nervous Lonely Night” even has some ooo-oohs, but they seem totally natural.

The shift in sound hasn’t brightened Mayfield’s lyrics any, but when her dark musings on heartbreak, sex and love are combined with such catchy, engaging music the overall feel is almost hopeful. Its totally cliché to say that an artists has matured from one album to the next, but now that she is finally old enough to legally drink in the clubs she has been playing for years, Jessica Lea Mayfield’s sound is more developed, more mature and pretty damn good.

Jessica Lea Mayfield – I’ll Be The One You Want Someday
Jessica Lea Mayfield – Sleepless
Jessica Lea Mayfield – Our Hearts Are Wrong

Jessica Lea Mayfield’s Official Site, Jessica Lea Mayfield on Facebook, Buy Tell Me