{"id":7048,"date":"2011-10-06T16:40:44","date_gmt":"2011-10-06T16:40:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/?p=7048"},"modified":"2011-10-06T20:18:33","modified_gmt":"2011-10-06T20:18:33","slug":"jessica-lea-mayfield-at-hardly-strictly-bluegrass-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/2011-10\/jessica-lea-mayfield-at-hardly-strictly-bluegrass-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"Jessica Lea Mayfield (at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Prior to last Tuesday, when it came to Jessica Lea Mayfield<\/a>, <\/strong>we had only heard one or two songs off of\u00a0 her twangier first album, “With Blasphemy So Heartfelt<\/strong>.”\u00a0 And then we stumbled upon her pop-perfect 2011 album, “Tell Me<\/strong>,“<\/strong> with its more varied sounds.\u00a0 And since last week it’s been hard to listen to anything else.\u00a0 Produced by Dan Auerbach<\/strong> (of The Black Keys<\/strong>), “Tell Me” has vaulted into our Best of 2011 list and shows no signs of being removed.\u00a0 It’s a stunner from stem to stern.\u00a0 Mayfield molds great melodies and pens penetrating lyrics, and then delivers them with laconic vocals that remind us of Lucinda Williams coupled with Neko Case.\u00a0 The 22-year old Mayfield has been performing live since she was eight years old, and you gather that when you catch her slight swagger live.\u00a0 She’s earned it.<\/p>\n

Speaking of her performing live, we had the good fortune to catch her simmering set at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass<\/strong> this past Sunday.\u00a0 Mayfield’s languorous vocals played perfectly against her tasteful backing band, which included kinetic referee-guitarist Richie Kirkpatrick<\/strong>, drummer Scott Hartlaub<\/strong> and brother David Mayfield<\/strong> on bass.<\/p>\n

For a good flavor for Jessica check her out below at Hardly Strictly performing two songs off the new album, and then “For Today” off of her first album.\u00a0 Our apologies for the sound on Blue Skies Again<\/em><\/strong>–we’ll get that figured out one of these years.\u00a0 And after, check out some other great videos of Mayfield in action.<\/p>\n

First up is her moving new song, Sometimes at Night, <\/strong><\/em>with its rock-bottom tones and tales.\u00a0 Unfortunately, we missed capturing the opening stanza, which includes one of our favorite sordid lines: “I broke the little cabana boy’s heart, to let you fondle me in the dark; one of those city outdoor motels, in your bed swore I never would tell.”\u00a0 You can catch the entire song in the penultimate video way below.<\/p>\n