Jessica Lea Mayfield’s new record is the latest from the Akron Music Wave
The Akron Sound is getting some love with The Black Keys winning Grammy Awards, Chrissie Hynde performing with Faith Hill for a Super Bowl Crossroads telecast, and Joseph Arthur teaming with Dhani Harrison (George’s son) and Ben Harper in the band Fistful of Mercy which performed on NPR’s World Café. But those Firestone High School graduates will need to make room for Kent’s own Jessica Lea Mayfield, who recently showcased her talent on the Late Show with David Letterman promoting her newly released record Tell Me.
The 21-year old singer/songwriter first performed with her family band One Way Rider at the age of eight and made her first EP by the age of 15. Produced by Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys, the 11 track recording is Jessica Lea’s follow-up to her beautiful With Blasphemy So Heartfelt which was released in 2008. “I write exactly what I feel and exactly what I say,” Jessica explains. “I can’t write a song about something I didn’t go through or know anything about; they all have my outlook on things. It used to be me getting my heart broken; now it’s about me breaking other people’s hearts. It’s not something I sat down and intended to do—to write an album of songs about being mean to boys. But it’s kind of what was going on.” Dark, moody and mysterious, the first song, “I’ll Be The One That You Want Someday” opens with some crazy lead guitar playing by Nashville’s Richie Kirpatrick. Some favorites include “Grown Man”, “Tell Me”, “Run Myself Into the Ground”, and the first radio single “Our Hearts Are Wrong” which was performed on the Letterman show. Big brother and outstanding musician in his own right David Mayfield plays on all tracks and co-wrote three of the songs.
Jessica Lea Mayfield and her band will play locally at The Beachland Ballroom on April 6th and at The University of Akron Wayne College in Orrville on April 15th. Not sure when she will be back this way, so you may want to make plans to catch one of her performances.