Jessica Lea Mayfield

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The 21-year old from Kent, Ohio first performed with her family band One Way Rider at the age of 8. At age 15, she recorded her first album White Lies in her brother's bedroom, printing only 100 copies. One of those copies fell into the hands of Dan Auerbach (The Black Keys). After an introduction, Mayfield and Auerbach hit the studio, laying the foundation for her debut album With Blasphemy So Heartfelt. Says Auerbach of the recording experience, “I think she’s dark and moody in a mysterious way.” He adds, “I’m just always really excited to make music with her.”

Tell Me, Jessica's 2011 Nonesuch Records debut, is a stunningly forthright 11-song set that addresses late-night longing, serial heartbreak, and intoxicatingly dangerous liaisons conducted in dimly lit barrooms or roadside motels. By the end, the only heart intact is Mayfield's own. It's as if she'd stripped the sentimentality and ruefulness from a bunch of classic country songs, leaving only stark emotion. Auerbach also produced and engineered Tell Me at his Easy Eye Sound System studio in Akron, Ohio, matching Mayfield's candor with eerily minimal, brilliantly constructed tracks that keep her mesmerizing, unadorned voice front and center.

The New York Times hailed the album a Critics' Pick, while the Associated Press calls Tell Me "the portrait of a precocious girl growing into self-assured womanhood and a producer reaching the peak of his powers. It is a dark and moody album, full of delights throughout, and if it doesn't make Mayfield a star, that too will be heartbreaking."