Sat 5/10 @ 9PM
Kent’s Jessica Lea Mayfield has become something of a sweetheart to the alt-country community. Wedding her timeless heartbreak voice to edgy, rocker-girl style, she’s captivated audiences at all points on the traditional country/bluegrass/rock divide.
Mayfield started her music career with her family bluegrass band, One Way Out, when she was barely in grade school and self-recorded her first album when she was just 15. And she was barely 19 when her first “real” album, With Blasphemy So Heartfelt, produced by Black Keys guitarist Dan Auerbach, was released in 2008 to ecstatic praise. Perhaps that’s why she combines an insistent girliness — playing a pink glitter guitar and dotting her I’s with hearts — with an aching world-weariness.
She released her second album, Tell Me, in 2011, scarfing up even more rave reviews. She’s just released her much rockier third album Make My Head Sing … The stylistic shift doesn’t feel surprising; her evolving musical emphasis and constantly changing image have always made her seem like a performer in search of herself, perhaps a natural journey of youth.
She’s touring in support of Make My Head Sing … with her efficient little trio, which includes (besides herself on guitar and vocals) her husband Jesse Newport on bass and Matt Martin on drums. She’ll be at the Beachland Ballroom with south-of-the-Mason/Dixon-line singer/songwriter Dylan LeBlanc and Akron’s dynamic alt country/folk/jazz/rockabilly trio Shivering Timbers.
Tickets are $13 in advance, $15 day of show.