Jessica Lea Mayfield joined her parents’ bluegrass band when she was eight. In her teens, she did some recording with her brother, privately releasing an album under the alias Chittlin’ in 2007. That led to recording with Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys and her official debut, With Blasphemy So Heartfelt, which came out in 2008, when she was 19. That well-received album presented Mayfield as a moody, rootsy singer/songwriter of precocious talent, confirmed by its follow-up, 2010’s Tell Me, also produced by Auerbach. The new Make My Head Sing…(ATO) will surprise listeners who expect a third set of Americana-style folk rock. It’s a grungy power-trio album that places Mayfield’s calm voice in a squall of her electric guitar. Mayfield will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new feature on her.
Mayfield: Bang, bang, bang! It’s been awhile since I’ve gotten to shoot. We had a long brutal winter. It’s starting to warm up, and pretty soon I’ll be shooting at clay disks, and a target that looks like a dude, and paper plates … or whatever else my daddy sets out to shoot. I’ll like handguns, the 9mm and the 40. It’s also fun to shoot targets from a distance with a rifle. I love my shotgun, but I don’t like skeet shooting, though. I’m not very good at it, and my idea of fun with guns it’s pointing it towards the sun. I’ll state my quick opinion on how I wish gun laws could be: it should be similar to obtaining a driver’s license. You should get points if you are caught drunk while carrying or carrying where it’s not allowed, until like a drivers license, that right is taken away. It should be reciprocal state to state so people like touring musicians can carry them as well. Just my opinion.
