As Jessica Lea Mayfield's tour with Justin Townes Earle continues through Valentine's Day, Pitchfork says her work has "the emotional force of the best country music and distinguishes her from other songwriters." On her new album, Tell Me, "Mayfield works to break free of her country confines and showcase her vocals in new, unexpected settings," says Pitchfork. Across the album's 11 tracks, Mayfield's songs prove "positively kaleidoscopic, both musically and emotionally." Scripps Howard gives the album four stars and calls Mayfield a "singularly talented singer."
Jessica Lea Mayfield is out on the road, touring with Justin Townes Earle, performing songs from her Nonesuch debut album, Tell Me, produced by The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach. Mayfield's tour with Earle makes three more stops including a final, Valentine's Day set at First Avenue in Minneapolis. Mayfield joins the Avett Brothers for three shows the following weekend before launching her own headlining tour in March. In a new review of Tell Me, Pitchfork says Mayfield's music has "the emotional force of the best country music and distinguishes her from other songwriters."
Pitchfork's Stephen M. Deusner, in his 2008 review of Mayfield's first album, With Blasphemy So Heartfelt, found her sound to be "fascinating and endlessly listenable." Her new album, he writes now, "matches and at times even surpasses her debut in terms of rueful atmosphere and unflinching songwriting, and Mayfield works to break free of her country confines and showcase her vocals in new, unexpected settings." Across the album's 11 tracks, Mayfield's songs prove "positively kaleidoscopic, both musically and emotionally."
Throughout that eclectic collection of sounds and sentiments, "There's a lot going on in these tough-minded tracks, and the music is calibrated to reinforce her heady sentiments," says Deusner. He praises producer Dan Auerbach for giving the album "a snappy immediacy that unites these disparate styles and musical experiments into a cohesive whole."
Read the complete review at pitchfork.com.
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The Scripps Howard News Service gives the album four stars. Reviewer Chuck Campbell insists that, while Auerbach's "touch is all over" the album, it's "the singularly talented singer" Mayfield who "holds sway in his arrangements, sleepwalking through his electric debris with an offbeat combination of bliss, sass, soul and melancholy." Read the review at scrippsnews.com.
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To pick up a copy of Tell Me on CD and pre-order the vinyl (due out February 22), head to the Nonesuch Store, where all orders include high-quality, 320 kbps MP3s of the complete album at checkout. Nonesuch Store downloads also include the exclusive bonus download "I'll Be the One You Want Someday (Live)."
For more on Mayfield's upcoming performances, visit nonesuch.com/on-tour.
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