Please join us on Friday, September 23rd at 5:00 PM as we celebrate the release of Jessie Baylin’s Jersey Girl with a special in-store performance from Baylin!
Jersey Girl is more than just another record for Baylin—a longtime friend of the record store; it’s a radical act of self-actualization, a moving work of reflection and rebirth from an artist who’s spent the better part of her adult life running from her roots. Written and recorded with GRAMMY-winning producers Daniel Tashian and Ian Fitchuk (Kacey Musgraves, Birdy), the collection marks Baylin’s first release since the passing of her longtime collaborator Richard Swift (RIP), whose influence looms large here even in his absence, and it signals the start of a profound new chapter, one marked by love and empathy for the face staring back in the mirror. The songs are lush and dreamy here, drawing on a hazy palette of warm guitars and vintage keyboard tones, and Baylin’s performances are nothing short of mesmerizing, her tender voice front-and-center in the mix as she grapples with guilt and shame, pain and healing, purpose and identity. Baylin’s the first to tell you this wasn’t an easy record to make—in fact, it wasn’t a record she intended to make at all—but sometimes the biggest breakthroughs come from the most unexpected places.
“I had to be tricked into writing these songs,” Baylin confesses, “but it was a good kind of trick. I didn’t realize what was happening until I was already in the midst of it, and that turned out to be exactly what I needed.”
Born and raised in small-town New Jersey, Baylin left the Garden State as soon as she could, attending art school in Manhattan and then moving to LA for a stint before ultimately settling in Nashville, where she solidified her a reputation as a supremely gifted writer and performer with a knack for finding the beauty in moments of darkness and doubt. NPR hailed her “stunningly thoughtful tenderness” and “magnetically elusive” sound, while Rolling Stone praised her “spacey kind of Dixie soul,” and the New York Times T Magazine declared that her “lush, slightly nostalgic” delivery “recalls big, warm AM radio singles, as well as soulful female vocalists like Dusty Springfield and Nancy Sinatra.” Through the years, Baylin recorded nearly all of her catalog with Swift at the helm—including her most recent release, Strawberry Wind, which saw her drawing on her experiences with pregnancy and motherhood to craft a collection for children and parents alike—and the celebrated producer’s tragic death in 2018 simply shattered her.
Tashian started planting seeds subtly at first, dropping hints here and there and inviting Baylin over for tea and coffee in the early mornings after they’d both dropped their kids off at school. These were purely social calls at first, with no pressure to write or record, but as is often the case when two wildly creative people get together, ideas began to percolate. The songs Baylin found herself writing with Tashian were even more vulnerable than she was used to, bubbling up from somewhere deep within her subconscious as she reached out to reconnect with the inner child she’d left behind all those years ago.
Help us welcome Jersey Girl into the world with this special performance in the record store! Baylin perform a short set with a signing to follow. You can preorder signed copies of Jersey Girl on limited edition colored vinyl and CD from our webstore here or the next time you’re in the record shop. This is a free & all ages event, so come one, come all. Can’t wait to see y’all here!
IMPORTANT PARKING INFORMATION! Our parking lot is shared with other rad businesses and it is a finite space, so parking is limited. In addition to our lot, there is an inexpensive paid parking lot behind Elegy Coffee and Mickey's on Gallatin Road that is a short walk from the shop. Please use EXTREME CAUTION if parking on the nearby, narrow neighborhood streets. Too many cars make these roads impassable and result in angry neighbors, the police being called, and cars being towed. (This is no fun at all.) If possible, please consider carpooling, ride-sharing, walking, biking, scooting, roller skating, or taking the bus to attend Jessie Baylin’s instore performance.
