At Work: Jaime Wyatt

 “This album is a period piece,” Jaime Wyatt says, outlining her new, eclectic, 11-song release, Feel Good. “In the ‘60s and ‘70s, people like Loretta Lynn made country songs that had both soul and rhythm and blues on them. It’s an open sound. It can be country or soul.”

Boldly rejecting what many would call the defining stylistic feature of the new set, Wyatt says, “I don’t believe in genres so much. I feel like it’s more about what you write. Otis (Redding) and all the soul singers like Al Green could sing about pain just as well as they could sing about love and relish in the euphoria of that feeling.”

Wyatt didn’t shift from her country roots to a more R&B-centric approach all by herself. The musician, who turned heads with her 2017 debut EP, Felony Blues, and 2020 follow-up, Neon Cross, enlisted Adrian Quesada to produce the album and develop the desired carry. “He’s in Black Pumas, so he understands R&B,” she says. “Also, he has a very modern touch. It’s not just recycled. It’s his own. It’s melded. There are psychedelic elements that I always saw as a common ground for us. His interpretation of psych is really beautiful—the way he uses the studio as a canvas. And his tools—the racks that they use and the compressors and the different outboard gear—are his paintbrushes.”

In addition to 10 pieces of new music, Wyatt peppered her latest work with a choice cover, her adaptation of the Grateful Dead’s Go to Heaven classic, “Althea.” “Bob [Weir] and my dad hung out for 20 years off and on,” she recalls. “So my parents took me to shows when I was little, and I remember that being very joyful.” 

Wyatt, who also occasionally plays in a Dead cover project featuring members of Old Crow Medicine Show, says she picked the number simply “because the melody fit my singing style.”

She adds, “And then I was listening, like, ‘How am I going to exist in the beat? How am I going to bop around on this?’ I’m always thinking of music, and I was like, ‘What if it sounded like Al Green?’ It’s probably because I listen to that music almost as much as I do the Grateful Dead.”

The Pacific Northwest-bred, Nashville-based musician believes her latest release is her strongest yet. “I think this is a really special album. It is an experience,” she says. “The music is supposed to serve people. I just hope people connect with the songs and are able to get through life on earth.”