Jade Bird

Singer-songwriter on the rise making the ‘BBC’s 2018 Sound Of’ poll and recently touted everywhere from Vogue to Rolling Stone. Jade Bird is part of a tight-knit Nashville songwriters community including Jason Isbell, Sheryl Crow and Brandi Carlile.

This show is for you if you also like: Brandi Carlile, Phoebe Bridgers, Jason Isbell, First Aid Kit, Sheryl Crow, The Highwomen, I’m With Her

ABOUT JADE BIRD:  For Jade Bird, the second that lockdown lifted, there were no aimless summer days spent meeting friends in parks; no languorous evenings in pub gardens. She was headed straight back to Nashville to complete her second album — albeit via a strict two-week quarantine in Mexico City. She allowed herself to see no more of the Mexican capital than the local store and a leg-stretching walk around the block, not wanting to jeopardize any chance of being allowed into the States to finish what she had started with Grammy-winning producer Dave Cobb (Brandi Carlile, John Prine, Lady Gaga). The highlight of her stay in Mexico was literally her boyfriend pointing out a particularly gnarly spider he spotted as he had a cigarette on the balcony. “I move on really quick,” Jade explains of the urgency she felt. “My partner always says there’s no in-between with me whatsoever, it’s on or it’s off. My feeling was: I’m in it, I love these songs, I want to sing. That’s why we made heaven and earth move so I could do that in that moment.”

For Jade, moving fast was about staying connected to the music that she had written (as always), not capitalizing on momentum or anyone else’s idea of a career plan. She had a taste of the UK hype cycle, making the BBC’s 2018 Sound Of… poll and being tipped everywhere from Vogue to Rolling Stone. Her self-titled debut album arrived a year later. Despite those early garlands, she didn’t become an overnight success. “I was really glad,” she says. “Musically I was not ready. Lyrically I was not ready. And mentally I was not ready.” Nevertheless, Jade Bird — as barnstorming an album as came out in 2019 — received plaudits from the likes of Pitchfork and NPR. And it showed Jade, an obsessive at bettering her craft, how she wanted to build on the foundations she had laid. She was grateful that her label, Glassnote, was invested in letting her develop album by album. “If you lose a sense of who you are, to re-establish that is really difficult,” she says of the pressures hype puts on developing artists. “And the time that it takes for you to re-evaluate your life, your sound, who you are, the UK doesn’t have time for that either.”

In the US, Jade became part of a community of songwriters and career artists who showed her that a happier, more holistic and sustainable way of working was possible. The likes of Isbell, Sheryl Crow and Jade’s friend and champion, Brandi Carlile, promote a nurturing environment, she says, and often tour with their families in tow. Jade resents the modern idea that musicians are also expected to be marketers and businesspeople; for her, musicians are meant to be artists. Learn more about this artist at: www.jade-bird.com

ABOUT DIANA DEMUTH: Demuth has one of those full-bodied voices like the great songwriter Adele. Her debut album Misadventure is due out via Thirty Tigers on September 25, and this new single follows DeMuth’s previously shared singles, “Hotel Song,” “Rose of Nantucket,” “Steady Rolling” — a cover of Two Gallants’ hit, and “Into My Arms,” which came with a video featuring Wesley Schultz from The Lumineers. Rolling Stone calls DeMuth’s music “a euphoric must-listen.”

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Underground Sound is supported in part by a grant from El Pomar Foundation.