Megan Mayfield WMF

Name: Megan Mayfield

Age: 17

Location: Tucson, AZ

Occupation: Student/Hostess

1. At this second, favourite artist/band in the world?

BØRNS, BØRNS, BØRNS!

2. What song is guaranteed to get you in a good mood?

We Are the World by USA for Africa or What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong.

3. Which artist/band that no longer makes music would you want to hear new stuff from (dead/alive)?

The Immediate. One of the members was Conor O'Brien, who went on to create the masterpiece that is Villagers. They had a really cool sound, sadly they only made one full album in the span of their bandship.

4. Which festival anywhere in the world would you go to (money is no object)?

Glastonbury seems like loads of fun.

5. Dream festival head-liners, Fri, Sat & Sun?

CCR, Queen, Phoenix

6. If you could master any instrument which would you choose?

I feel like mastering the harmonica would be awesome. You could pull it out and just go full Dylan on everyone.

7. What artist/band wouldn't you miss if they stopped making music?

Halsey

8. Favourite decade for music?

All of them. That's literally the hardest question, I've been stumped on this for way too long. It's so hard! Every decade has so many artists that I love dearly. But if I get down to it, I really love the 70s-80s.

9. And favourite artist from that decade?

David Bowie or Billy Joel

10. What artist/band would your friends be surprised to know you liked?

I don't talk about it much, so it may be surprising...but jazz just really gets me goin'. Anyone from Sinatra and Louis Armstrong to Nat King Cole and Ella Fitzgerald. All of the classics.

11. Ideal musical dinner guest/guests and what would you eat?

Bo Burnham, he's absolutely hysterical and so clever. He seems like a great person to hang around. We'd probably eat tacos, just because who doesn't like tacos?



12. Artist/band that you are a fan of that more people should be listening to?

Jacko Hooper, he's a cool guy.

13. Last album you listened to in its entirety?

Hunky Dory by David Bowie

14. Last concert you went to as a fan?

It was really George Ezra...but I'm going to say Billy Joel, because I will be seeing him in nearly a week. (May 14th)

Any links to social media:

Thank You

Jessica Lea Mayfield AS

As I hope you can tell, I have had a bit of a re-brand of this blog. Musicopedia no longer....now The Beacon, I think it looks and sounds nicer, more professional and all that good stuff. I hope you like it too. Anyway, on with the feature:

This month I want the whole world to know about Jessica Lea Mayfield and fall for her music as hard as I have. She is a 26 year old singer songwriter from Kent, Ohio and has released 4 solo and one joint album to date. Yes she is incredibly prolific.

Her first released material back in 2005 was called White Lies and she released it under the name of Chittlin'. The album is very much rooted in folk/roots sounds with a splash of Country here and there. Finding out she made this when she was a teenager shows how talented she was from such a young age.

Following that came her first release under her birth name called With Blasphemy So Heartfelt. The difference between her first and second album (and so far all following releases to date) is the progression and experimentation that is added and grown with each piece of music she releases. WBSH shows JLM keeping the great guitar techniques from the previous but mixing and messing with vocal effects and adding other more electronical sounds and techniques to the music. One of many of my favourite tracks off of the album is Bible Days which has haunting yet melodic vocals that I find oddly hypnotic.

Her next release was Tell Me which was released in early 2011 and is her most commercially popular LP to date. On first listen I noticed a clear difference with the vocals (than from the previous work), possibly how they were recorded, they sounded slightly brighter, definitely clearer, the instrumentation sounds more refined and you can tell she is getting even closer to truly becoming a  master of her instruments.

The latest solo release 'Make My Head Sing...' is a turn down a different alley in terms of sound. If the previous LP was JLM sounding slightly 'pop' this has dirty grunge written (or wiped) all over it. Straight off from the first track 'Oblivious' you can tell, everything has a darker, more dulled down sound with catchy chugging guitars and more down heartened vocals. This album has to be my favourite from JLM, I think it includes the bits and pieces that I loved from each of her previous albums and combines them to create this epic piece of music.

JLMs latest musical venture is with Seth Avett (from The Avett Brothers fame) They have released a 12 track album of Elliot Smith covers. Prior to this LP I hadn't really heard much music from Elliot Smith, only references made of him from people in movies and TV trying to sound cool. But these two singers make the songs feel so heartfelt and full of emotion I can imagine that they are in a relationship singing the songs into each others eyes. Beautiful performances all round.

Wherever she goes next, I know it is going to be magical and truly exciting. Check out the video below for some live tunes. She is a talent and hopefully keeps making stuff for years to come. Enjoy!