Biography
Born on September 29, 1985, Jaime Wyatt grew up in Tacoma, Washington, where musician parents exposed her to Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, Hank Williams, the Pretenders, and mainstream country radio of the nineties. She began performing at local coffee houses at age twelve and encountered her initial wave of industry attention at seventeen. After relocating from rural Washington State to California, she obtained her first recording contract, though the label aimed to present her as a Sheryl Crow-style singer-songwriter with pop appeal while softening her country leanings. Despite her reservations, several of her compositions appeared in films and soundtracks, among them 2004’s Wicker Park alongside the White Stripes, the Shins, and Snow Patrol, and 2007’s The Feast of Love, which also featured the Frames, M. Ward, and Jeff Buckley.
Following the collapse of a second deal, Wyatt kept performing yet struggled with substance issues that derailed her progress. The situation worsened after her arrest for robbing a drug dealer; she served eight months before a plea arrangement granted her time served. Those events supplied material for a fresh batch of songs that, once she secured a deal with independent Forty Below Records, became her debut album, 2017’s Felony Blues—a title nodding to David Allan Coe’s Penitentiary Blues. The set included a duet with label mate Sam Outlaw on “Your Loving Saves Me,” drew favorable notices, and, after Wyatt achieved sobriety, led to a contract with New West Records. Her first release for the label, Neon Cross, arrived in May 2020 under Shooter Jennings’s production and retained an unflinching personal focus while incorporating stronger country textures.
In 2021 she contributed a rendition of Neal Casal’s “Need Shelter” to the benefit compilation Highway Butterfly: The Songs of Neal Casal, which also featured Steve Earle, J Mascis, Billy Strings, and Phil Lesh. For her third album, Wyatt enlisted Adrian Quesada of Black Pumas as producer. At his Electric Deluxe Recorders studio in Austin, Texas, she drew on vintage R&B influences, adopted a more spontaneous writing process, and cultivated an outlook of greater optimism. New West issued Feel Good in November 2023.
Following the collapse of a second deal, Wyatt kept performing yet struggled with substance issues that derailed her progress. The situation worsened after her arrest for robbing a drug dealer; she served eight months before a plea arrangement granted her time served. Those events supplied material for a fresh batch of songs that, once she secured a deal with independent Forty Below Records, became her debut album, 2017’s Felony Blues—a title nodding to David Allan Coe’s Penitentiary Blues. The set included a duet with label mate Sam Outlaw on “Your Loving Saves Me,” drew favorable notices, and, after Wyatt achieved sobriety, led to a contract with New West Records. Her first release for the label, Neon Cross, arrived in May 2020 under Shooter Jennings’s production and retained an unflinching personal focus while incorporating stronger country textures.
In 2021 she contributed a rendition of Neal Casal’s “Need Shelter” to the benefit compilation Highway Butterfly: The Songs of Neal Casal, which also featured Steve Earle, J Mascis, Billy Strings, and Phil Lesh. For her third album, Wyatt enlisted Adrian Quesada of Black Pumas as producer. At his Electric Deluxe Recorders studio in Austin, Texas, she drew on vintage R&B influences, adopted a more spontaneous writing process, and cultivated an outlook of greater optimism. New West issued Feel Good in November 2023.
Albums
Singles
