Jaye Bartell

Jaye Bartell grew up in Massachusetts and developed a style as an indie singer/songwriter that mixes nostalgic leanings with experimental tendencies. He moved to Asheville, North Carolina, in the early 2000s to participate in the area’s active music community while also following literary interests. After some time spent moving about, he settled in Buffalo, New York, in 2006 and issued his debut album, 2008’s Feeling Better, Pilgrim, an indie-folk recording that integrated field recordings with looping effects. His next project, The Dog’s Dinner, came after he returned to Asheville in 2009 and included contributions from guitarist Shane Parish of Ahleuchatistas. Working with musician J Seger, he released the EP Elation in 2012, then brought Parish, Seger, and Emily Easterly into the sessions for 2013’s Loyalty, an album issued by Headway Recordings that echoed the work of Nick Cave and Patti Smith. Later that year he relocated to the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn and began composing material for a new album shaped by his changed environment, the idea of resettlement, and texts by Spalding Gray along with other literary sources. He signed with the Sinderlyn label, which reissued Loyalty in 2015 ahead of the acoustic-guitar-focused full-length Light Enough, released in spring 2016. The more wide-ranging follow-up In a Time of Trouble a Wild Exultation appeared in October 2017.