JayMay

Emerging from the anti-folk movement that took shape across New York in the opening years of the 2000s, singer and songwriter Jaymay—born Jamie Kristine Seerman—has earned parallels to Feist and Laura Veirs through her melancholic delivery and her bookish, folk-rooted storytelling. Raised on Long Island with five brothers and sisters, she cultivated an early passion for literature, violin, piano, and the catalog of Bob Dylan during those formative years. After finishing her studies, she moved to Manhattan hoping to build a career in publishing, yet a strong showing at a neighborhood open-mic event shifted her focus entirely toward writing songs. Additional stage appearances soon followed, leading to the 2006 release of Jaymay & Kayoko and the Sea Green, See Blue EP. Those recordings attracted enough attention to secure a deal with London-based Heavenly Records, which put out her first proper album, Autumn Fallin', in November 2007; a U.S. edition appeared in the first months of 2008.