Nashville singer-songwriter Jess Jocoy salutes the full spread of her abilities with her second full-length effort, Let There Be No Despair. Laced with violin, acoustic guitar, bowed bass, and light touches of amplification, Let There Be No Despair mixes autobiography with imaginative character portraits. The album is out May 20th and today we have the premiere of the latest single Living in a Dying Town.
I had the honor of attending a songwriting camp up in the Catskills a few years ago, put on by The Milk Carton Kids (the “Sad Songs Summer Camp”). We were a couple days in and up til then I hadn’t really written anything I was proud of, but I was sitting in a workshop with another camper and he was sharing and asking for input on a song he’d written about change – a somewhat satirical piece if I remember correctly. This song didn’t have a title so I suggested “Living in a Dying Town”. Much to my blessing, that title didn’t really fit his song, but it encouraged me to sit outside in a lawn chair after the workshop and write the initial version of “Living in a Dying Town” in about 20 minutes or so. I labored over it for a few more hours, really digesting what I’d written and realized it was a song about my mom’s hometown; a small little copper mining town turned ghost town on the Arizona/Mexico border called Ajo. I grew up hearing stories of Ajo but have only traveled there a couple of times. Still, it’s one of those places that feels a part of you, if only through ancestry. It’s about the resilience of the ones who stay behind; the ones whose roots are planted too deep to dig up.
Produced by Jess Jocoy and Brandon Bell
Recorded and mixed by Brandon Bell at The Cabin Studio, Nashville, TN
Mastered by Alex McCollough at True East Mastering, Nashville, TN
Jess Jocoy – vocals, acoustic guitar, backing vocals
Ethan Ballinger – acoustic guitar, electric guitar, mandolin, banjo
Brian Allen – electric bass, bowed bass, cello
Lydia Luce – violin, viola
Matty Alger – drums, percussion
