Hello from a plane in the sky

Hello! I write to you from a plane in the sky. This is fun for me. Welcome to my first ever substack written in the air.

A few show announcements came through this week!

I am doing my album release party in Austin Texas on album release eve at The Continental Club, that’s October 8th. I’m on at 10pm and the record hits streaming at midnight, so we’ll be playing the record in the final hours before it’s out in the world. I’ll have copies of the new album to sell, and I’ll be signing them.

Get your tickets here!

It’s becoming a little bit of a tradition around here now to play at the Continental Club on release eve. For Time Aint Accidental, I did two shows there, on release eve and release day, and if you were there you know… it was kind of crazy haha. So we are doing it again! Gonna be fun.

I’m also playing ACL for the first time (!!) and doing a solo show opening up for Brandon Flowers at Stubbs on Oct 1. So stoked for these. So that’s three shows in Austin leading up to the album release!!

If you can only make it to one, come to the Continental Club.

Okay, now on to the trip this week.

All musicians know this dreaded moment. Every now and then on a flight, it happens.

I was told by the gate agent in Pittsburgh there was “no way” the plane could accomodate my acoustic guitar as a carry on (and she’s “been doing this for twenty years”).

Nevertheless, I persisted. I did, after all, get the guitar to Pittsburgh somehow (in an overhead bin, naturally) and I am a professional musician who has flown countless times with a guitar as a carry on. I also have my guitar in a soft case. I can’t check it and gate check is risky. The overhead bin is the way. She said “good luck”.

So there I was, boarding my flight anxiously with my guitar, working diligently to be in line right when my group was called to board, only to find a gloriously empty overhead bin above my seat and plenty of room for my guitar, as usual. Why do they do this to us? But, I digress…

I am heading back to LA after a week long radio promo tour around the midwest and in Pittsburgh. On Monday, I woke up at 3:45am PST for my 6am flight and headed to Minneapolis, where we went straight from the airport to a place where I signed 1600 CDs. Side note, I finally watched the Jeff Buckley documentary on the flight and wow… highly recommend.

Someone will get a special note:

The next day, I signed 2100 records, and then went straight to The Current, the radio station in the Twin Cities, to play a few songs and do an interview. I have to say that these two days felt a little bit like an Olympic feat once it was all said and done.

And someone will get a special note in one of these too:

From there, we headed to Ann Arbor, Michigan where I recorded an Acoustic Cafe session, which I loved. I have this thing where certain situations and also certain places remind me of being back in the 90s. I have spoken about this before a little bit on the substack, Pascuals in Santa Fe feels like being in the 90s, for example. I hope that doesn’t come across as an insult, its actually for me one of the highest compliments I can give.

Doing the Acoustic Cafe session felt like being in the 90s. I love radio for this reason. It’s old school. And the host, Rob Reinhart, told me stories of interviewing some of my heroes back in the actual 90’s, like Townes Van Zandt. We did a long interview, and I played four songs. It was just me and him in the recording studio, and the session will air on a bunch of different affiliate stations.

Here’s a snippet of the title track off the new album from my Acoustic Cafe session:

Next was Akron, Ohio. I played four songs and did an interview at WAPS and then we headed to Pittsburgh. This one was pre-recorded for their station. Some of my new songs have cuss words (sorry), so this was my first time censoring my own lyrics. “A little too old not to give a fuck” became “not to give it up” and “talk shit with the band” became “talk sh— with the band”. Exciting stuff!

What happened next may surprise you: I had an entire weekend off in Pittsburgh. My session at WYEP wasn’t until Monday (today), and we got there Friday. At first, I thought this would feel like a long time to wait around and be away from home. It was a little daunting. But the reality was I had an absolute blast chilling by myself in the hotel, going to the gym, walking around Pittsburgh, checking out the Andy Warhol museum, wandering about the Lawrenceville neighborhood checking out vintage stores and eating good food, reading my book. It was like a forced vacation with my laptop and my guitar in a comfortable hotel with no big plans and it was amazing. I got a lot done, I loved it. Truly a perfect weekend???

So then today, we did the session at WYEP in Pittsburgh and it was live on the radio with an in studio audience, and my parents tuned in online from Texas. I played four songs there and we did an interview. I really liked this convo with the host, Kyle, and everyone there was super nice. This was the only session that was live on the air.

Here’s a snippet:

I went straight from the station the the airport, and now I’m on a flight home to LA. What a week!

Last weekend, we made the music video for Hum of the City, which will be the very last song we put out before the album comes out. It’s hard for me to pick favorites, but this song is up there for me. And it’s easily becoming my favorite one to play live, I played it at all the sessions this week. Rocco and Gilles and I shot this video all around LA, and you’ll see it soon. We are releasing it a couple days before the album is out.

And that was my whirlwind week!

Below, I’m including two special things behind the paywall.

I made a video of me singing Tracking the Tropics last weekend at home when we were in between takes for the music video, so that’s below.

AND I have a special playlist for you all for as we reach the end of summer. It’s a collection of songs I’ve been listening to lately, songs people have sent me or showed me, and I think a good vibe as summer winds down.

How are we feeling about that by the way? LA has this thing where it likes to be like, 100 degrees at the end of August, so summer is going pretty strong where I’ll be. I’m not the biggest fan. I love Fall. I’m glad A Mile South of Heaven is a fall record, it feels spiritually correct. Okay that’s it for today!

Until next week,

Jess