JESSICA MITCHELL at the Great Hall (1087 Queen West), Thursday (November 22), doors 7 pm, all ages. $20. ticketmaster.ca.
Jessica Mitchell greets me with a hug. It’s the first time we’ve met, but you wouldn’t know it from her warm and embracing nature and the ease with which she shares her journey to country music.
Two weeks prior, I had watched backstage as Mitchell performed live at the Canadian Country Music Association Awards in Hamilton. Dressed elegantly in black, she played the title track from her debut album, Heart Of Glass (which came out this May on RGK), solo on piano. It was a daring move for a country star on the rise, stripping her performance of guitars and twang – often country music essentials. But for Mitchell, country music is about storytelling, and her story is an unusual one.
Born in Toronto and raised in London, Ontario, Mitchell grew up listening to Tori Amos, Jewel, Chantal Kreviazuk and Jann Arden. Radiohead is her favourite band. She only turned toward country five years ago after she entered Slaight Music’s It’s Your Shot competition to discover new artists. She didn’t win, but she signed with Slaight Music Publishing. It was Jim Campbell at Slaight who suggested her songwriting strengths would suit country music. She had already been writing alternative adult-contemporary music for five years by then.
Finding the genre was like unlocking a part of herself.
“That’s what I am, and there’s something comforting about knowing who I am,” says Mitchell in a loud and busy corner of Soho House.
Her power resides in her voice and lyrics. Like many artists, she draws on personal losses and loves. Citing Loretta Lynn and Johnny Cash, Mitchell describes old country music as “very simple.”
“It was all about the story,” she says. “It’s so well constructed that you have to listen to it, you want to listen to it.”
Mitchell delivers a boatload of vulnerability. Fans who have been paying attention since she released her breakout song Workin’ On Whiskey can hear and feel her personal and sonic growth. That song uses the country trope of drinking whiskey to drown sorrows, while Maybe It’s Me, a standout from her new album, is a more honest and reflective take on the ending of a romantic relationship.
We discuss how eclectic country music has become, and its growing global appeal. Increased access to music means that younger musicians grow up listening to a wide range of music rather than one specific genre. “In the modern era of country, you can do whatever you want as long as the root of music is storytelling, because that’s what the genre is,” she says. “You can carve your own sound.”
Having grown up listening to Neil Young, the opportunity to sing “a Neil Young song with Neil Young in the fourth row staring at me” was unimaginable. But she did, at a tribute at the Songwriters Hall of Fame gala at Massey Hall in 2017.
“I feel very lucky that I’ve gotten maybe more opportunities than other people have at the beginning of their careers,” she admits. She doesn’t take lightly that she was included in the Country Music Association’s Songwriter Series in Toronto earlier this year, and over the past two, she’s toured with Royal Wood, Ron Sexsmith and Canadian icons Terri Clark and Johnny Reid. She had her Nashville performing debut on October 1 at City Winery with Clark, a long-time supporter.
Now, Mitchell is on the eve of her first solo tour. Only two dates, including at the Great Hall, will feature her whole band.
She’s excited about the future of country music and her own music. “People are ready for the next era of getting back to the core of emotional, real songwriting,” she says. “Real stories.”
@nowtoronto | @checkoutrach
