Firesight

Jessie Baylin

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 24, 2008)
• Original Release Date: 2008
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Verve
• ASIN: B00166V704
• Also Available in: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #11,260 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

About the Artist
"It's a collection of a bunch of moments in my life," Jessie Baylin says of her Verve Forecast debut Firesight. "I'm just trying to be as honest as I can, and hopefully people will connect with the songs and recognize moments of their own life in them."

Firesight makes good on the critical praise and grass-roots fan support that's already been heaped upon the 24-year-old artist. The album offers a vibrant, soulful showcase for her talents as both an uncommonly insightful songwriter and a deeply expressive, effortlessly charismatic vocalist.

Recorded in the artist's recently adopted hometown of Nashville with noted producer Roger Moutenot (Yo La Tengo, Rogue Wave), Firesight features contributions from some of Nashville's most respected rock players, and songwriting collaborations with such notable co-writers as Whiskeytown member Mike Daly and Grammy-winning songwriter/performer Jesse Harris, L.A. troubadour Zack Hexum and the Rembrandts' Danny Wilde.

All-star support notwithstanding, it's Baylin's lyrically incisive, melodically intoxicating compositions and bracing performances that make Firesight such a revelation. Such tunes as "Leave Your Mark," "Lonely Heaven," "Not A Day More" and "See How I Run" boast a level of emotional insight that's rare in such a young artist.

Although Firesight shows her to be a natural songwriter and performer, Jessie Baylin's road to a musical career has been an unconventional one. She gained her initial performing experience during early childhood, singing for customers at the Fire Sight Inn, the New Jersey restaurant/jazz bar that her parents owned. It was there that she developed her lifelong affinity for music, as well as gaining some early insights into human nature by observing the establishment's colorful clientele.

"That's why I wanted Firesight to be the title of the record," Baylin explains. "It's where I come from, and it's who I am."

As a child, Baylin felt a deep connection with the honesty and intensity of such classic jazz and pop divas as Joni Mitchell, Stevie Nicks, Billie Holiday and Nina Simone, whose influence would later inform her own singing. She also demonstrated an early penchant for introspection and self-examination, writing poetry and keeping personal journals while still in elementary school.

Shortly after graduating from high school, Baylin demonstrated her iconoclastic spirit by deciding to leave her family and friends behind to move to Los Angeles. "I was really comfortable at home with my family," she explains, "and I really needed to get uncomfortable and take a big risk. It was nuts, but I just felt as though it was something that I needed to do. L.A. was completely alien to me. I didn't know anyone when I moved there, and I didn't make any friends there for about a year."

It was after arriving in L.A. that Baylin stumbled upon her gift for songwriting. "A friend came to visit from New York," she recalls, "and he brought his little baby Taylor guitar. We were sitting around singing some of our favorite songs, and then he started playing this melody and I picked up my journal and I knew the words that needed to go with that music. I started singing them and it all just connected. That was the first song I wrote.

"I knew right away that this was what I was meant to be doing," she continues. "I had been searching for my purpose, and it smacked me in the face. It was scary, because I didn't know anyone in the music business. But I knew that it was what I was supposed to do, so I just went with it."

After an extended period honing her budding songwriting skills in solitude, Baylin recruited a band and booked her first show at the L.A. club the Mint. Almost immediately, she developed a local buzz and an enthusiastic following. "When I started playing out in L.A. and finding myself as an artist, it was the first time in my life that I actually felt like me," she says. "I could walk into a place and feel like all of me was there."

She soon became a fixture at the Hotel Café, emerging as a pillar of a vibrant grass-roots scene of young singer/songwriters. Before long, she was receiving offers of record deals, but passed on them because she didn't feel she was ready yet.

"The Hotel Café was a really amazing scene," Baylin states, "and it's great that it sprung up in L.A. yet had very little to do with the music business. Everyone was being offered record deals and turning them down. We were just trying to figure out a way we could just have it be our own thing."

In 2007, a co-writing session with songwriter/producer/recording artist Jesse Harris (best-known for his Grammy-winning work with Norah Jones) organically grew into a recording project that became Baylin's first album, You, which received a low-key independent release. In addition to demonstrating her evolving songwriting and performing abilities, the project also saw Baylin recording with such legendary veteran musicians as Jim Keltner, Van Dyke Parks and Leland Sklar.

Baylin continued to win new fans on national tours with James Morrison, Brett Dennen and Cranberries singer Dolores O'Riordan. She was also a featured performer on the 2006 Hotel Café tour and its 2008 sequel, alongside such Hotel Café alumni as Cary Brothers, Ingrid Michaelson and Greg Laswell.

With Firesight establishing her as one of the year's most exciting new creative forces, Jessie Baylin is eager to share her songs with rapidly expanding fan base.

"Listening to this record still sends a chill up my back," she says, adding, "I think that most artists struggle with fear and insecurity, and I certainly do, but I've never felt more confident and comfortable on stage than when I'm playing the songs on Firesight. It just feels so good and so right; I just fall into it, and I'm in the moment and it's beautiful."

Product Description
Firesight makes good on the critical praise and grass-roots fan support that's already been heaped upon 24-year-old Jessie Baylin. The2008 album offers a vibrant, soulful showcase for her talents as both an uncommonly insightful songwriter and a deeply expressive, effortlessly charismatic vocalist. Recorded in the artist's recently adopted hometown of Nashville with noted producer Roger Moutenot (Yo La Tengo, Rogue Wave), Firesight features contributions from some of Nashville's most respected rock players, and songwriting collaborations with such notable co-writers as Whiskeytown member Mike Daly and grammy-winning songwriter/performer Jesse Harris, L.A. Troubadour Zack Hexum and the Rembrandts' Danny Wilde.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars outstanding!!!!!, July 13, 2008

By	M. Bruno (flowery branch, ga United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

i first got acquainted with jessie baylin's music on myspace, before she was signed. i bought both of her cds offered and fell in love with her music. after buying her major label debut, firesight, i can only say that she will endure and continue to blossom. every time that i listen to firesight, which is ALL the time, every song makes me smile, as it is beautifully executed. she has zeroed in on everyone's common desires and fears, hopes and dreams and she does it with the utmost of talent and class. if you have not yet experienced her music, you are definately missing out. she is a wise and heartfelt tunesmith and one hell of a wailer!

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Contemporary, eclectic adult-alt pop, June 26, 2008

By	Joe Sixpack -- Slipcue.com (...in Middle America) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

Although mostly pop-oriented and tailormade for placement in the background of a primetime TV drama, this album also encompasses wisps of jazzy cabarets with a hint of the twang of Baylin's hometown of Nashville. Several singers spring to mind, notably Dusty Springfield, Phoebe Snow and Maria Muldaur along with numerous modern musicmakers -- an eclectic mix, to be sure. Tonally, Baylin's voice shares a familiar, bluesy white-girl rasp with that of Amy Whitehouse, although her music is decidedly much mellower. Spotting similarities with Norah Jones wouldn't be misplaced, either, since one of Baylin's songwriting partners is Jesse Harris, who is also one of Norah's crew. This is a fine record for "mature" music fans looking for something new that doesn't fit into easy modern pop categories. (DJ Joe Sixpack, Slipcue Music Guide)

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It doesn't get any better than this!, July 26, 2008

By	David Lind (Coupeville, WA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Jessie Baylin has put together an album that combines the best of the sounds of Nashville, folk and Pop! Her song writing definetly comes from her heart and shows in every song. 'See How I Run', 'Was I On Your Mind' and 'Not A Day More' are stand out tracks for me with the rest of the songs convincing me that 'Firesight' is the kind of album that just does not come around very often. Jessie Baylin (Firesight) is a True-Winner in the musical world! There's no disapointment here...ONLY GREAT MUSIC!