Looks like I’m not the only one confused by singer/songwriter Jessie James‘ musical identity crisis. The country/pop sweet heart from Georgia took to her Twitter last Thursday, venting frustations about her forthcoming second album, Daughter of a Gypsy, due for release on September 28th. The singer tweeted three messages in ALL CAPS, mentioning that “music is still coming out…”
The Italian-born/Georgia-bread singer released the first single, “Boys In The Summer” off of ‘Gypsy‘ at the end of June, where it stalled at #116 on the Billboard Hot 100 and at #58 on the Billboard Country chart. Not exactly an amazing showing but previous singles didn’t really chart much higher. Her debut single, “Wanted” only peaked at #40 on the Billboard Hot 100 while her self titled debut album managed to make it all the way up to #23 on the Billboard 200. She’s had MODERATE mainstream success I’d say, which is more than some up and coming artists can say.
I’m not really sure what she’s alluding to when she Tweeted, “I know things are confusing right now.” Did a story break that I somehow missed? Did she leave her label, Mercury Records? What’s going on behind the scenes? From the looks of things, James was at the mercy of her record label, like many young artists, putting out mainstream, radio friendly music that would do well across multiple formats. With the chart failure of “Boys In The Summer” perhaps she’s ready to quit straddling that country/pop line and jump head first into country. It’ll be interesting to see what “big changes” she’s referring to, but whatever it is I wish her the best. She’s a beautiful, talented young singer who hasn’t even come close to peaking.
