Article
Waxing Lyrical
by Shelly Colvin October 26, 2019
Sitting down for a meal with my longtime friend Jessie Baylin, I’m reminded that in addition to being one of my all-time favorite singer-songwriters, she’s also an excellent lunch date. She can order like a Michelin reviewer, and, anywhere you go in Nashville, chefs are trying to impress her. She and her husband, Nathan Followill, are part owners in a restaurant group and play a significant role in Nashville’s acclaimed Music City Food + Wine Festival. Jessie grew up in a restaurateur family in New Jersey, and I’m certain being reared in that environment informs her songwriting. But what else does?
SHELLY
What was the impetus behind writing your most recent children’s album, Strawberry Wind?
JESSIE
I didn’t want it to be all rainbows and butterflies. Those are lovely, and the wonder of childhood is
beautiful in that way – how open you are to the magic of the little things in life. You carry that in your heart every single day. The song “I Am a Dreamer” in particular was my way of trying to encourage that. I was thinking of “Moon River” when I set out to write it – specifically what would young Holly Golightly be singing on her fire escape? Some kids just don’t see butterflies on their own. It can be a struggle. So, I wanted to write this song for that individual because that’s the one thing in life that everyone’s allowed to do: dream.
SHELLY
So, in that regard, was your seven-year-old daughter, Violet, also an inspiration?
JESSIE
Absolutely. I wanted to connect with the way a child experiences life. That’s how I went about the
writing process – getting very visual, trying to see more colors than I normally would. Looking at things the way my daughter would see them. I paid attention to what [Violet] was seeing, and I realized how much I was missing.
In fact, I have to say, digging into writing Strawberry Wind changed me. This record poured out of me so quickly because, well, it was so free. I carried that sense of whimsy with me through the writing process and was wide open, the way a child would be. My life is so scheduled at this point, and I don’t really have that same openness. I want to find more of that balance. Sure, I’ve had other records that were more successful, like Little Spark, but to me this was the most important album I’ve ever made because it brought something out in me that I needed to reconnect with. I do feel like we all have a child within us, and that is the key to happiness, really.
SHELLY
What do you love most about the act of songwriting?
JESSIE
It’s pulling magic and melody out of thin air. Something suddenly exists that didn’t. It’s like birth: song birth. It’s addictive. Especially when you get to write things that are true to you. It’s very rewarding.
Another magical part is discovering down the line – I’m sure you have this experience – what songs really are about, you know? You’re like, “Why did I say that then?” and, later, it rings so true. It really does feel like it’s connected to the heavens in some way.
SHELLY
What’s your favorite moment of inspiration that resulted in a song?
JESSIE
It was one of my first nights being in Nashville by myself, having just moved here, and I went to Produce Place in Sylvan Park (which is a jewel box of a grocery shop). I was going down each of the three aisles, and in my head I was going, “What is this little town I’m in? How did I end up here? What does this all mean? What does the future hold? I’m going to marry this person?” I was still getting to know Nathan Followill, my now-husband]. Yet, there I was, in this person’s world, and where was he? He was somewhere else right then, on the road. So “Hurry Hurry” is what I wrote after that grocery trip: my experience of living in our little house in Sylvan Park without him there for the first time.
SHELLY
Have you ever had one of those inspiration moments where you had to stop what you were doing to follow the muse?
JESSIE
Oh yeah. I remember being in Los Angeles. We were staying in a rental house off Robertson, which was a great walking area. Violet was so young. There was a pool in the back and there happened to be an upright piano, and I kept having this idea. I sat down and played it out in full. Typically, I don’t do music and lyrics at the same time, but I totally had the verse and chorus. Nathan kept trying to get me to come with him to get a tattoo, but I was so inside this song, I had to finish it in that moment.
That ended up being the song “All That I Can Do” off Dark Place. I felt like Thad [Cockrell, a fellow
Nashville musician] who I’ve co-written songs with, was sitting in there with me. What I appreciate so much about the way he writes is that it’s so conversational. The simple conversational pieces are what draw me in. When I’m writing, I like to stop in the middle and just read the lyric as if it’s a message to someone. If it reads well and has that sense of whimsy and sense of wonder but it’s still conversational, I feel like I’m on to something.