ZZ Ward, Jaime Wyatt

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Charlie Ward

A person on a couch with a guitar.

ZZ Ward

$49.50-$30 ($25 adv.).

media release: Alternative, blues, and hip-hop-blending artist ZZ Ward is gearing up to perform at the Majestic Theatre in Madison on Tuesday, September 19. The show comes at a big moment for ZZ, as she prepares to release her first studio album as an independent artist. Dirty Shine, out 9/8, inds her embracing life as a new mother and taking full control of her work from both a business and creative perspective. Watch the video for her most recent single "On One."

An edgy, blues-inspired artist who infuses the genre with hip-hop, pop, R&B, neo-soul, and rock, ZZ started singing the blues at the age of 8, inspired by her father’s record collection. At 16, seeing the similarities between blues and hip-hop, she ventured out to the clubs in her hometown of Eugene and began singing and performing with acts around town. She busked, booked her own tours, and sold demos in parking lots, sleeping on an air mattress in her brother’s place and hustling for shows. It wasn’t long before she became a buzzed-about artist, earning a record deal with Hollywood Records. She quickly broke into Billboard’s Top 40 with her debut release, and her sophomore album peaked at #1 on the Billboard Blues chart, highlighted by singles featuring GRAMMY-Award winners Fantastic Negrito and Gary Clark Jr.

If love is a place, then Jaime Wyatt’s found it with her ambitious and hopeful new album, Feel Good, brimming with joy and pushing her sound to new sonic and emotional heights, while blurring the lines between classic roots, southern soul, and vintage R&B. Today, Wyatt fully embraces that notion of musical effervescence with the grooving end of summer love song “Love Is A Place” where she expresses her experience learning to love another woman. It’s the first time Wyatt has explicitly written with her intended queer-friendly pronouns since coming out publicly on her 2020 breakthrough Neon Cross. 

Wyatt originally wrote the ecstatic work of healing and self-acceptance “Love Is A Place” on the piano and considers it to be one of her favorite songs off of her upcoming album. Wyatt has a love-hate relationship with her new home Nashville, Tennessee but with “Love Is A Place” she’s taking a defiant stand for herself and her queer community and their innate right to Feel Good. “Love Is A Place” revels in the freedom of being seen for who you truly are, and trusting in it, as she sings: “She could free me from a lifetime of pain. And I’ve been down and out but never fallen. Love is a place I’ve never known. I’d like to go and would you take me there?”

Praise for Jaime Wyatt’s come from Pitchfork, NME, Fader, and NPR who love her “remarkable voice” as well as Rolling Stone who’ve applauded her “lush, layered, and complex” performances. Feel Good is undoubtedly her most ambitious album yet where Wyatt pushes her sound to new sonic and emotional heights. 

Already, she’s unveiled the fierce, soulful meditation “World Worth Keeping” off the record about the kind of beauty that’s worth fighting for, no matter how hopeless things may seem. Accompanied by a mind-bending journey of a music video, directed by Dylan Reyes, “World Worth Keeping” is rooted in its omniscient optimism and succinctly lays the groundwork for Wyatt’s refusal to surrender to cynicism and negativity despite its ever-looming presence.

And revisit the music video for lead single "World Worth Keeping," out now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6iNUQa8s_Y 

Recorded with Black Pumas’ Adrian Quesada, Feel Good is bold and ecstatic, built on tight, intoxicating grooves that belie the songs’ substantial emotional stakes, showcasing Wyatt's unparalleled artistry and musical prowess. Wyatt’s writing is unguarded and intuitive here, tapping into the deep recesses of her subconscious as she reckons with grief and growth, and her delivery is visceral to match, cutting straight to the bone with equal parts sensitivity and swagger. Taken as a whole, the collection stands as a radical act of creative liberation from an artist already known for pushing limits, a genre-defying work of healing, queer joy and self-love that tips its cap to everything from Al Green and Otis Redding to Waylon Jennings and Bobbie Gentry in its relentless pursuit of peace and pleasure. 

Wyatt recently kicked off her North American string of tour dates debuting music off Feel Good and supporting ZZ Ward. Find more information and tickets at https://www.jaimewyatt.com/. 

This year alone, Wyatt’s already made impressive touring strides making her Newport Folk, Stagecoach and Red Rocks debuts, having performed at Luck Reunion and toured with The Avett Brothers, The Head and the Heart, The Revivalists, Sierra Ferrell and many more.

A West Coast native, Wyatt first began turning heads with her breakout 2017 debut, Felony Blues, which chronicled her now much-publicized battle with addiction and transformative journey through the criminal justice system. Her 2020 follow-up and New West debut, Neon Cross, tackled even more profoundly personal revelations and arrived to tremendous acclaim everywhere from Pitchfork, NME, NPR and Rolling Stone.