Kent, Ohio native Jessica Lea Mayfield matches a grunge-era deadpan with gnarly leftfield roots music in service of haunting, smoldering rock ‘n’ roll. She caught some extra attention thanks to her association with geographic and stylistic neighbor Dan Auerbach of Akron’s Black Keys, who produced her 2011 LP Tell Me. But Mr. Ultraviolence wasn’t involved in Make My Head Sing…, the record Mayfield’s releasing this spring. Rather, she bunkered down in a Nashville studio with bassist/husband Jesse Newport in search of something stripped-down yet weighty. (Man, between Mayfield and Lydia Loveless, Ohio is bursting with badass female roots rockers who started out as teenagers and married their bassists.) As Mayfield explains in the press release, “The whole record is just me and Jesse and my drummer Matt Martin. I think a lot of my favorite bands are guitar, bass and drums. I wanted to simplify things. Bands are so big these days, I wanted to get in the studio and make a rock record and hear real guitar tones and something heavy.” Real guitar tones and heaviness abound on “I Wanna Love You,” the album’s darkly entrancing single. Click below and you’re gonna find this out, hey!

Make My Head Sing… is out 4/15 via ATO. Here’s the tracklist:

1. Oblivious
2. I Wanna Love You
3. Standing In The Sun
4. Pure Stuff
5. Do I Have The Time
6. Party Drugs
7. Unknown Big Secret
8. Anything You Want
9. No Fun
10. Seein* Starz

[Photo by LeAnn Mueller]