Jaime Wyatt

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Hailed by Pitchfork as one of the “most exciting andskillful storytellers” working today, Jaime Wyatt is the kind of generationaltalent whose raw, honest lyricism is matched only by the power of her huge,unmistakable voice. A West Coast native, Wyatt first began turning heads withher breakout 2017 debut, Felony Blues, which chronicled her now much-publicizedbattle with addiction and transformative journey through the criminal justicesystem. Her 2020 follow-up, Neon Cross, tackled even more profoundly personalrevelations and arrived to similar acclaim, with NPR praising Wyatt’s“remarkable voice” and Rolling Stone lauding her “lush, layered, and complex”performances. With Feel Good, her third and most ambitious album yet, Wyattpushes her sound to new sonic and emotional heights, blurring the lines betweenclassic roots, southern soul, and vintage R&B.

“I wanted to make music you could move to,” Wyatt explains,“but I still wanted it to have heart and integrity.”

Recorded with Black Pumas’ Adrian Quesada, the album is boldand ecstatic, built on tight, intoxicating grooves that belie the songs’substantial emotional stakes. Wyatt’s writing is unguarded and intuitive here,tapping into the deep recesses of her subconscious as she reckons with griefand growth, and her delivery is visceral to match, cutting straight to the bonewith equal parts sensitivity and swagger. Taken as a whole, the collectionstands as a radical act of creative liberation from an artist already known forpushing limits, a genre-defying work of healing and self-love that tips its capto everything from Al Green and Otis Redding to Waylon Jennings and BobbieGentry in its relentless pursuit of peace and pleasure.

“A lot of us grow up feeling like we have to hide who we arejust to be accepted, but that comes from a place of fear and judgment,” Wyattexplains. “I wrote these songs as a way of letting go of all that, aspermission to feel good.”

Eschewing the traditionally solitary process that begot herearly work, Wyatt penned Feel Good in a series of collaborative, freewheelingwriting sessions built around infectious drum and bass grooves. Working withdifferent rhythm sections in LA (her former hometown) and Nashville (hercurrent hometown), Wyatt began experimenting with stream-of-consciousness andimprovisation in the rehearsal studio, allowing herself to trust her instincts(as well as those of close collaborator Joshy Soul) as she pulled lyrics andmelodies from the ether.

“I really tried to listen to my gut and be in the momentwith these songs,” Wyatt explains. “I figured out how to stop overthinking andsecond-guessing myself, and everything started opening up in a really excitingway.”

Wyatt carried that same energy into Electric DeluxeRecorders in Austin, where she and the band cut much of the basic tracks andvocals live to tape before fleshing them out with lush horns, strings, andharmonies. The natural chemistry of those performances is easy to hear on thealbum, which opens with the driving “World Worth Keeping.” Written in a fit ofinspiration Wyatt herself didn’t even understand at the time, the track is afierce, soulful meditation on the kind of beauty that’s worth fighting for, nomatter how hopeless things may seem. “Take a look around you / There’s a world worth keeping,” she proclaimsover a shimmering organ and tremolo guitar. Like much of the album, the trackis rooted in a defiant optimism, in a refusal to surrender to cynicism andnegativity despite its ever-looming presence. The radiant “Back To The Country”finds Heaven in the simplest places, while the buoyant “Love Is A Place” revelsin the freedom of being seen for who you truly are, and the effervescent titletrack embraces pleasure as a primal necessity. “All I want to do / Just to feelgood, is just to feel right,” Wyatt sings, backed by towering gospel vocals.

“I spent a lot of my life feeling like it was selfish towant to feel good, that women were supposed to be meek and quiet andsubmissive,” she reflects. “I wasn’t born like that, though, and these songswere a big part of learning not just to accept myself, but to love myself,because if you can’t love yourself, then nobody can.”

It’s a lesson Wyatt’s learned the hard way over the years,and the specters of loneliness, loss, and heartbreak haunt the albumthroughout. The bittersweet “Hold Me One More Time” struggles with aninevitable parting of ways as it builds into a frenzied, cathartic roar; thesensual “Jukebox Holiday” longs for a love that seems to hang perpetually outof reach; and the stripped-down “Moonlighter” drifts through the world in thedark of night, always on the outside looking in. Even when she’s tackling losson a more existential scale—the ghostly “Where The Damned,” for instance, drawson the stories of missing indigenous women in a solemn remembrance of theforgotten, while the rousing “Fugitive” examines the aftermath of gunviolence—Wyatt still manages to find something to believe in.

“I think we’ve all seen over the last few years whatisolation can do to people,” she reflects. “Sometimes we need a reminder to bekind to ourselves and each other. Sometimes we need a little extra help to letgo of all the guilt and shame and pain we carry.”

Sometimes we just need to Feel Good.

Riddy Arman (solo acoustic)

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Riddy Arman opens her debut album from La Honda Records with a song called “Spirits, Angels, Or Lies” inspired by the true story of her father’s passing. In the lyrics, she examines the human tendency to interpret the unknown. The story she weaves details the final moments and visual hallucinations experienced when Johnny Cash visited her father on his deathbed. Long- time fans of Arman will recognize the song from her viral performance video, shot by Western AF in a Montana rail link boxcar, where the world was introduced to her distinct, sultry lope. Against the bucolic and industrial backdrop of the video, Arman is clearly in her element, clad with ranch worn clothing. It is obvious she lives a lifestyle many romanticize, but few truly understand. 

However, Arman is more than just a cowboy, singing her lonely songs. The chapters of her life so far make for a story much richer than a common western archetype. Unafraid to take new paths, Arman has traveled across the country — from the farmlands of the Midwest to the bustling streets of New York City — writing songs, working as a ranch hand, and practicing an Agrarian lifestyle. It was during her childhood, full of folk and country music, in rural Ohio that she was first drawn to the guitar. Her deep dive into songwriting didn’t happen until her early 20s when she moved to central Virginia to resume her interest in horsemanship and agriculture on a friend’s small farm. 

Not too long after the unexpected success of her Western AF session, Arman began an intensive six-day recording session at Mississippi Studios in Portland, Oregon. Hopeful, and longing to capture the essence of deeply personal stories from her life, she teamed up with producer Bronson Tew (Dom Flemons, Seratones, Jimbo Mathus) of Dialback Sound and tracked nine songs. 

Moving forward from some of life’s most painful moments is in many ways the thread that ties each song together. Songwriting became part of Arman’s dialog with life, translating the experiences in not only lyrics, but also performance. Arman herself has chosen to take a different path, embracing isolation and interpreting her life through the rural landscape that adorns her lyrics. With fierce honesty and a voice that immediately commands attention, on her debut record, Riddy Arman has proven herself as much more than a cowboy.