Jaime Wyatt follows-up her acclaimed 2017 debut Felony Blues with the new album Neon Cross. Produced by Shooter Jennings, the LP refines Wyatt’s honky-tonk sound into something more lush, layered, and complex. According to Wyatt “Neon Cross is a collection of my most vulnerable lyrics and vocal performances to date. My friend Shooter, our manager and most of the band had literally witnessed me as a walking disaster when I was grieving death, divorce, and trying to come out of the closet, while heavily self-medicating and nearly self-destructing with drugs and alcohol.” The vulnerability Wyatt expresses on Neon Cross is carried through to the album’s production with the use of first and second takes, with Wyatt choosing not to hide small vocal imperfections like cracks in her voice. The session musicians for Neon Cross included Neal Casal (one of his last studio performances before his tragic passing) on guitar, harmonica and Wurlitzer; Shooter’s bass player Ted Russell Kamp; John Schreffler Jr. on pedal steel; and Jamie Douglas on drums. Album standouts include: the opening track and piano ballad “Sweet Mess”; the leadoff single “Hurt So Bad”; the pedal-steel based track about hard living “LIVIN”; the shuffling title-track; the self-confessional “Rattlesnake Girl”; the country-rocker “Goodbye Queen”; the and the country blues lamentation “Demon Tied to a Chair in my Brain.” Jaime Wyatt ‘s Neon Cross seems to find her coming to terms with a rocky past and who she is now. I look forward to many more great albums from up-and-comer Jaime Wyatt. – Written by JFelton
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