Jamie Drake

One of LA's best-kept musical songwriting secrets for over a decade -- collaborating
with the likes of Sondre Lerche, Jim James, Moby, Sarah and Sean Watkins (Nickel
Creek), and Mikael Jorgensen (Wilco) -- Jamie Drake has all the while been carefully
honing her own craft and preparing to take center stage.
In September 2019, Jamie Released her breakout album, Everything’s Fine, on
AntiFragile Music, a record peppered with indie-folk-pop stylings wrapped in lush
orchestrations.
Singles such as “Everything’s Fine,”Wonder,” and “Redwood Tree” surpassed over
15M streams on Spotify and brought in critical acclaim from NPR Music, Talkhouse,
Flood, BGS, and Atwood Magazine, plus a flurry of famous fans (like Ed Helms, Rob
Thomas of Matchbox 20), and Sarah Watkins (I’m With Her Nickel Creek) heaping
public praise. The album was even featured on Wilco’s “Favorite Albums of 2019” List.
2019 continued to be a year of high notes, with tours and appearances supporting J.S
Ondara, The Watkins Family Hour, Devotchka, Sondre Lerche, and Shawn Colvin, plus
a sold out Los Angeles residency.
Drake maintained the cover of Spotify’s “Modern Eclectic” playlist for a year and a half
— winning her the attention of new fans across the globe in a time when playing live
had ended for the foreseeable future.
This June 2022, Drake’s love for early 1970s Laurel Canyon folk unexpectedly meets
Rio de Janeiro in “New Girl,” once again displaying her ability to evolve as a dynamic
artist in her time. “New Girl” is a raw and emotionally brave follow up to her last
release, with 11 songs primarily recorded in single vocal takes; keeping her best
performances along with raw, minor imperfections.
“New Girl’s” bossa influence came as a welcomed surprise and was inspired by the
incomparable Getz Gilberto “76” album, which Jamie discovered for the first time in
2020 while living in upper Ojai, California. “I listened to it every day while riding my bike
around Meiners Oaks with my dog Moxie and a red JBL speaker in the basket. I got to
know those songs really well, even though I don’t speak Portuguese. I knew they had
gotten into my marrow when I met and wrote ‘It’s A New Life’ with Rich Jacques that
following May. I knew immediately that I would make my next album with him because
the feeling of this new song was the world I wanted to live in musically.”
By fall 2021 Rich Jacques came to California to produce the album with Jamie and
Austin Myles Grant, fellow LA artist multi-instrumentalist who ended up playing most
of the instruments on the record. The trio was invited to record at a private residence
set in the Santa Monica mountains, seeped in the purity and quiet of nature, where
they could fully unfurl and connect musically. This purity and connection can be felt in
the recordings. Drake bravely asks one of the most human questions in “Is There
Something Wrong with Me?” And contemplates that “..Life feels undeserving when the
whole world is hurting.. And then John Prine dies.. Am I just a lie.. if I haven’t had to
cry?” Jamie synthesizes the guilt many felt across the globe in early 2020 with clarity
while still maintaining hope and purpose in “When John Prine Died.” These heartfelt
tracks are magnificently balanced by other offerings like the comically recorded Bossa-
influenced, “New Girl,” which depicts Jamie’s gypsy-like childhood and not-so-great
life lessons with a twinkle in her eye. And then there’s “Sing,” a song that can lift the
heart of the listener into a fantasia of imagination and wonder not unlike Julie Andrews
in “The Sound of Music.” It’s this childlike awe Drake maintains that draws even the
youngest of fans to her. Hits like “Easy Target,” remind us of Carol King in “It’s Too
Late,” and feel as if it was recorded around the same time. The album becomes
hypnotic with “It’s A New Life,” which takes us to a world where Drake’s vocals feel like
a cross between Astrud Gilberto and Sade. “Lifted by Love” and “It’s A Wonderful Life”
bring the listener to their heart center where anything is possible and the world is still
filled with hope and wonder.. all melded together by Jamie’s mesmerizing and unique
vocal melodies and songwriting; bringing a fresh perspective on Folk and Bossa Nova
that is uniquely her own.