Album Review – Jess Jocoy’s “Cul-de-Sac Kid”

Country-inspired Americana (#570.2) on the Country DDS.

Can a kid from the suburbs of the Pacific Northwest make country music and still have it be considered true and vital? This is the question singer and songwriter Jess Jocoy asks on her third album Cul-de-Sac Kid, and answers in the resounding affirmative through crafting compelling and deeply personal stories, swelling emotions in the audience just as good if not better than anything else released to the country market, and imparting a level of depth that the country genre should outright crave and look to incorporate into its fold.

Musically, Cul-de-Sac Kid is more a heavy version of country-inspired Americana as opposed to straight ahead boot scootin’ country. But moreover, it’s the songwriting and Jess Jocoy’s siren voice that draws you in, inspiring the patience and intrigue it takes to listen further and more intently as the album explores avenues in your brain uncommonly traversed, unlocks emotions rarely tapped, and confers a level of perspective that is shades more gratifying than just another generic honky tonk song.

Originally from a suburb of Seattle, Jess Jacoy was bequeathed a love of country music by her father who would play folks like Alan Jackson and Brooks & Dunn in the car on the way to and fro. When it came time to leave for college, Jacoy chose Belmont University in Nashville to study songwriting. That decision took on extra gravity after her father passed away the year previous. “Heaven went and gave an angel his halo all too soon. So I’ve been singing sad songs since before sad songs were cool,” Jess sings in the title track.

Jocoy openly explores the common argument of “authenticity” in country by admitting her country and Southern roots don’t run very deep, but wonders if she can still offer something of value to country listeners, and not by trying to adopt a twang or trying to follow trends, but by being herself and lending her perspective on the world inferred by her years of study in the “Home of Country Music.” But whether Jocoy fulfills some arbitrary checklist of country bonafides feels so superfluous by the time you delve into these songs.

Some of the tracks of Cul-de-Sac Kid stick close to familiar themes in country. “Tearing Up Heaven” about the onslaught of progress and bringing that confounding suburban sprawl to the country is something many country fans can relate to. “Every Good Cowboy” with its waltz beat and fiddle will satisfy the Western appetite in the audience, even if Jacoy is saying familiar things common to country songs in new, unique ways. This album really isn’t interested in casting a wide net of appeal as much as being true to itself, but does so inadvertently with the resonant track “Runaround.”

The gems of the album are when Jess Jocoy fearlessly challenges the audience to ingest more complex themes and storytelling. This is most illustrated with “A Lifetime Only Lasts So Long” where she delves into the fear of commitment due to how a life can feel like forever, yet at times be so fleeting, informed by the early death of her father. Mortality, and the underlying meanings and purpose in life are also explored in the involved storytelling and character study of “Above Ground.”

Jess Jocoy sometimes asks a lot of the audience, especially a country one, including by putting the 5 1/2-minute “Above Ground” as the second song in the track list. But the audience is rewarded when they choose to listen. Jess also rewards them by including a great cover of Brooks & Dunn’s “Neon Moon.” Cul-de-Sac Kid is a songwriter’s album. But it happens to be that this particular songwriter comes with a stellar, emotive voice exhibiting lots of power when called upon, and expert control and dynamics.

Being from the country, from the South, raised on a farm or ranch, or other such country music resume points can certainly help bolster the sincerity behind what an artist sings. But so can being honest, and singing directly from you’re life’s story, even if it doesn’t involve tending cattle or planting crops. Is there room for a Cul-de-Sac Kid in country? With the talent she brings and the insight in her songs, there certainly better be room for Jess Jocoy.

8.3/10

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Stream/download Cul-de-Sac Kid