Nashville’s Jillette Johnson possesses a deft songwriting touch that lends her music a deep sophistication. Her songs are confident enough to allow room for the aural equivalent of white space, which permits her music to breathe and build in intensity. Meanwhile, Johnson’s voice is a sheer honey-toned delight with gorgeous phrasing and attention to detail. Americana super-producer Dave Cobb sure liked what he heard as he has produced her sophomore album, All I Ever See in You Is Me, releasing July 28th via Rounder Records.
Johnson started playing piano at age five, was composing her first songs at eight, and began playing the East Village’s famed SideWalk Cafe at 12, so you know she’s a bonafide prodigy. Her latest song “Flip a Coin” highlights all of her musical gifts as it’s brilliantly written tune about fear. At only 27 years old, we are looking forward to many greats years of music from this talent.
Johnson says, “I wrote ‘Flip a Coin’ after I drove through San Bernadino on my way from LA to Vegas for a show, right as the shootings were happening. All of a sudden I became obsessed with the police blotter, afraid of highways and crowded public places, I started planning ways to get out of the city in case of crisis. This song is about fear, how we handle it, how it handles us, and how it causes our minds to spin because we live in a world where someone’s snap decision can change the fates of so many people.”