Jessica Lindsey

Omaha, NE, January 4, 2008 – IndieHeaven.com is pleased to announce that Omaha's own, Jessica Lindsey has been nominated as "Acoustic Artist Of The Year" in the 3rd annual "Momentum Awards". This prestigious award will be handed out at the upcoming IndieHeaven CIA Summit2008 conference March 29, 2008 in Nashville, Tennessee.

Since moving back to Omaha from Minneapolis this past May, Jessica Lindsey has been out and about playing in many of the great Omaha live music venues including, Myth Martini Bar, Mick's in Benson, PS Collective and Muldoon's to name just a few. The music and writing style of Jessica Lindsey has blossomed with a string of heart-and-soul gripping titles. Jessica has now broken beyond her singing prowess with an offering of newly written original songs that will engage her audience with a wide range of emotions.

IndieHeaven founder and CIA Summit director Keith Mohr states, "It's important to recognize and applaud the efforts made in recent years by artists who are independent. By providing them the recognition they have earned, we hope to increase their platform and awareness. There are many independent artists who are doing an incredible job with their music. We look forward to the awards being a part of our annual artist’s conference." Visit www.ciasummit.com for more information about the conference.

To register your vote for this local talent - Jessica Lindsey as the "Acoustic Artist Of The Year" at this year’s Momentum awards, please visit {http://www.indieheaven.com/momentum_awards.php} and select her name from the drop down menu. For those who haven't seen Jessica Lindsey live yet she can be seen over the next few weeks at Myth Martini Bar, The Volume in Council Bluffs, Wine Styles at Village Pointe and a benefit concert for the poor in our community at The Mosaic.
- Omaha News

Realizing a dream is an accomplishment that usually doesn’t take someone by surprise. It goes something like this: all that hard work and all that stress and dedication make the journey from an idea to a triumphant reality seem like a natural progression of events. Where’s the fun in that? All this leaves anyone with is more goals to meet. And by the time one dream actually comes true there are 15 more that don’t.

This leaves the question: Does a dream ever really die? No, rather they get battered and beat down and are eventually shelved for new ones.

The dream of playing music for a living is always up for a good thrashing, and like many Omaha songwriters Jessica Lindsey is working hard to make this dream her reality.

Here’s how Lindsey compares to the rest: For one, she earned a bachelor’s degree in music from North Central University in Minneapolis, Minn.; two, she recently self-released her debut album, “The One That Got Away,” earlier this year; and three, she sings and plays piano – somewhat of a rarity in a guitar town such as Omaha.

As far as her sound, her piano playing and subdued vocals naturally classify her right alongside artists like Sarah McLachlan, Tori Amos and Lisa Germano. For her album, recorded at Empty House Studio in Omaha, a slight Americana feel percolates some tracks while others feature sweeping string arrangements to offset Lindsey’s piano playing and vocal harmonies.

Born in Illinois, she moved about the United States for most of her young life. She and her family have since settled in Omaha. From a young age she said she knew that she just wanted to sing. Even with little formal musical training, she opted to study music in college (instead of speech therapy, oddly enough) where on her first day she couldn’t even read sheet music or play piano.

It was an uphill battle, but she graduated in May of 2007 and moved back to Omaha to pursue her musical career. With only a year’s experience playing live shows and a few more writing songs, Lindsey is doing remarkably well for herself at this point in her musical journey.

A conversation with her at Caffeine Dreams in midtown revealed that she forging ahead on that gradual, slow path to realizing her dreams, even if it is a mountain she’s climbing with no actual top.

You put a CD out recently, didn’t you?

Yeah, at the beginning of April. I did it with Matt Tobias at Empty House (Studio) and loved the whole experience.

The CD sounds really good. Did Matt Tobias help orchestrate it during production?

Yeah, he’s a fantastic person. He and his wife love musicians. It’s like once you record with them they’re your biggest fans. They support you anyway they can. Matt actually drums for me. Jason Burkum did my CD work. Steve Packwood does some live stuff with me on bass and then Marc Frieden plays guitar for me.

How often do you perform with a band as opposed to performing solo?

I wished I performed more with a band, but I don’t. I’ve only performed about three or four times with them.

Is there a favorite venue you have?

Definitely Myth. The owners are fantastic people that love live music and love local music and are all about supporting local music. And it’s a super-classy bar. The crowd there is always so respectful.

When did you start playing music?

I started singing when I was probably in first or second grade in school musicals and stuff like that. High school, I was really involved in choir and drama musicals and stuff like that. But I couldn’t read music, didn’t start playing piano until I was in college.

What are your influences as far as songwriting goes?

Definitely relationships that I am in, whether it’s somebody that I know, somebody that I don’t know, somebody that is a really good friend of mine, that kind of stuff. I draw a lot of inspiration from melodies that I hear throughout the day whether it be a five note melody from another a song that I hear.

What about other songwriters?

I would have to say Sarah McLachlan is one of my No. 1 influences just because our styles are really compatible with each other. Ray LaMontagne always will be a huge influence of mine. His lyrics are stellar. And recently Bon Iver, I’m hooked on his (album) “For Emma.”

What else are you up to?

I just actually met with a guy out of Nashville and I’m going to start working with him as a songwriter. He’s kind of a “song broker” – I guess that would be a good term for him. He works with selling music to movies, TV and commericials. It’s so funny, because when you are a musician there are 100,000 things you could do, everything from singing jingles to being a full-blown pop artist that tours the country. Just recently I decided I want to pursue the songwriting more than I have been. This is an amazing opportunity that I’ve been given.

Where do you work at?

Since January I’ve been full-time being a musician – I’ve been teaching lessons through Sherry Anderson dance and music school - Omaha City Weekly

Realizing a dream is an accomplishment that usually doesn’t take someone by surprise. It goes something like this: all that hard work and all that stress and dedication make the journey from an idea to a triumphant reality seem like a natural progression of events. Where’s the fun in that? All this leaves anyone with is more goals to meet. And by the time one dream actually comes true there are 15 more that don’t.

This leaves the question: Does a dream ever really die? No, rather they get battered and beat down and are eventually shelved for new ones.

The dream of playing music for a living is always up for a good thrashing, and like many Omaha songwriters Jessica Lindsey is working hard to make this dream her reality.

Here’s how Lindsey compares to the rest: For one, she earned a bachelor’s degree in music from North Central University in Minneapolis, Minn.; two, she recently self-released her debut album, “The One That Got Away,” earlier this year; and three, she sings and plays piano – somewhat of a rarity in a guitar town such as Omaha.

As far as her sound, her piano playing and subdued vocals naturally classify her right alongside artists like Sarah McLachlan, Tori Amos and Lisa Germano. For her album, recorded at Empty House Studio in Omaha, a slight Americana feel percolates some tracks while others feature sweeping string arrangements to offset Lindsey’s piano playing and vocal harmonies.

Born in Illinois, she moved about the United States for most of her young life. She and her family have since settled in Omaha. From a young age she said she knew that she just wanted to sing. Even with little formal musical training, she opted to study music in college (instead of speech therapy, oddly enough) where on her first day she couldn’t even read sheet music or play piano.

It was an uphill battle, but she graduated in May of 2007 and moved back to Omaha to pursue her musical career. With only a year’s experience playing live shows and a few more writing songs, Lindsey is doing remarkably well for herself at this point in her musical journey.

A conversation with her at Caffeine Dreams in midtown revealed that she forging ahead on that gradual, slow path to realizing her dreams, even if it is a mountain she’s climbing with no actual top.

You put a CD out recently, didn’t you?

Yeah, at the beginning of April. I did it with Matt Tobias at Empty House (Studio) and loved the whole experience.

The CD sounds really good. Did Matt Tobias help orchestrate it during production?

Yeah, he’s a fantastic person. He and his wife love musicians. It’s like once you record with them they’re your biggest fans. They support you anyway they can. Matt actually drums for me. Jason Burkum did my CD work. Steve Packwood does some live stuff with me on bass and then Marc Frieden plays guitar for me.

How often do you perform with a band as opposed to performing solo?

I wished I performed more with a band, but I don’t. I’ve only performed about three or four times with them.

Is there a favorite venue you have?

Definitely Myth. The owners are fantastic people that love live music and love local music and are all about supporting local music. And it’s a super-classy bar. The crowd there is always so respectful.

When did you start playing music?

I started singing when I was probably in first or second grade in school musicals and stuff like that. High school, I was really involved in choir and drama musicals and stuff like that. But I couldn’t read music, didn’t start playing piano until I was in college.

What are your influences as far as songwriting goes?

Definitely relationships that I am in, whether it’s somebody that I know, somebody that I don’t know, somebody that is a really good friend of mine, that kind of stuff. I draw a lot of inspiration from melodies that I hear throughout the day whether it be a five note melody from another a song that I hear.

What about other songwriters?

I would have to say Sarah McLachlan is one of my No. 1 influences just because our styles are really compatible with each other. Ray LaMontagne always will be a huge influence of mine. His lyrics are stellar. And recently Bon Iver, I’m hooked on his (album) “For Emma.”

What else are you up to?

I just actually met with a guy out of Nashville and I’m going to start working with him as a songwriter. He’s kind of a “song broker” – I guess that would be a good term for him. He works with selling music to movies, TV and commericials. It’s so funny, because when you are a musician there are 100,000 things you could do, everything from singing jingles to being a full-blown pop artist that tours the country. Just recently I decided I want to pursue the songwriting more than I have been. This is an amazing opportunity that I’ve been given.

Where do you work at?

Since January I’ve been full-time being a musician – I’ve been teaching lessons through Sherry Anderson dance and music school - Omaha City Weekly

By Marq Manner

We are smack dab in the middle of CD release season. Every year around this time our town is deluged with CD release parties from bands and artists that have spent the winter downtime holed up in recording studios working their magic. This week finds two CDs being released with parties to go along with them. Jessica Lindsey will be releasing her new CD “The One That Got Away” at the P.S. Collective this Saturday. Lindsey is a singer-songwriter whose soaring piano-based ballads and pop songs are backed by an all-star local band on the disc. Her sound straddles the fence of mainstream and indie, and comparisons to early Sarah Mclachlan, Tori Amos and Imogen Heap are inevitable.

- Omaha City Weekly

By Marq Manner

We are smack dab in the middle of CD release season. Every year around this time our town is deluged with CD release parties from bands and artists that have spent the winter downtime holed up in recording studios working their magic. This week finds two CDs being released with parties to go along with them. Jessica Lindsey will be releasing her new CD “The One That Got Away” at the P.S. Collective this Saturday. Lindsey is a singer-songwriter whose soaring piano-based ballads and pop songs are backed by an all-star local band on the disc. Her sound straddles the fence of mainstream and indie, and comparisons to early Sarah Mclachlan, Tori Amos and Imogen Heap are inevitable.

- Omaha City Weekly