Jesse Lee 'debut' album

“I couldn’t be a luckier girl/If I could go anywhere/I wouldn’t go anywhere.” “If I Could Go Anywhere” With her rainbow-colored hair, neon pink leggings and “matching” orange and yellow socks, Atlantic Records recording artist Jesse Lee is pretty much the girl next door... if your neighbor is a 22-year-old spunky country music singer/songwriter who has been performing since she was four, and writing before she was a teenager.

A combination of LeAnn Rimes precocity and Taylor Swift charm, with the power of Martina McBride, the sassy vibrato of Dolly Parton and the down-home appeal of Patsy Cline, Lee’s confident debut, one of a handful of country albums ever released on the legendary Atlantic Records label, offers a little something for everyone from her adolescent peer group on up to their mid-40s soccer moms.

Whether she’s expressing joy at her current contentment (“If I Could Go Anywhere”), blaming herself for a failed romance (“If I Were You”), reminiscing with an old girlfriend (“Just Like Yesterday”) or merely extolling the virtues of good, old country music (“Me and Patsy Cline”), Jesse Lee is most comfortable in front of an audience, giving her all.

“I may be only 22, but I feel 40,” she offers with an infectious laugh. “I’m an old soul, but growing up in this industry, you have to be. I feel I have the best of both worlds. I can write songs about being hurt even if I’ve never really been hurt myself in quite that way.”

Jesse Lee’s debut album was produced by the Nashville trifecta of Grammy-awarding winning producers Mark Bright (Carrie Underwood, Rascal Flatts), Paul Worley (Dixie Chicks, Big & Rich), and the heavily in-demand Nathan Chapman (Taylor Swift). She also recorded songs by, and co-wrote with, some of Nashville’s leading tunesmiths including Liz Rose, Chris Tompkins, Monty Criswell, Morgane Hayes, Brad Crisler and Steve Robson as well as "new to Nashville" mega-hit songwriter, and new American Idol judge, Kara Dioguardi.

“No one could say what I want to say as well as I can,” she says about writing her own material. “But there are literally thousands of writers in Nashville composing songs for a living. I can’t out write them all the time. I was very open to cutting outside songs for this album. I appreciate if someone can write a song that I connect with, just like a song of mine connects with a listener.”

Born in Palo Alto, CA, to a guitarist father and singing mother, Jesse Lee was raised with a love of all kinds of music, starting with Seal, Wilson Phillips and the Les Miserables original cast recording, before discovering LeAnn Rimes singing “Blue” and “One Way Ticket” on a Disney Channel concert. Her parents then turned her on to the likes of Shania Twain, Reba McEntire, Trisha Yearwood and Garth Brooks.

“That was when I knew for sure country was the direction I wanted to go in,” she recalls of the time. “I always had a country voice because I imitated people I listened to growing up.”

First sharing the stage with her mom at the age of four, Jesse decided early on she wanted to be in the spotlight, starting to write songs at the age of 12. While in Florida, as a pre-teen, she opened for some of the biggest country stars, then toured art and wine festivals in California. She even performed a one-woman show as both Dolly Parton and Patsy Cline at a theater in Mackinaw City, MI, where a leg injury forced her to do several shows in a wheelchair.

Setting her sites on Music City, she entered Nashville’s Belmont University to study the music business after spending weekends there living with various friends of her family. Her college roommate turned her on to country legends like Hank Williams, Merle Haggard, Dolly Parton, Patsy Cline and Vern Gosdin, “people who I knew of, but had never heard their music.”

She was discovered by her current manager Paul Widger, who also discovered R&B star Craig David, while performing at a fair in Jacksonville. He sent a demo to Atlantic A&R exec Steve Lunt, who soon flew Jesse Lee to New York. She only got through two songs of an audition with Lunt and label head Craig Kallman (“I sang through a cordless mic and a guitar amp”) before getting signed on the spot.

“I’ve wanted a record deal since I was 15,” she bubbles. “I thought I was ready then, but this feels like the perfect time to launch my career.”

“I see myself as a quirky, funky Valley girl with a country voice who loves country music,” says the girl dubbed on her MySpace page, Rainbow Bright, for her colorful hair. “I don’t look like your average country singer. I go anywhere from dressing in all-black goth to looking like Punky Brewster with an ‘80s new wave look.”

And when she’s not singing, her second favorite thing is shopping for clothes. “I’m really into fashion,” she enthuses. “I can’t wait to do photo shoots and try on different outfits.”

With a country edge and youthful enthusiasm, Jesse Lee is ready to take the world by storm.

“I’ll hit everyone,” she boasts. “From newborns to 99-year-olds. I feel like this album captures what I want to say, that this is how I feel. Everything is not just about guys. The young girls like me, but so do their moms. To me, that’s the best of both worlds.”

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