Jessica Lea Mayfield has a sophisticated understanding of emotion. During her childhood, spent playing in her family’s band as they moved back and forth between Ohio and Tennessee, she developed that skill into remarkable songwriting, exhibited on a series of acclaimed solo records — her first, With Blasphemy So Heartfelt, was produced by Dan Auerbach and released in 2008, shortly after she turned 19. Recently, she’s had to focus her perception on some extremely painful, extremely personal topics.
“Last week, I had surgery for a broken shoulder related to a domestic violence incident,” wrote Mayfield in a statement posted on Instagram in July. “I have been suffering from this injury (and others that still require surgeries) for three years. This is not uncommon. I want to tell anyone who is protecting their abuser that it’s not worth it. ... My silence helps no one but the person who did this to me.”
Following a difficult separation from her husband, bandmate and co-producer Jesse Newport, Mayfield moved from Goodlettsville to Nashville, where she tells the Scene she’s enjoyed spending time going to friends’ shows and being able to walk around town. It’s all part of regaining her independence, a challenging process that had a major influence on her fourth LP, Sorry Is Gone, which was released Sept. 29 via ATO.
“I think I’ve been learning a lot in the past two years about boundaries and self-love and self-esteem, and all of those things that adult women need to have,” Mayfield says. “I’m resolving a lot of issues. I’m finally able to advocate for myself and speak up for myself.”
Sorry Is Gone is direct in addressing Mayfield’s need to declare her self-worth. The title track is a bold vote of self-confidence: “But I deserve to occupy this space / Without feeling like I don’t belong / I’m done excusing myself / I’m sorry, I’m sorry / But sorry is gone.”
“It was difficult at first to get a lot of these things out,” says Mayfield. “This album wouldn’t have happened had I not put the work in on getting in touch with myself.”
While her writing on Sorry displays more self-assurance, the record is sonically a bit softer than her previous release, 2014’s grunge-tinged Make My Head Sing.
“With Make My Head Sing, I was going through a lot of really heavy things that I felt like I couldn’t talk about, so I ended up speaking through my guitar instead of lyrics,” Mayfield says. “With this record, I was able to get back more into the songwriting and worry about how it would sound later.”
Producer John Agnello, who has worked with artists ranging from Alice Cooper to Kurt Vile to Dinosaur Jr., shaped the sound of Sorry. He brought in a stellar lineup of musicians, including Sonic Youth’s Steve Shelley and Mayfield’s longtime friend Seth Avett.
“I had no worries working with [Agnello],” says Mayfield. “I wanted to be more involved, but I was bummed that I didn’t need to, because he got me, and I liked every single idea that he had. It was almost too easy.”
But it’s been much more difficult to share those songs in person, she says. Before Mayfield could begin her tour for the record in October, her car was hit from behind, and she sustained injuries that required her to cancel all of the month’s shows and receive treatment from both a physical therapist and a neurologist. The accident was a serious setback in other ways as well.
“I have PTSD related to domestic violence incidents,” Mayfield says. “So when this car accident happened, it really made everything come back. I got injured, and I couldn’t separate it from other bad things that have happened to me.”
Friday’s show at The Basement East marks Mayfield’s return to the road. Though she hasn’t been able to see her fans’ response to Sorry Is Gone in person yet, she is grateful for how they’ve responded to the album in messages they’ve posted online.
“I feel like everyone’s been really supportive, and it’s created a good loop of reaching out,” she says. “I’m glad that people feel like they can talk to me.”
“It’s just good to not have to keep everything in a hidden, secretive place,” says Mayfield, referring to the lyrics of Sorry opener “Wish You Could See Me Now.” “There’s no reason to be ashamed about any of this, so why don’t we all just talk about it?”
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