See Rebel Cowgirl Jaime Wyatt’s Gritty Video for ‘Best of Me’
Up-and-comer Jaime Wyatt has gotten a lot of attention for both her music –a seamless blend of early California country and modern outlaw sensibilities – and for her unusual origin story: Her new album Felony Blues got its title from an actual stint in prison.
Don’t let that story distract, though. Wyatt can write a rowdy anthem with the best of them, but she also knows her way around a ballad, as heard particularly in the Felony Blues standout track “Giving Back the Best of Me.”
“It’s the closest thing I’ve got to a love song in my collection of songs,” Wyatt tells Rolling Stone Country. “But it’s also feeling like you do your best, but you’re still like, ‘How the hell did I score so well on this person? I slipped in the back door.'”
In an exclusive premiere of the video for that tune, Wyatt performs in various Seattle locales, including in front of an historic home, the Edith Macefield House. Macefield, who passed away in 2008, famously didn’t sell her home to a commercial development company, leaving the tiny structure to eventually be flanked by giant, faceless buildings.
“That little house behind me in the video – it’s a tiny little house with two huge buildings on the side of it – that’s the Macefield House,” Wyatt says. “It’s a symbol of all this gnarly progress and change, and the few people who stand up for it.”
In addition to paying homage to Macefield, Wyatt also honors a group of people who have been integral to her development as an artist, the dancers of Underwood Stables. (At the end of the clip, Wyatt shows her love for Underwood in a pretty permanent way.)
“This group of dancers, they’re like my family up there,” she explains. “They kind of adopted me and really helped me book shows, then they all come out and dance full force like that. At the end when I’m getting tattooed there, they’re tattooing ‘Underwood Stables’ on me.”
In a couple weeks, Wyatt will hit the road on a summer tour, kicking off May 6th in Huntington Beach, California. Check out a full list of Wyatt’s tour dates below.
May 6 – Huntington Beach, California @ Don the Beachcomber
June 1 – Los Angeles, California @ Grand Ole Echo *
June 5 – Phoenix, Arizona @ Rhythm Room
June 7 – Lubbock, Texas @ Blue Light
June 8 – San Angelo, Texas @ House of FiFi Dubois
June 13 – Dallas, Texas @ City Tavern
June 14 – Fort Worth, Texas @ Magnolia Motor Lounge
June 15 – Austin, Texas @ Driskill Hotel
June 16 – Houston, Texas @ Mucky Duck
June 22 – Baton Rouge, Louisiana @ Dyson House Listening Room
June 27 – Lexington, Kentucky @ The Burl
July 2 – Des Moines, Iowa @ Vaudeville Mews
July 14 – Las Vegas, Nevada @ Vinyl at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino #
July 15 – Pioneertown, California @ Pappy & Harriet’s #
July 29 –-Sugar Creek, Missouri @ Tumbleweed Music Festival
* w/ Little Hurricane
# w/ Shooter Jennings