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JESS KERBER
From Way Down Here(Felte)
Add date: 6.24.2025
Release date: 6.20.2025
Links:
Apple Music
Bandcamp
Instagram
Spotify
Tidal
TikTok
YouTube
Nashville’s Jess Kerber first picked up a guitar at the age of 12, and her precocious drive to experiment with different tunings and picking styles – influenced by kindred spirits like Joni Mitchell and Susan Tedeschi – led to the development of a unique sonic palette and authentic, personal approach to songwriting. On debut album, From Way Down Here, she crafts a beautiful suite of powerfully emotive songs that reflect on maturity, humility, and the importance of feeling at home. Inspired equally by her upbringing in Louisiana and exposure to contemporary indie-folk as a student at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, these ten pieces highlight the dynamism and depth of Kerber’s gorgeous voice and thoughtful, humanistic lyrics, as well as the refined intricacy of her guitar playing.
Opener, “Never Again”, waltzes at mid-tempo with a placid strum and breathy tenor vocal right up front, blossoming into its chorus above diffuse guitar harmonies and a weeping pedal steel. Evoking the cocooned feeling of a starlit drive through the countryside, it is transportive and earnest, with shimmering production flourishes that subtly illuminate its vibrant core. “Next To You” is equally delicate, but offers a slight tonal shift, guided by understated electronic programming and a hypnotic, fingerpicked pattern. As it patiently builds, her multi-tracked, honeyed vocals rise from a gentle coo to a stirring howl, exhibiting a remarkable confidence and finesse.
While developing many of these compositions at early live performances in and around Boston and Cambridge, Kerber encountered fellow songwriter Will Orchard, who quickly became a partner and collaborator in the genesis of their recording. Orchard’s production prowess and multi-instrumental talents helped push Kerber’s arrangements to a new level of fullness, while retaining the disarming purity and emotion of the main elements, in a dynamic akin to that of renowned contemporaries Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. Nodding to the traditions of Americana, the two artists – along with mixing engineer Charlie Dahlke of The Brazen Youth – have created their own subgenre that is at once intimate and universal, comforting and raw.
Lead single, “I Wonder If I’ll Forget This” highlights this complexity with a reverberating organ drone and layered, delicately plucked guitars that cradle Kerber’s plaintive, sincere delivery. “Carry My Home” has the aura of a private living room performance, as her sparkling arrangement and angelic vocals are left mostly unadorned, while “Tropical Storm” summons a luminous sweetness from its bouncy tempo, complex time signature, and playful production, as she sings, “I am so small but so tall for my age / Time is so long / Tropical storm / Pull me right back home”.
Humility is also the lyrical undercurrent of title track, “From Way Down Here”, as Kerber hints at the grandeur of the world when viewed from a minuscule scale. Her vibrato creates a deep sense of tenderness and warmth, while Nick Larimore’s pedal steel sighs and sways in tandem with an easygoing accompaniment of drums, bass, and ambient guitar. Here, the influence of her childhood – and what she lovingly calls the “way apart from the rest of the world feeling” of the Deep South – shines through in the honest, straightforward, and timeless qualities of her composition.
The balladic “Enough” is built on one of Kerber’s most striking vocal melodies, as she sings about the moments that create a lasting love: long drives, quiet mornings, and keeping one another warm. Overflowing with affection and charm, it’s a touching ode that leads into closing track, “Over It”, where a stripped-back pairing of minimal keys and strummed guitar forefronts her arresting lyrics: “This life ain’t over yet / Change while you still can / When you mean what you say / Say it ‘til they understand”.
About her process, Kerber notes, “The most important thing is to lean into intuition, and when I was working with Will on these songs, it was so much fun that I almost forgot we were making a record.” Fittingly, From Way Down Here is the rare debut that shows all the fully-formed hallmarks of a seasoned songwriter, and across its varied environments, she creates a compelling world of raw beauty and truth, whose spell remains long after the final notes fade.
Apple Music
Bandcamp
Spotify
Tidal
TikTok
YouTube
Nashville’s Jess Kerber first picked up a guitar at the age of 12, and her precocious drive to experiment with different tunings and picking styles – influenced by kindred spirits like Joni Mitchell and Susan Tedeschi – led to the development of a unique sonic palette and authentic, personal approach to songwriting. On debut album, From Way Down Here, she crafts a beautiful suite of powerfully emotive songs that reflect on maturity, humility, and the importance of feeling at home. Inspired equally by her upbringing in Louisiana and exposure to contemporary indie-folk as a student at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, these ten pieces highlight the dynamism and depth of Kerber’s gorgeous voice and thoughtful, humanistic lyrics, as well as the refined intricacy of her guitar playing.
Opener, “Never Again”, waltzes at mid-tempo with a placid strum and breathy tenor vocal right up front, blossoming into its chorus above diffuse guitar harmonies and a weeping pedal steel. Evoking the cocooned feeling of a starlit drive through the countryside, it is transportive and earnest, with shimmering production flourishes that subtly illuminate its vibrant core. “Next To You” is equally delicate, but offers a slight tonal shift, guided by understated electronic programming and a hypnotic, fingerpicked pattern. As it patiently builds, her multi-tracked, honeyed vocals rise from a gentle coo to a stirring howl, exhibiting a remarkable confidence and finesse.
While developing many of these compositions at early live performances in and around Boston and Cambridge, Kerber encountered fellow songwriter Will Orchard, who quickly became a partner and collaborator in the genesis of their recording. Orchard’s production prowess and multi-instrumental talents helped push Kerber’s arrangements to a new level of fullness, while retaining the disarming purity and emotion of the main elements, in a dynamic akin to that of renowned contemporaries Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. Nodding to the traditions of Americana, the two artists – along with mixing engineer Charlie Dahlke of The Brazen Youth – have created their own subgenre that is at once intimate and universal, comforting and raw.
Lead single, “I Wonder If I’ll Forget This” highlights this complexity with a reverberating organ drone and layered, delicately plucked guitars that cradle Kerber’s plaintive, sincere delivery. “Carry My Home” has the aura of a private living room performance, as her sparkling arrangement and angelic vocals are left mostly unadorned, while “Tropical Storm” summons a luminous sweetness from its bouncy tempo, complex time signature, and playful production, as she sings, “I am so small but so tall for my age / Time is so long / Tropical storm / Pull me right back home”.
Humility is also the lyrical undercurrent of title track, “From Way Down Here”, as Kerber hints at the grandeur of the world when viewed from a minuscule scale. Her vibrato creates a deep sense of tenderness and warmth, while Nick Larimore’s pedal steel sighs and sways in tandem with an easygoing accompaniment of drums, bass, and ambient guitar. Here, the influence of her childhood – and what she lovingly calls the “way apart from the rest of the world feeling” of the Deep South – shines through in the honest, straightforward, and timeless qualities of her composition.
The balladic “Enough” is built on one of Kerber’s most striking vocal melodies, as she sings about the moments that create a lasting love: long drives, quiet mornings, and keeping one another warm. Overflowing with affection and charm, it’s a touching ode that leads into closing track, “Over It”, where a stripped-back pairing of minimal keys and strummed guitar forefronts her arresting lyrics: “This life ain’t over yet / Change while you still can / When you mean what you say / Say it ‘til they understand”.
About her process, Kerber notes, “The most important thing is to lean into intuition, and when I was working with Will on these songs, it was so much fun that I almost forgot we were making a record.” Fittingly, From Way Down Here is the rare debut that shows all the fully-formed hallmarks of a seasoned songwriter, and across its varied environments, she creates a compelling world of raw beauty and truth, whose spell remains long after the final notes fade.
Photo credit: Alexandra Santos