Jetty Rae is a singer-songwriter based out of Ann Arbor Michigan, originally from Northern Michigan. Jetty has been singing, touring, and recording for the past five years. While living in Hawaii for two years, she became inspired and picked up the guitar—and made many friends, which led to her first regular gigs at a place called “Dirty Jakes.” Jetty would play facing the ocean, as she recalls one time a man was so at peace while she was playing he fell asleep in his bar stool. While in Hawaii, she also joined the rap and hip-hop group Soul Chronicle, and toured the Hawaiian Islands, as well as mainland China with them. Her short stint with Soul Chronicle opened up other doors for her to record with other hip-hop groups such as The S.O.G. crew. With her first experiences in the studio under her belt, Jetty left the Independent hip-hop world for a more organic, folk sound. She began writing her first album Blackberries (LP 2007) and borrowed the money from her Grandma to get her first album recorded, mastered, and replicated. Her first album opened the door for Jetty to tour Northern Michigan at numerous festivals, and venues—Traverse City Film Festival, and Blissfest to name a few. Over the past few years she has been honing her craft something she says she “wasn’t naturally talented with,” in numerous concert dates ranging from Fort Worth, to LA, Chicago to Brooklyn. In November 2009 she released her Nobody EP, which she recorded in Nashville. Slowly but surely Jetty Rae’s voice has begun to make ripples in this congested but exciting independent music world. She recently won the JetBlue T5 contest through ourstage.com, in which she was flown to New York and performed at JetBlue’s new Terminal 5 at JFK. Jetty has also been noticed by MTV.com’s “Needle In The Haystack.” Her song “I Love You,” was selected for a free download of the week. They also featured an interview with her in their blog. Jetty has performed in The Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn New York, The Grand Traverse Opera House, The Dennos Center, and countless other venues. She has opened for Grace Potter & The Nocturnals, Jay Buchanan, Juana Molina, Rachel Davis, The Ragbirds, and many more Ann Arbor Favorites. Currently Jetty is recording her second LP at her home studio, and is hoping for a September 2010 release date. This highly anticipated album will be produced and recorded entirely by Jetty. She was inspired to take audio recording classes after becoming dissatisfied with her lack of control in her previous projects. She was inspired by the do-it yourself-ness by the likes of Imogen Heap, and Aimee Mann. Her influences include Jennifer Knapp, Brandi Carlile, Cat Power, Ray Lamontagne, Lauryn Hill, Patty Griffin, and many more. Her sound is ever changing, one song could be completely Norah, and the other completely Fiona. If you’ve been to a Jetty Rae show you can agree to the fact that song-writing is her true forte, but how she marries her words to her voice and melodies is a thing to see. She has power, and restraint in her voice—the ability to pull at your heart strings delicately like in “Blink of an Eye.” On the other hand she also possesses the power to awaken a passion, a fight in all of us when she really belts it. Her hopes are to eventually start a label for independent artists like herself—that will empower artists to start where they are. She is hoping to give them the tools, studio time, experience, and resources they need to succeed in making great art. Her aims are not to become a millionaire, or well-know, but rather to evoke a change—that is much more powerful than herself. “It doesn’t matter if I am playing for ten people, or a thousand people—it’s that one person who is touched, that one person who doesn’t feel alone anymore. That’s the power of music..and that’s why I do this.” Jetty is always scoping out small venues, open mic’s and coffee shops for up and coming talents. If you are interested in learning more about her label please contact her @ jettyrae.com. In the meantime look forward to seeing Jetty play live with her bassist James Hughes.
