JESS & THE BANDITS
Aiken Promotions presents
JESS & THE BANDITS
plus guest NA FIANNA THE RISING^ Upstairs ^
Country music really is a powerful thing. It unites fans, and it brings bands together too. Jess and the Bandits are the living proof. Frontwoman Jessica Clemmons, the singer-songwriter from Houston, Texas with the big voice and the warm personality, bonded with the four Brits who make up the Bandits over their mutual love of the music. Now they’re turning that shared affection into some of the most accessible country-pop-rock of the year. Now, at the helm of the five-piece band, she’s ready to take things up another gear. To lift a phrase from Jess and the Bandits’ feelgood single ‘My Name Is Trouble,’ this country girl can rock your world, but she can take it slow, too. “We got a little of that country-rock feel, and then we’ve got those really pretty country ballad sort of songs,” says Jessica. “I spent ten days in Nashville hoping to write enough songs, and left with more than I could put on the record. I’m really excited about it.” Jessica graced the Radio 2 playlist earlier this year with ‘Single Tonight’, had further airplay with ‘Love Like That,’ and sent social media into a spin when she performed her showstopping female take on ‘Wichita Lineman’ on Terry Wogan’s Sunday morning show. All of those tracks are on the new album with the Bandits. With the band, she wowed arena audiences on Boyzone’s BZ20 tour, just as she had on earlier outings with the Overtones and the Stylistics. “When we did that tour,” she says, “I would go and sign things after the show. The queue was so long, and most people were saying ‘I didn’t even realise I liked country music.’ I’m thinking ‘Well, I’m easing you into it.’ I found writing country songs difficult in the beginning, then really easy, because I was able to just tell a story and put it to music. “I thought ‘This is fantastic. This is what I want to do.’ I’m a storyteller in my writing, and with country you can just say it and put it out there.” That’s exactly what Jess and the Bandits are doing. The results are both countrified and soulful, and Jessica is loving it as much as the audiences are. “This direction feels so natural,” she says. “I guess it’s the Texas in me.” Tickets priced €15 (inc. booking fee) are on sale now through www.ticketmaster.ie & usual outlets nationwide.