Jessica Lynn is a New Yorker with a Tennessee heart whose vocals and lyricism have firmly established her spot in country music. With 20 years of experience, Lynn has an array of number 1 records and has shared the stage with icons like Keith Urban, Brad Paisley and Loretta Lynn.

Lynn joins Building Our Own Nashville on release week of her latest album, ‘All I Own’ – a body of work that documents both her personal and professional journey. With double meanings carefully woven throughout, ‘All I Own’ is a record that delivers a different story every time it’s played.

Facing her biggest challenges yet, 2024 was the year that Lynn came face to face with the very real possibility that she’d never sing again. ‘All I Own’ holds a special place for Lynn – and her fans – and not just because of its lyrical cleverness and beautiful melodies. It will always be the album that almost never was, bringing even more powerful meanings to songs like ‘I Never Said It’d Be Easy’ and ’16 Miles’.

Let’s start with the album, ‘All I Own’, came out on the 17th January. How has the response been?

It’s been so exciting. As an independent artist I never have too many expectations because it’s very difficult to compete with these big artists with so much money and marketing behind a record and it’s always a kind of uphill battle. However, I always hope that it will resonate with people and that they’ll buy it. It’s been so exciting and on day of release it went number 1 out here in the states and number 2 all genre which was crazy to me and the same on iTunes. We’ve done top 5 in Brazil, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands – it’s spreading like crazy. It’s just been so cool and rewarding to see.

Wow! And that’s so important as well because this is a really special album – obviously every album is important to the artist but this is a really special one for you because of the personal and professional battles that you’ve bene going through. Do you want to talk about why that’s such a meaningful album this time?

Yeah, so like you said, all music is personal, but some is way more personal. Long story short I had a routine sinus surgery in January. I’ve been chronically ill for years like no one has known because I have gotten very good at hiding that I was always sick on tour…basically, none of my sinuses were functioning properly…I needed the surgery really bad and was terrified to do it because obviously my voice is everything. And it’s just a risky surgery they’re right next to your eyes, right next to your brain, so it really scared me. However, in 2023 I was sick so much I was on so much medicine and just always feeling awful so I decided to do it.

Lynn was set to head out on tour, taking her out of her home from May right through to December. January to March was her planned recovery time where she would write this project and then record it before heading out in May. However, when Lynn started to sing again post-op, she knew something was wrong.

It’s funny, not funny, ironic that the song I knew something was wrong was when I tried to record ‘I Never Said It’d Be Easy’ off the record. Of all songs! When I was singing it, I felt a lot of pain in my throat and I was very hoarse after and it was just something that was very unusual. But in my head I’m like I just healed from a major surgery, I’m probably just out of shape. Then I realised as I was starting to warm up that big chunks of my range were missing. Then it got worse and worse where I could barely talk without losing my voice. It was painful to even talk. One time I went to say hey to my husband and nothing came out. I immediately went into severe panic like what is going on here?

A trip to the doctor saw Lynn diagnosed with a post-operative complication caused Muscle Tension Dysphonia (MTD) – commonly referred to as ‘Squeeze’. A condition that causes the muscles around the voice box to squeeze, making it difficult and sometimes for Lynn, impossible to produce sound. With Lynn recovering from surgery, using steroids to manage her condition and diving back into singing, doctors told her that it was the perfect storm for the condition to develop. Lynn now had only two months to heal and record her album before heading out on tour with Jo Dee Messina.

I couldn’t see my friends, I could barely speak, and I didn’t want anyone to know what was going on so I started therapy immediately. I would go three times a week in person, two times chiropractic care a week, acupuncture therapy and every single day for two months and I still have to do it, not as much now, but three times a day I would have to do three minutes of therapy. So my entire day would just revolve around breaking to do therapy and putting heat and steam and all these things on my muscles to try and loosen my muscles. What’s the worst thing for tense muscles…stress. And, of course, all of this is causing stress and getting worse, and you can’t just tell your body to calm down. It was such a panicked, depressive state that I was in because of this.

Two weeks before leaving for tour, Lynn got clearance to try singing again. Knowing that it was now or never, Lynn developed a restrictive schedule with significant limitations to her singing but allowed her to record this album.

I could only sing for ten minutes at a time. It was all I could handle, and I couldn’t stress the muscles too much so I had a timer here in the studio and I would do as many takes as I could in that ten minutes which would usually be two. Then I would have to break for ten minutes. I’d have to go lay in my bed and put hot compresses all over my throat and steam. Then I would do another ten minutes and go back in there, ten minutes and go back in there. So, it took forever to do the vocals because it was like a full day trying to get this done. It was one of the most stressful things I have ever gone through. But I did it. We literally uploaded the record for distribution the day we were leaving for tour.

Was there ever any point during that where you were like is it worth it? Is it ok if I just never sing…can I do something else?

No. I never thought that…I thought that out of fear, ‘if I don’t get my voice back what do I do?’ And of course, that stress didn’t help the situation but it was like how do I tell people, what do I tell people, what other career path could I possibly do? I’ve been doing this since I was 13 years old. But inside I was like no I’m gonna beat this but there were days where I didn’t really know if I could. It was very mentally taxing.

And what helped you get through those dark days?

I think just having faith honestly which is what ‘16 Miles is about’. You’re going to have dark times in life and the video shows all different struggles from all different people. If you have faith then you can always make it through if you believe. I really had to just sit there – I remember during my therapy I found all this meditation music to calm me down and was just like you’re gonna get through this nothing is forever.

‘16 Miles’ – you have the music video just came out. What was the inspiration behind putting that video together?

So the song was written during a very dark time in my life that I didn’t know if I could keep going in music. I alternatively titled that song, ‘The Musician’s Prayer’. We lost everything after Covid. It was our first tour back after covid and everything was going wrong. I lost thousands of dollars. We had driven all the way out to South Dakota for two big shows and the venues closed when we were already out there. The band, the bus expenses, it was so stressful.

I was in a dark place. The whole tour I was like I don’t know if I can do this like this time I might actually give up. I was so upset that I felt like I really needed to reset myself, so I found a ranch that was surrounded by 16 miles of nothing. Only prairie as far as the eye can see. So I was like I’m booking this for the week. We had all of our shows cancelled so I said we’re going to go relax, get ourselves together and take it easy. Every day I woke up to the beautiful sunsets, the wolves would be howling at night, it was such a beautiful calm peaceful place and it really rejuvenated me so that I could keep going. I wrote ‘16 Miles’ about that. Funnily enough that was symbolic in my life and my birthday is Jan 6th – 1 6.

Not everybody can relate to a musician struggle which is what I wrote that song about, you know, that hard dirt road that you’re travelling down but nothing is going to break me. It’s going to be my decision if I break is basically what the song is about. So, I said I want the music video to feature other struggles. You know, we all universally struggle. Everybody’s struggle and everybody’s story is different but we can all relate to that journey. I really wanted to showcase that in the video. It was filmed by a 15-time Emmy award winning company, Fire Rocks Productions which was really cool to work with them. It was a special feeling in the room filming it because we had come up with the whole concept and I knew I had a lot of gospel feel on it which I loved so I knew I wanted a gospel choir so it was just something very different for me to produce and put together. But I had an incredible team to help me do it.

And the fiddle that’s in that video as well!

Yes so he is one of my very good friends that I met. I work with the US government, the department of state and I mentor young artists around the globe helping them create successful, profitable careers in the arts. Kyle is also hired by them, so we met crossing paths when we were both doing stuff. Kyle always blew me away with his talent. He’s such a sweet and genuine person so when I wrote the song, I was like this could really use some fiddle and I’m like, there is only one person that I’m gonna ask to do this and if it’s not him then I don’t want the fiddle on it. He lives in Oklahoma and we’re in New York so again, how the universe works, we had one day that we could film that video because of church availability and all different production companies availability, my hair girl’s availability, that was the one weekend day that he was not booked. So, we flew him to New York and he flew right out the very next morning.

Let’s talk about the track listing of the album. What’s the significance of the bookends – the start and finish of the album?

Yeah I took a lot of time to do that. Actually, still in my phone, I came across this the other day, is all of the different orders. I knew I wanted to start with ‘Bet On It’ because it’s a really attention grabbing energetic start to the record which I then wanted to take everybody on a journey about overcoming bad things that have happened. Every song on this record is a dual meaning so it’s about love, life, loss but it’s also all about the music industry and my ups and downs of it. So ‘Bet On It’ is about overcoming bad things that have happened. I’ve been screwed so many times in this business, and I wrote that song out of frustration. My favourite line in it is, ‘for every king and queen I’ve got an ace up my sleeve you can bet on it’. So, for me, that’s a good way to start to the record.

I knew that the last two songs – the last three – I wanted to go on a very specific journey with those. So, ‘You Saved Me’ is track 8 which talks about how music saved me. Upon first listen you would think it was a love song, like I’m singing it somebody who saved me but it’s really how music has saved my life. And it ends, it’s actually with a very good friend of mine – his name is Liam Wakefield he’s an incredible veteran that has overcome so many challenges. He was the one who sang with me because he was the only option for me to tell that story and we actually give proceeds to a veteran organisation that helped him a lot when he was going through it so I knew that had to be track 8. And that ends with a very haunting ‘darling you saved’ and it kind of trails off with an echo which is what I knew I wanted to go into ‘16 Miles’. Because it’s like, music saves and then here we go down this hard journey with the final track being ‘I Never Said It’d Be Easy’. So here you’ve gone through the full rollercoaster of life and emotions and then life is never gonna be easy but it’s worth fighting for.

This album has big boots to fill! ‘Lone Rider’ came out in 2022 and that did incredible. It topped the charts – number 1 spot in the USA and UK, it had all genre charting, it did super well. What have you learnt from that album – what are you bringing with you and what are you leaving behind?

I’ve learned to just be myself. At the beginning of my career I was very concerned with writing for a big festival stage or writing what I think country music sounds like at the moment but ‘Lone Rider’ really showed me to write from the heart and not with the head. My most successful tracks ever were the tracks that I genuinely was like I don’t care what genre this is, this is good music, this sounds like my voice that I want to share with the world. So, I ‘ve really learned that a lot with ‘All I Own’ – make the type of music that makes you happy. So that’s what I’ll take with me.

Things that I will leave is perfectionism. I can’t help it, I’m a Capricorn and type A + + + +. I strive for perfection. It’s a gift and a curse. If I’m not at 200% then I’m not doing enough. And I think that’s why I’ve been successful, but it also can be my downfall because burn out and all those other types of things – which I’ve definitely experienced. However, ‘Lone Rider’ – and I did have a lot of time to put that record together because it was a pandemic project, but I mean I painstakingly would listen again, like, “oh no, that’s not right let’s do it again,” “I’m slightly flat on this note,” and I still am now believe me but I have perfect pitch – I can’t sing in perfect pitch but I can recognise perfect pitch. If something is like a milli-bit off, then I’ll hear it and it will drive me to the point of insanity. So I’ve tried, especially with ‘All I Own’, because I had such a limited ability to record and such limited time to do things.

I really learned that coming from your heart is the best delivery. So what if it’s not technically perfect, it means something because you sang it that way and it was meant to come across that way emotionally. A lot of that mentality I was kind of forced into – again, because I just physically couldn’t give it one more go. I listened back to things that drove me nuts during the recording process and I’m like, “I hate that note”. There were a few things where I only had like four takes of the song and normally I’d do like 20 to pick and choose and I was like I hate that, I hate that, I hate that and I hate that…well that’s all you have…well OK I guess I have to choose one of these things that I hate. And there’s so many moments throughout the record that now, when I listen to the record back now that it’s been a few months I’m like, you know, it’s not so bad (she laughs). So, I think learning to not be such a perfectionist is something that I left behind.

From ‘All I Own’ – favourite to play, hardest to write?

Ooh favourite to play…we did debut a lot of them on tour last summer…let’s see. ‘I Never Said It’d Be Easy’. I love playing that one. It’s one I was nervous to put in the set because it’s very mid-tempo and my shows are very high energy so sometimes, we feel like we lose the audience when we take that mid-tempo dip but everywhere we went, that song was a hit. There was an electrifying energy in the audience, no matter what country. I think we did six countries on the last tour, and it was every single place it hit with them so that was really exciting. I started to look forward to it in the set every night because of the response it was getting.

Hardest to write…hmmm…that’s a tough one…let’s see (starts to list the album tracks). They’re hard in different ways. Some of them I want to have a certain vibe so I’ll painstakingly focus on or rewrite lyrics…’Mixed Signals’ was a little bit hard to write because I wanted all of the drink puns in there. That was a little tricky to keep creatively finding ways to keep talking about a guy through the lens of drink. But, it came out so cool. I don’t often listen to my own music just because I overcriticise it and I can’t just listen to it as a listener. I did listen through in honour of the release coming out, I did listen through the whole record the other day and I was like, ‘oh that was pretty clever!” (She laughs.) That was a challenge.

You’ve toured with some very big names, Brad Paisley, Keith Urban, Loretta Lynn – what are your main takeaways from touring with such successful artists?

We had a lot of great experiences and then we had a lot of experiences that make you think like, hm, I learned something from this but not in the way that I was hoping. I think my biggest take aways are that – and it’s something I’ve kept with me throughout my whole career – the way you treat people is everything. This is a lesson that we all learn when we are very young but not many people carry it with them as adults…treat people how you want to be treated.

It’s been very interesting to see certain people to not be the kindest backstage or to their staff, things like that, or to their fans. And then it’s been really wonderful to see people that I’ve always looked up to be so warm and friendly and welcoming and it’s something that I’ve always tried to take with me. For example, Montgomery Gentry, Troy, I was so sad when he passed away because he was one of the kindest people. I remember I was in my dressing room, and he just comes in like talking to me, you know, like sweatpants like ‘hey thanks for being with us’. Loretta Lynn – her family came to my dressing room to tell me to come hang out with them in there. Stuff like that.

We do this huge Christmas spectacular tour every year and work with a lot of kids in the city and I go in and I say hi to all the kids and I go out of my dressing room and try to spend time with everybody. It’s stuff that I’ve learned from these people that really made me feel special and good inside. So yeah, it’s both good and bad that I’ve taken away from those experiences.

WATCH THE “16 MILES” MUSIC VIDEO BELOW: