Jessie James Decker Paves Her Own Way Through Country Music

Jessie James Decker’s latest album, Southern Girl City Lights, shot to No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart after its release in mid-October, but that’s just one of many accomplishments she’s experienced since recording and releasing the album. A multi-year labor of love, Decker feels like this is one significant step on her musical journey.

“I’m feeling very grateful for that,” Decker says of her first No. 1 album, adding that her mother was the first person she called when she heard the news. “This is something that we’ve been doing together for so long.”

Southern Girl City Lights serves as a follow up to the Blackbird Sessions, a collection of cover songs she put together as a passion project, and is her first full-length album release in 10 years.

Just one of the tracks that’s special to the soon-to-be mother of three is “Almost Over You” featuring longtime friend Randy Houser. The song is a full circle moment of sorts for the star, who says Houser and Jamey Johnson were two of the first people she wrote with in Nashville and gave her a chance to prove herself.

“I love Randy. It felt like just two professionals taking care of business,” she admits, acknowledging that recording the track together was easy due to their natural chemistry. “It was just really special to be able to have it kind of come full circle and have him a part of this project 10 years later.”

The track that hits her in the heart is “Another Dumb Love Song,” which finds the singer reminiscing about a past love, reliving those feelings of heartbreak all over again.

“That one definitely speaks to me and brings back those emotions of heartbreak and I haven’t felt those emotions in a very long time,” she explains. Happily married to Tennessee Titans player Eric Decker, the country star says it was a unique experience to go back in time and feel the sorrowful emotions she previously felt after a challenging breakup. “I never get to feel any other emotions than happy these days, so it’s kind of cool to go back and go ‘wow, you know what, I really went through heartbreak and had my heart scrambled,’” she admits. “It’s interesting to be able to go back to that.”

While each song tells its own unique story, the one thread constantly weaved throughout the project is Decker’s undeniable soulful voice, an element she says she’s always felt at home bringing to life. “I always say that’s the real me coming out,” she says. “People don’t realize that I am naturally a soulful singer, but I think being in a country music world, up until Chris Stapleton coming around, it wasn’t always allowed to do all those big runs.”

She attributes the breakthrough of Stapleton’s soulful sound as a way of opening the door for her to show off that special quality in her own voice, saying that when she gets to share that soul is when she’s most comfortable. “I’ve always loved that part of my voice more than anything I’ve done,” she shares.

Armed with a powerful voice and story all her own, Decker is ready to build a lane for herself within the country genre, citing 90s icons Shania Twain, Trisha Yearwood, Martina McBride and Faith Hill as the fearless leaders she uses as inspiration for her own music.

“They all dominated country music and I’ve always loved female country signers more than the boys, hate to say it. So I think what I contribute is maybe bringing a little bit of that back amongst the girls,” she reveals. “I think that there is a spot for me in this genre and in this world and I hope that I’m starting to really pave my own way.”

Southern Girl City Lights is available for purchase now.