Woodyfest 2019: Jamie Lin Wilson

Jamie Lin Wilson

By some stan­dards, Jamie Lin Wilson is a late bloomer. She was [Sidenote: This is the sev­enth post in our cov­er­age of the twenty-sec­ond annual Woody Guthrie Folk Festival. We’ll be alter­nat­ing our report­ing with essays and photo gal­leries from the six­teenth fes­ti­val in 2013, so check in often for a mix of old and new Woodyfest good­ness.] nine­teen when she heard Natlie Maines per­form­ing a solo dur­ing a Dixie Chicks con­cert. After she dropped a few casual remarks to her mother and a cousin she found her­self unwrap­ping an acoustic gui­tar on Christmas morning.

Before long she began attend­ing open-mic per­for­mances in College Station; soon after she was co-found­ing The Gougers (also known as The Sidehill Gougers), a pop­u­lar Americana combo. Concurrently Wilson formed an all-female coun­try-folk band, The Trishas. The lat­ter outfit’s close har­monies and song­writ­ing soon gar­nered a con­sid­er­able fan base and invi­ta­tions to play large festivals.

When The Trishas went on hia­tus, Wilson embarked on her solo career, releas­ing Holidays & Wedding Rings in 2015 and Jumping over Rocks in 2018.

The lat­ter album yielded “Oklahoma Stars,” co-writ­ten by Wilson and Evan Felker (Turnpike Troubadours). Predictably, the Woodyfest audi­ence lit up for the song. But they were already putty in Wilson’s hand — her expres­sive voice and keen song­writ­ing being more than suf­fi­cient to keep the audience’s attention.

Of the new artists this writer saw at the 2019 fes­ti­val, Wilson stood out as a favorite. Hopefully it won’t be her final appear­ance on the Pastures of Plenty stage.

Gallery