Written during a tough period in her life, during which her marriage came to an end, the album is a raw document of a woman in progress.
Recorded with producer John Agnello (Kurt Vile, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., Phosphorescent), the album features a variety of world-renowned musicians including Seth Avett on backing vocals and keys, drummer Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth, Sun Kill Moon), bassist Emil Amos (Grails, Holy Sons) and guitarist Cameron Deyell (Sia, Streets of Laredo).

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The title-track "Sorry is Gone" is an empowering ode to moving forwards, Mayfield has been able to come at songwriting from a pure perspective, lead more by her heart than any textbook. It's what makes the tracks of Sorry Is Gone so striking and visceral - there is no filter on the emotions, no rulebook and certainly no excuses for anything she's been through or the candor she fires.

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Jessica Lea Mayfield might make some people uncomfortable with the level of honesty she projects on her forthcoming LP, Sorry Is Gone, but she's not going to apologize - for that, or for anything else on her complex, confessional fourth album. Recorded with producer John Agnello, Sorry Is Gone is a raw document of a woman in progress; one weathering cruel storms but finally able to blame the rain itself for the flood. Written as the truth of her own poisonous marriage unfolded before her eyes, Sorry Is Gone is a record of permission. Permission to create freely, to escape what is no longer safe and to stop bearing responsibility for things done to her, not by her. As Mayfield sings on the title track, "the sorry is gone." Indeed, it is; kicked to the curb with every strum of her guitar.

"The whole record is about me taking my life back, without really

realizing it .

I realized I'm the only person that is going to look out for me.  I have to be my main person. No one else."

Written in the years since her last solo LP, Make My Head Sing, in 2014, and her 2015 collaboration with Seth Avett: "Seth Avett and Jessica Lea Mayfield Sing Elliott Smith", 

Sorry Is Gone became the soundtrack to a highly personal and traumatic story. The Ohio-born Mayfield was quietly enduring years of domestic abuse, smiling and touring while she hid a brewing tempest - and the bruises, too. But lyrics don't lie even as bruises fade, and they started to tell the tale of her marriage before she was even able to; songs often dark and dangerous and ready to confront and claim her life.  Written primarily on an acoustic baritone guitar - out of necessity at first, in her thin-walled apartment - Mayfield started to process the years of hurt and uncertainly through words and melodies that helped her see the light in the darkness.
           

Recorded with Agnello at Water Music and Electric Lady Studios, Mayfield recruited a stellar group of musicians for Sorry Is Gone, including Avett on backing vocals and keys, drummer Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth, Sun Kill Moon), bassist Emil Amos (Grails), guitarist Cameron Deyell (Sia), Patrick Damphier (The Mynabirds, who produced and played on "Offa My Hands"), Emil Amos (Holy Sons) and Cameron Deyell (Streets of Laredo). Together, they worked to create an ominous take on love, where hope can exist among heartbreak and the end is only as finite as we make

it to be. 

 

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