Jax Hollow - Come Up Kid (2024)

Jax Hollow has a new album, Come Up Kid, of which she writes: “This is a story of a girl from Montague, MA trying to make it in Music City, TN.”

“Changing Suits” opens the album and immediately shows off Jax’s ability to rock. Think Larkin Poe, Sarah Borges, Melissa Etheridge. Speaking of Melissa Etheridge, Jax says: “It all started when Melissa Etheridge asked me to open for her at the historic Ryman Auditorium. After my set, the pews started to shake… people were standing, applauding, and I fell to my knees. For the first time in my life, it felt like my dreams were coming true. Like all my hard work and dedication was being realized - that I could actually make it as an independent artist in Nashville. But, soon after that incredible day- I’d find myself living out of my car. Sleeping with my head in the trunk, and feet in the cabin. I had a choice to make… Do I call it quits, or double down? For an entire year I wrote songs like it was my religion. I spent every penny I had on studio time & connecting with the best session players, engineers, and studios that Nashville has to offer. Come Up Kid is the culmination of that dedication.”

But Jax has a wider range than high powered rock, she’s versatile, she can bring things down to contemplation with fiddle and mandolin, and back up again. In “Easy or Harder,” Jax sings “broken dishes and broken promises” - an image that cuts straight through and confronts the drama that too many of us have lived. “Keeping My Hands Busy” is gentle acoustic guitar and fiddle and a reflective song that captures what it’s like to process the loneliness that accompanies trying to make it far from home: “I know that you miss me but I’m keeping my hands busy.” And then there’s “Don’t Call Me Baby” with: “you ain’t found a way to kill me yet but you cut me down to the very last breath, see me out dressed to kill, yes this town will talk, it always will … hold me close, squeeze me tight, but don’t call me baby.” You have to stay tough out there: “terms and conditions don’t apply.”

“Fallout” was an early release and really hits the sweet spot with its contemporary Americana production. “Let me spin you around in the fallout” with whirls of fiddle, acoustic guitar and sweet touches of mandolin. “Come Up Kid” is an anthem to those who feel pain: “I ain’t afraid of working hard, but you can’t do shit about a broken heart.”

This whole album highlights so much about what it means to pursue a dream: tackling the obstacles, putting up emotional walls when you have no time for drama, celebrating the breakthroughs with purity and gratitude, commiserating with others and, missing the ones in the background as the pursuit takes center stage and time. Musically, Jax can rock, and then bring things down to acoustics and make you cry a little and then shake it off with some power chords again.