Jessica Paige (Colleen Bilzing Photography)
Dreams and challenges have fueled the trajectory of the KC singer-songwriter, a local favorite who has performed around the country
Singer-songwriter Jessica Paige has impressed KC audiences with her melodic, lustrous, full-range tones and strong original compositions.
Spanning genres including alternative, folk, Americana and country, she is a veteran of TEDxKC, Boulevardia, KC Irish Fest and Folk Alliance Showcase. Followers have flocked to her at the Plaza Art Fair, Nighthawk, Kauffman Stadium, The Ship, Californo’s, Waldo Folk, The Blue Room, Greenwood Social Hall, Ullah, The Bottleneck, Nimble Brewing and Stockhill, as well as at museums, private concerts and venues around the country.
In the last few years, Paige has developed a second home in Colorado and has a burgeoning fan base there.
Paige recently released her newest and perhaps most autobiographical song, with lyrics that speak to herself at a young age through now: “Don’t lose your way, my dear, but you can’t stay here. When you’ve got dreams, my dear, you have to move along.”
The Pitch listed it as one of the best singles of the year, describing it as “a roadhouse rave-up with a big soaring chorus” and lauding her powerful voice.
These days Paige’s most frequent partner/accompanist is Lucas Parker, a wizard on guitar. She’s also sung regularly alongside Calvin Arsenia and Kadesh Flow and with some of best instrumentalists in town.
Paige grew up on a farm in Wamego, Kansas. Four days after graduating from high school, she left for Ireland, where she took up the guitar. She returned home to care for her grandmother for the next five years.
In 2009, she was “discovered” by American Idol when she was a finalist on the show, but the experience left her disillusioned with the established music industry and its fixation on money, fame and looks. She decided to go it alone, busking and playing coffee shops for $25 or gift cards.
“Singing Adele is cool but playing my own music with my own band is really where it’s at for me as a musician,” she said. Her songs share her philosophy, beliefs and life experiences, including an assault by someone she trusted. Music helped her through it: “I worked, and I worked, and I stayed so busy that I could be fine,” she said.” “I’m a champion compartmentalizer. Getting on stage and giving moments to people amidst life’s upheavals has (become) a professional talent of mine.”
Paige is passionate about the need for greater representation of women in the music industry, a topic she addressed last November in an election day radio interview. “I want more female band leaders, sound engineers, label executives, venue managers, talent buyers and producers,” she said, noting the importance of encouraging young girls to enter the field. Paige is doing her part with camps, instruction and female-dominant lineups.
She can now also offer traveling artists a “safe place to land.” Last year, she bought an old triplex in Hyde Park, becoming at once a first-time homeowner, landlord and her own general contractor. “It was an enormous feat, and I had a lot of help in making the idea a reality. Little did I realize that I had only just begun an unimaginable challenge that would lead to living without power in the dead of summer for two months and endless curveballs while I attempted to renovate apartments on my own, without power.
“If nothing else, I learned just how tough I can be, not that being a touring musician hadn’t already served me plenty of hardships.”
When she’s not touring, Paige gives voice and guitar lessons. But creating is her passion: “I love writing. Sitting in a coffee shop and journaling or writing mediocre poems is one of my favorite pastimes.
“Somedays it’s like dragging yourself through the mud to get anything, but I’m relentlessly stubborn,” she added. “When I get on stages now I feel like I’ve earned it. It doesn’t feel like a division of my life but a natural part of my world. It’s really cool, and I’m grateful for all the challenges.”
For more information, jesspaige.com.
