Jess Jocoy Sings Plainly and Poignantly on Debut ‘Such a Long Way’

A strong debut album can offer a special kind of pleasure. However familiar the style, the emergence of a promising young talent is an exciting reminder of the subtle ways art can surprise and intrigue, raising great expectations for what may follow. A smooth blend of traditional country and folk sounds, Jess Jocoy’s satisfying Such a Long Way feels less like a callow beginning than an eloquent declaration of intent, focusing squarely on her insightful, open-hearted songs.

Raised in Washington State and based in Nashville, Jocoy succinctly described herself with the title of her solid 2018 EP New Heart/Old Soul. Now, Such a Long Way considers the profound challenges awaiting anyone searching for the right path in life, capturing the battle between hope and despair, between the need to connect and the desire to escape, between easy answers and the realization nothing is simple. If these thoughtful reflections suggest a prematurely weary heart, she’s still enough of an optimist to believe in chances for a happy outcome.

Jocoy, who has called Jason Isbell a major lyrical influence, possesses a sweet, strong voice refreshingly free of affectation, delivering her well-crafted tunes with a poised restraint that recalls Rosanne Cash. But for all her apparent composure, raw emotion aplenty courses through these vivid vignettes. Chronicling a father-son relationship defined by alcoholism, PTSD, and violence (“I’ve still got a scar on my cheek from the first time he hit me”), the ominous “Castles Made of Sand” burns with angry regret, while “The Ballad of Two Lovers” wistfully explores a damaged romance, noting, “We still love one another / Though we can’t say why.” Dreamy and urgent at once, “Long Way Home” presents salvation as a possibility for a self-loathing woman who flees a caring partner, only to experience a change of heart and head home, exclaiming, “Hold out a little while longer please please please.”

Elsewhere, Jocoy expresses loneliness and longing in such compelling, unguarded terms that you want to give her a comforting hug. The gripping “Aching to Feel Alive” envisions “the rush” of finding a soulmate, admitting, “I’d love to know the feeling / Someday before I die,” although the toe-tapping “Numb” rejects love when it isn’t “good enough.” Having set the questing tone for the album on the stirring opening track, “Existential Crossroads,” Jocoy closes it gently with the more encouraging “Hope (Such a Long Way),” offering a glimmer of reassurance while reaffirming her own aloneness, to touching effect.

It’s easy to imagine big country or pop stars seizing on the understated drama in these eminently accessible songs and scoring hits with splashier, cheesier versions. But it’s hard to imagine anyone improving on the honesty and perceptive intelligence Jess Jocoy brings to Such a Long Way. Here’s looking forward to her next move.