Drawing us in with dark-folk, blues-country-adjacent guitar soundscape, with astral details and textured percussion, Jess Corbin opens Shame with introspective prose as she sings, “Hello there could you shed some light, on what’s happened here tonight… Tell me why we’re here again, humankind held back by the will of man… Shame us and blame us in your lame attempt to tame us…”
The opus expands with dimensionality, layered vocals and a conscious message with a high emotional quotient as Jess questions the state of our current reality. Her message feels zeitgeist and important in the face of genocides and violence all over the world.
Jess confesses, “I wrote this song from my point of view as a woman, but I’ve come to realize that it speaks to so many who are dealing with feeling like they don’t matter or aren’t seen or heard.” With reference to her instrumentation, the star adds, “The combination of mandolin, piano, and electric guitar build throughout the whole song to create this sense of urgency that culminates through the third verse with the percussion into the final chorus. I feel like we captured the true essence of the song through this production!”
We learn that the release features Erik Unsworth on bass, Vinnie Presite on drums, and Kent Heckman, who contributed both engineering and electric guitar. Andy Mowrer shares his skill on mandolin. Influences for the song include artists such as The Chicks, The Wailin’ Jennies, and Brandi Carlile, which we can feel come through, although Jess Corbin‘s authenticity feels unique to her own design.
The recording took place at Restoration Studio in Brooklyn and Red Rock Studio in Saylorsburg, and the process involved experimenting with different sounds, almost making it a dense, Pink Floyd–style track, before finding the final mix that fit.
We have added Shame to our New Music Spotlight playlist, and our TIMELESS playlist, whilst we continue to stream the entirety of Jess Corbin‘s Slow Time EP, and anticipate future releases from the conscious artist.