Check out the new songs on the right!

Special thanks to Slim White & Kara Suzanne for helping me figure out bandcamp. I like to've stuck my head in a swarm of bees and forgot my own name trying to do this on my own-- but they saved me good!
Enjoy 'em-- this is some stuff we recorded on the fly over at Chase's house.
Jamie Lyn

Matt Sullivan of the Tin Hearts: Seven questions for songwriters

What makes you write?

I believe in the power of creating art with other people. In my life I have found that when you find something makes time fly by, and you can’t get enough of it; then you should try to seek it out as much as possible. I feel that way about writing, performing, and even practicing music. I could really do it all day every day.

2. Who is the greatest unknown influence on your music?

My wife. She is a brutally honest critic and when she says something’s good. I know it is ready to bring to the band or perform in public.

In terms of nationally known musicians probably The Felice brothers and Richie Havens.

For someone out of the blue; the Columbus musician Robert Loss and his band The Wells have set the bar at such an excellent level; I can’t get enough of their music. It sounds like hyperbole but I think their album is so good, I get better just by listening to it..

3. What is your most closeted, secret, guilty and humiliating musical pleasure?

Huey Lewis and the News. There are more of us out there than you think. If I come clean at a party there is inevitably someone who confides in me the love HL & TN too. We are like Star Trek fans, you don’t know who we are but we are out there and in force.



4. What established artist made you want to write songs, and why?

The Felice Brothers and Neco Case. I am inspired by their neo-retro style. Their sound is timeless, weird, and still very accessable. They have help create a genre that is not yet named that is part alt.country, part folk rock, part Americana. It’s like they took parts from a ’52 chevy and made an airplane. Don’t know how they did it, but it sure is cool.



5. Advice for just-starting songwriters on establishing yourself on the Columbus music scene?

In regards to any artist getting started it would be there are going to be times when you are AWFUL and be ok with that. Be strong in your vision, understand it’s a process, and be ok with change. What you thought you were when you start will not be what you are down the road. But have fun with the journey.

I would also say that find a mentor. Find someone who is in your genre and you can talk to as a human being. Musicians, by nature of being artists, can be moody and often it has little to do with their talent. I have been talked to like a pion from people that I wouldn’t want to hear do a dog food commercial and treated like gold by incredibly talented people. Just find people you respect and respectfully ask their opinion. I live by the montra I heard in an interview with rick ruben “what about the truth is not in your best interest?” I believe if you play often and are unafraid of honest feedback you will improve rapidly.

Finally I try to remember there is a difference between being good and being popular. Quality is objective; it is a matter of craft. Popularity is a matter of thousands of things you can’t control. In my opinion it is a waste of an artist’s time. Don’t worry about being a star, worry about being good at something you love.

6. Why country?

The narrative structure of country predates Dylan and all the folk rockers I adore. I like the blank pallet it provides to write songs about anything you want. As a genre it allows for almost any instrumentation, tempo, volume, topic; so it is a great platform for me to write about whatever I can think of.



7. Favorite backwoods expression?

I am full of them growing up in construction….but “blind pig finds an acorn every once in a while” and “you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear”.
Advice for just-starting songwriters on establishing yourself on the Columbus music scene?

Honky Tonk Happy Hour- Feb 5th at Vic's!

Victorians Midnight Café collaborates with country music maverick Jamie Lyn to bring Columbus audiences a steady lineup of roots music by local bands. If you belly up to the bar at Vic’s on the first and third Friday of the month at happy hour, you’ll be sure to hear some raucously original neo-traditional country music (and you may even win a jar of homemade sweet pickles in the weekly raffle). The first Honky Tonk Happy Hour is Friday, February 5, from 5-7:30 pm, featuring The Tin Hearts and Jamie Lyn & Fort Knox.

The Honky Tonk Happy Hour is the brainchild of singer/songwriter Jamie Lyn, an Ohio native and a veteran of the Brooklyn Country music scene. It is Jamie Lyn’s personal mission to restore the soul of country music, one song at a time, and the Honky Tonk Happy Hour seeks to provide a good time stomping ground for cutting edge, neo-traditional country across a variety of sub-genres: bluegrass, western swing, country rock, classic country, alt country and country-folk. Honky Tonk Happy Hour appeals to music fans who hold bubblegum ‘radio country” and the commercial Nashville Sound in the contempt it deserves. However, those who come to Vic’s seeking the authentic soul of American roots music will leave this show fully satisfied.

Local alt-country- auteurs The Tin Hearts kick off the Happy Hour with “Stories [that] percolate from the ether; warbling through vacuum tubes and amplifiers” for a uniquely informed country sound that is as deeply traditional as it is strikingly innovative. Tin Hearts front man Matt Sullivan is a singer and songwriter of considerable acclaim. His band of highly skilled musicians includes pianist Angela Sutton, guitarist Andy Frederick, Ryan Combs on bass and drummer Mark Sims. The Other Paper writes, “The fertile soil of Central Ohio has breathed life into more than corn and soybeans… [The Tin Hearts] sound that combines the traditions of Appalachian folk, twangy country and meaty rock ’n’ roll”.

Jamie Lyn and Fort Knox alternate hilarious, stinging songs of comic pathos with graceful, raw-hearted ballads, while Jamie Lyn’s lyrics and wry humor channel June Carter and Loretta Lynn in her own brand of neo-traditional "Deep Woods Off" country. Fort Knox can follow Jamie Lyn wherever she leads, careening skillfully from honkytonk to traditional bluegrass for a foot-stompin'-countrypolitan-good-time. Brooklyn Country.com states “Jamie Lyn infuses her honky-tonk story songs with a whole lot of humor, feeling and good-time energy”.

Jamie Lyn recently returned to Ohio from New York, where she founded and continues to produce the Honky Tonk Angels show, a monthly showcase of female country bands which has been named a Voice Choice, a TimeOut NY Recommended event, Countryny.com’s Featured Event, Brooklyn Country Event of the Month three times running, and graced the front page of Deli Magazine in December, 2009. A country-music traditionalist, Jamie Lyn was raised in rural Ohio by migrant Virginians who brought the music the Appalachian mountain region with them when they moved north.

Victorian’s Midnight Café is a full-service restaurant and bar located in the heart of Columbus, Ohio. Vic’s offers happy hour specials daily: half price draft beers, $1 off top shelf liquor, $1 hot dogs, and $5 prime organic hamburgers. The Honky Tonk Happy Hour special is $4 for a Budweiser and shot of Jack Daniels whiskey. Admission to this event is free, and all ages are welcome, although those under 21 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.

Honky Tonk Happy Hour Comin' Your Way!

Hey ya'all.... Jamie Lyn & Fort Knox and Victorian's Midnight Cafe are settin' up a great little Friday afternoon foray, for YOU on the first and third friday of each month. We'll play from 5-7:30 at the venerable Vic's and bring along our friends as often as we can. Here's the schedule so far:

February 5: The Tin Hearts/ Jamie Lyn & Fort Knox
February 19: Jamie Lyn & Fort Knox/ Stephen Moller Bluegrass
March 5: Jamie Lyn Birthday celebration w/ Special guests
March 19: Jamie Lyn & Fort Knox/ Katie Blankenship

No cover! Specials on food & drink. I'll have more info for ya real soon!
love,
Jamie Lyn