Courtney Jaye was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and moved to Alpharetta, Georgia, when she was a freshman in high school. It was at this time she discovered The Grateful Dead and Neil Young, and also began to play the guitar. After becoming immersed in the bohemian culture, she headed out west and lived in mountain town of Flagstaff, Arizona. She worked as an acupuncturist's assistant by day and performed in a bluegrass band at night.
Over the years, she has lived on the Hawaiian island of Kauai as well as in music cities such as Austin, Los Angeles, and finally Nashville, Tennessee. Along the way, she signed her first record deal with Island Records in 2004 and released her first single "Can't Behave" in June 2005. She performed on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and toured the country on a radio promotional tour. She has collaborated with many musicians over the years Gary Louris of The Jayhawks,[1] Matthew Sweet,[2] Peter Hayes of BRMC,[3] Kristen Hall,[4] Rhett Miller, Tift Merritt,[5] Taj Mahal,[6] Thad Cockrell,[7] Ben Bridwell of Band of Horses, Dallas Green, and Emily Saliers of The Indigo Girls.
On January 12, 2010 she released the independent album, The Exotic Sounds of Courtney Jaye, which features the duet "Sometimes Always" with Ben Bridwell of Band of Horses. The album was released on Jaye's imprint Tropicali Records and was produced by Seth Kauffman (Floating Action), with additional production by Bill Reynolds (Band of Horses), and was mixed by Joe Pisapia.
Courtney has appeared as a featured guest vocalist on the following records:
Thad Cockrell's song "Great Rejoicing", off the 2008 album To Be Loved .
Peter Hayes of BRMC's 2008 cover of "Cool Water".
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's song "The Toll", off the 2010 album Beat The Devil's Tattoo.
Dallas Green-guest vocals on 2010 Nashville Skyline song "Carry You Home".
Jessie Baylin's song "Holiday", off the 2012 album Little Spark.
In February 2011, she had made an appearance in the video for Super Furry Animal's lead singer Gruff Rhys's song, "Sensations in the Dark", off his album Hotel Shampoo, released May 3, via Witchita Recordings.
She was also featured as a background vocalist on the Dan Auerbach produced album from Ohio artist, Brian Olive. The record was released on Alive Records, June 2011.
Summer of 2012 Courtney will be releasing a record called "Love and Forgiveness", produced by CMA/Grammy Award winning producer Mike Wrucke (Miranda Lambert "Revolution"). The album was tracked live in L.A. over the course of four days at Ocean Studio's Burbank, October 2010. The musicians that played on the record are Neal Casal-acoustic guitar (Ryan Adams/The Cardinals), Greg Leisz-lap steel and electric guitar (Ray LaMontagne/Lucinda Williams), Sebastian Steinberg-bass (Soul Coughing), Josh Grange-electric guitar (Dwight Yoakam, K.D. Lang), and Fred Eltringham–drums (The Dixie Chicks, The Wallflowers).
Zach Galifianakis is a fan. He has been quoted as saying "Courtney Jaye is an artist with real style, class and real talent, unlike all the other jerkoffs in her business."
[edit]Discography
Traveling Light (Island, 2005)
Til it Bleeds (Independent, 2006)
Who'll Stop The Rain (AO Recordings, 2007)
The Exotic Sounds of Courtney Jaye (Tropicali Records, 2010)
Love and Forgiveness (2012)
