Jesse Bryant • Bio

Jesse Bryant's Bio

_ _ He's no stranger to a bar room brawl or the bottom of a shot glass... multiple ones, actually. He was weaned on Willie, Cash, Jones, Haggard, Jennings, and Hank Sr.-all outlaws. Coe's another hero and judging solely by tattoos, they could be kin. You'd cross the street if you saw him in a dark alley. Ain't no one, no how, gonna lipo, rhino, or change this boy or his music-so it's a safe bet no major label interest is in this offering, despite the fact that he's exactly the kind of kick in the teeth act the country music biz needs: real, unrelenting, unforgiving, unapologetic.
_ _ Enter Jesse Bryant-outlaw, redneck, one of a kind. This coal miner's son grew up in rural Logan Co, West Virginia, joining his dad in the mines by age fifteen. It is this hard working, rough-shed man of a few words that has used music as his refuge from long days and less than humble surroundings. Any free time he had in his early teens was spent weaving poetry into songs and playing bass in his father's gospel band. “The Gospel never leaves you. It's present in all the country music I write today. There's not enough of that in music now," Jesse laments. Jesse's songwriting has always been a raw reflection of his life. The songs are anthems of the workingman, a down home country boy who does what's necessary to get by.
_ _ The storytelling is only a portion of Bryant's art though. "I play bass, rhythm guitar, and drums-all self-taught. I still can't read sheet music though. That's how you did it back home, listened to the tape and then, played it," Jesse quips. That southern sensibility in Bryant's music is complemented by the coarse renegade that came just as naturally. Listening to formative outlaws and idols, Bryant developed his mantra on music "Basic, and honest is always best." With that, Bryant played every dance hall and hole in the wall that wouldn't kick him out. “I've definitely played behind chicken wire before," Jesse says. From chicken wires to Pig Pickins" (what Jesse calls festivals); Bryant did everything he could to get by in Logan Co, as his life became a string of honky tonks and sad songs.
In 1987, jobs got scarce and Jesse packed up for North Carolina where he still resides today. “I find inspiration in the rural, rolling hills in North Carolina. I got the mountains on one side of me and the ocean on the other," Bryant ruminates. Now, as a husband and father of two young daughters, Jesse's life has changed, but not dramatically, he insists: "I don't think it's settled me down at all though. Honky tonk has been my life since the beginning and that's never going to change."
_ _ Many describe Bryant as the Last Real Outlaw, straddling the line between Waylon Jennings and David Allen Coe; the latter of which he has opened for a time or two. With years of musical experience and the skills to back up the bank Bryant hopes to do comparisons proud as he prepares his sophomore album. With song titles like “Outlaw on the Run” and “Poor Man Blues”, Jesse is sure to drive the common man to the record store.
Somehow, Jesse brings that calm to the storm of life as he opens up in his lyrical delivery, a window to a torn and tattered soul. Many nights out on the road, in desolate places in the U.S. is where Jesse finds his muse. At roadhouses where the bodies of the weary gather to commemorate a lifestyle of Outlaw, you’ll find Jesse at the helm of the ship ready to sail down that dirt road. Get Ready. . . And don't say we didn't warn you ...