Our next LCM featured artist is UK singer-songwriter Jessica Sweetman, who is originally from Sutton Coldfield just north of Birmingham. Over the last two years, Jessica has supported world renowned artists such as Van Morrison, Keane and Sir Cliff Richard. She also played a show for Jools Holland at The Boisdale Club. Our LCM #SongOfTheDay is a wonderful live version of 'Dancer' taken from a recent 'Under The Apple Tree' session with Bob Harris.

If you would like to see Jessica live she will be the special guest of Rodney Crowell at Nells Jazz and Blues on the 26th July.

Jessica started singing at the age of 16, where she did her first live performance at a Pizza Express restaurant in her home town of Sutton Coldfield. Knowing that the restaurant had a jazz night every Wednesday, Jessica walked in one day and asked the manager if she could do an audition. The manager agreed to listen to her and after hearing her sing just two songs gave her the residency she had hoped for.

At the age of 17, Jessica and her family moved to Cornwall, where they lived in a caravan for a year before settling down properly into their family home. This is where Jessica started writing and found her creative side as a songwriter. At the same time, Jessica went to college and was singing most weekends at various bars and restaurants in and around Cornwall and Devon. After taking the decision to drop out of college to focus all her efforts on her singing and song writing, Jessica also decided to throw herself in at the deep end and move by herself to London. Booking a one way ticket and arriving with nothing more than her guitar, a few clothes and just enough money to get by, Jessica found a small room in the heart of Soho where she began her new musical life in the big city.

Within her first week of living in Soho, Jessica got a booking at the famous Ronnie Scott’s Club and supported Brit Award artist Finlay Quaye for two nights at The Troubadour. Since then, her career has been on the up and up with regular gigs at some of London’s finest hotels and night spots, including The London Hippodrome, The Dorchester Hotel, The Mayfair Hotel and Cafe Royal. 

Jessica has played at various festivals including the famous Benicassim Festival in Spain (2 years running) where headliners were Paulo Nutini, The Killers, The Arctic Monkeys and Ellie Goulding. Also, The Groove Festival in Ireland, appearing on the same bill as Paloma Faith and David Gray and The Day Tripper Festival, appearing on the same bill as The Kaiser Chiefs.

She was the featured vocalist and co-writer on the track ‘In Your Arms’ with DJ Andy Moor and Armin Van Buuren. This well known dance track was featured on Armin Van Buuren’s compilation album ‘A State Of Trance.’

Jessica is now concentrating her efforts on releasing an album of original songs; songs she feels that best represent her and where she is ‘at’ at this moment.