Carolina has a legacy of hosting notable singer-songwriters.
In the late 1960s, the campus hosted legends like Peter, Paul & Mary, Joan Baez, The Seekers and Joan Jett, said Fred Emmerson, UNC ’67.
Tuesday night, the Carolina Union Activities Board will present an up-and-coming artist of similar merit.
Jessica Lea Mayfield, a budding Ohioan folk singer who has opened for and toured with bands like The Black Keys and The Avett Brothers, will perform at Historic Playmakers Theatre Tuesday at 8 p.m.
Kinsey Sullivan, music chair for CUAB, said that CUAB was excited to introduce a talented female voice to campus.
“Mayfield has been on the CUAB music committee’s radar since her single ‘Hearts are Wrong’ began getting press last winter,” she said.
Mayfield’s diastema and girlish lisp soften a country twang she inherited from her family bluegrass band. When she sings, plaintiveness ebbs and flows in her tremulous, husky drawl, mirroring the dark themes of the band.
Carolina alumnus Matt Spanne first heard Mayfield as a backup singer on The Black Keys’ track “Things Ain’t Like They Used to Be,” from the album “Attack and Release.”
In spring of 2010, he finally saw her live at the Local 506.
“(Its) confines guarantee intimacy between singer and audience so, naturally, I fell in love,” Spanne said.
Mayfield’s first EP — or extended play — was released in 2006. In 2008, she released her first album “Blasphemy So Heartfelt.” Her current tour promotes her latest album, “Tell Me.”
Tickets are available at Historic Playmakers Theatre before the show for $5. For more information, visit the CUAB website.
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