“My momma didn’t raise no quitter,” goes a line in “16 Miles.” Jessica Lynn considers it a “musical prayer,” but more than that, it sums her up. Illnesses that could have stopped her career before it started, financial problems—you name it, she’s faced it. But they breed them tough in Brooklyn, right?
Which is why, although “All I Own”—her second album—reads like the biopic of a hardcore troubadour, as it unfolds across its ten songs, it becomes so much more.
“Bet On It” is sassy. Indeed, if rock and roll has ever been sassier, I haven’t heard it. “You can try and take my money,” sings Lynn. The subtext, very obviously is try it…..
If this is country, it’s country for Bon Jovi fans. Big, strident arena rock, and choruses that do the heavy lifting. “Something ‘Bout You” is a case in point.
It’s fun, too. All-American sounding, polished but exquisitely done. The playing on “Ain’t Done With You Yet” is top-notch, and the organ and guitar solo underlines this.
The title track changes the vibe. Acoustic and slow-building, it showcases Lynn’s gorgeous voice, while the solo has haunting, almost Fleetwood Mac-like flavours.
…and speaking of vibe changes, did someone spot Carlos Santana on “Shame”? The Latin flair, like the horns coated in Tex-Mex, adds to the sonics.
And that’s before a trip to the honky-tonk to show the good ol’ boys how it’s done on “Mixed Signals.”
If the thought that Jessica Lynn is a heartbeat away from being a soul singer has never been far off, then “Straight Outta Luck” crosses the line. All of which makes the fragile “You Save Me” even more of a surprise. Englishman Liam Wakefield joins her for incredible harmonies, and although totally different to anything else here, it fits perfectly.
As it ends with “I Never Said It’d Be Easy”—a kind of trip into the “happy place” for this record—that of a kind of arena rock mixed with country—you can recall something that former Headbangers Ball host Riki Ratchman once said: essentially, that hard rock fans didn’t desert music when grunge came along; they just got into country.
There’s a bit of that here, too, but when it’s mixed with these songs, this voice, and this backstory, I’d willingly bet all I own that “All I Own” will be huge.
Rating 8/10
REVIEW: JESSICA LYNN – ALL I OWN (2025)
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