Jessica Lea Mayfield on World Cafe

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Jessica Lea Mayfield performs four songs from her new album on today's World Cafe. Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Courtesy of the artist

Jessica Lea Mayfield performs four songs from her new album on today's World Cafe.

Courtesy of the artist

Jessica Lea Mayfield's latest album, Tell Me, is a dark affair, full of wry, yet powerfully moving tales of bitterness and heartbreak. Mayfield began performing at a young age with her family's bluegrass band, One Way Rider. The now 21-year-old singer-songwriter's music has a distinctly contemporary edge (Mayfield frequently collaborates with The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach, who produced her new album), but her approach nevertheless invokes the bleak themes and melancholy balladry that are very much a part of country music tradition.

On today's World Cafe, Mayfield stops by the WXPN studios during her summer tour of the U.S. to perform four songs from Tell Me.