Jenna Paulette's new album ‘Horseback' is an evocative dive into the heart of country music, weaving stories of love, resilience, empowerment and the rugged beauty of life in the American West. You can read our glowing review of the album right here.
Paulette grew up in a ranch family and has ties to both Texas and Oklahoma but it was after moving to Nashville in 2015 where she found a mentor in veteran songwriter Ashley Gorley where he career began to blossom. A record deal with Leo33, a sophomore album, an Opry debut, a launch of a clothing brand in November and the imminent birth of a her daughter any day now means Paulette has had an incredibly productive but hectic couple of years. We were thrilled to catch up with her to talk all about it.
Thanks for your time today, Jenna, I know you must be very busy preparing for the birth of your daughter. Congratulations on the release of ‘Horseback' – what did you do to mark the release of the album?
Thank you so much!!! We played a show in Nashville where had a party to launch my clothing brand (‘CowboyGirl' coming to Boot Barn in November) and to celebrate the album. Some of the writers of the tracks on the album came to the show and sang with me. We did kind of a writers round kind of thing.
It takes a village to make a record and I cut outside songs as much as I cut my own stuff, just like all of my favourite artists do or did do. Tony Lane hopped up there and sang ‘Chasin' Whiskey,' his version is just………like nothing else. Ashley McBryde popped in and sang her version of ‘The Prophet.' I got sent that song because of my relationship with my own grandfather and when I heard it I was blown away. I wanted to put my own grandad into that story and be able to shift some of the lyrics around to make it a little more personal – that can be a scary thing for songwriters to hear and it was Ashley, Matraca Berg and Lori McKenna on that song!! (laughing) I was honoured that they were fine with it. It was great to hear Ashley sing her version.
Let's dive into the writers on ‘Horseback.' There are some stellar collaborators on there with you. From those names already mentioned to Rhett Akins, Hillary Lindsey, Hunter Phelps. Was there a writer you connected with more than anyone else at all?
Oh man. I would say it was Hillary Lindsey. It's been a dream of mine for years to be able to write with her. I started going back and forth to Nashville back in 2013 and Ashley Gorley was my mentor at that point and I've been dying to write with Hillary since way back then! (laughing)
There's a season for everything and it happened when it needed to. I remember meeting her on the day when we wrote ‘The Dirt' for the record and we talked about this story. I first met her years ago at the ACM awards in 2015, maybe, when Ashley invited me up to the ceremony. I'd been working cattle on the ranch all day back in Southern Oklahoma and my mom and I came up for the show. I texted Ashley to say that I was coming and that I'd love to see him. I went to a bunch of after parties and met a lot of people and I went outside at one and found Hillary having a cigarette! I was, like, ‘Hey, you wouldn't know me from Adam but I'm Jenna Paulette and it's nice to meet you!' She found out she was pregnant with her baby girl the next day. Fast forward to 2024 and the day that we wrote together this year was the day that I told my producer, Will Bundy, that I was pregnant with my little girl. The timing of it all was so cool. We talked more than we wrote that day, I can tell you, which made ‘The Dirt' all the more better! (laughing)
There's a strong line of empowerment and resilience running through tracks like ‘Horseback,' ‘Wild is Her Favorite Color', ‘Prairie Primrose' and even ‘Darlin.' Was that your mission statement going into the making of this album?
Yes! I love that you picked up on that. There's a toughness that has come about because of all the years of grinding and waiting that I've had to do. I was in Nashville for nearly a decade and just kept my head down and kept going. I think that experience makes you a better writer and a better human being. I wouldn't trade the way that it has happened for anything even though, on my worst days, I might have said something different! (laughing)
I'm so thankful that I can now write from that perspective. All the songs you mentioned I wrote apart from ‘Wild is Her Favorite Color,' which was a Love Junkies write that I got to step into. I wrote a couple of words on that.
‘Prairie Primrose' has the cadence of a children's lullaby to these ears. I wonder if your pregnancy inspired the melody of that song?
Probably! (laughing) What's funny is that so much of this record feels like something of a premonition. There's a song coming out a little later down the line on the deluxe version of the album that I wrote when I wasn't even pregnant. I'd just eloped to get married with my husband and I wrote about having a little girl with him in that song! (laughing)
With ‘Prairie Primrose' I was pushing bulls that day with my husband. That just means we were moving them to a pasture by themselves. I had the melody stuck in my head all day as the seasons were turning in 2023 and the primroses were out. They are one of the prettiest things you can see on the prairie and are my grandma's favourite flower but if you pick them, they die straight away. They need to stay exactly where they are for you to enjoy them to their full potential and that's how I felt about myself and where I get to live. As soon as you take me out of that environment I am going to start wilting, right?
Was that what was behind your decision to leave Nashville and head back to Texas?
Absolutely, yes. I loved my time in Nashville and am so thankful for the time I spent there and all the friends and people that I met. There is excellence that is pulled out of me when I go to Nashville to write songs but I needed to go home, that was always my goal. I always wanted to sing country music from the same perspective that I fell in love with it from, which was back here on the Texas / Oklahoma border. I needed the cows and the wide open spaces.
I say this all the time in interviews, but it is the truth. I listen to George Strait and he managed to do the same thing all the way through his career. Right? In my mind it always made sense for me to be where I am most inspired to create. I loved the realationships I made in Nashville but I needed to come home.
It's funny you should mention the word ‘relationship' because a lot of the songs on ‘Horseback' are about relationships: between people, with yourself, with nature and the land. Your song ‘Darlin' addresses the darker side of relationships, tell me about the inspirations behind that song.
I met the love of my life on a video shoot and I was thinking about the difference between that relationship and the one that I had come out of, which felt like nothing but a jail cell. (laughing) I feel totally loved in this relationship and feel totally empowered to be who I want to be, none of it comes with any manipulation whilst my previous relationship did, it came with a ton of it.
The simplest way that I could put it was that my husband calls me ‘Darlin' and I feel it. During that write I expressed my ideas about the difference between where I was then and where I had been. We just got right down into the nitty gritty of the differences and wrote that sucker!
It must have been a cathartic session, that one?
It was, very much so! It was a little bit scary too because you are delving down into your past experiences with real people and you are never quite sure what people are going to do with that.
I'm intrigued to know what the cliffhanger ending to ‘The Devil is an Angel' is with regards to the will he / won't he aspect of that song?
(laughing) What's funny is that I was playing a show in Jackson Hole in Wyoming and I looked out into the crowd to see my husband and his friend were watching the show from the VIP section when a girl in a red dress came up to him and asked him for a dance! He was, like, that's my wife up there on stage, right? (laughing) She wasn't going to take no for an answer so he walked her right down to the front of the stage and danced with her right in front of me so that I could see him and he knew that I knew! (laughing)
I remember thinking that he would never cheat on me but it was hilarious, the look on this girl's face and my husband's eyes being so wide open! He was looking at me the whole time. (laughing) He told me after that he didn't know how to turn her down, it's rude where we come from, in our ranch – rodeo world, to turn someone down if they ask for a dance but it got me thinking and that whole song is conceived from that perspective of ‘what if.' It birthed a fun, Dixie Chicks sort of moment!
Talking of The Chicks – I hear an influence in songs like ‘Wild is her Favorite Color' in the fiddle and your Natalie Maines-esque vocals on that track, were they a big influence on you?
Thank you, that's a real compliment. Oh my gosh, they were the biggest influence. ‘Fly' and ‘Wide Open Spaces'………. I knew every word on those albums. They could make you feel things that you had never experienced before. ‘Cold Day in July?' Wow. These gut-wrenchingly sad songs could only be sung by a voice like Natalie's.
The opening line to my whole record is ‘Ready to Run is her favourite song,' so that tells you just what an influence they were on me. That was the edit that I referred to on that song earlier which I wanted to include to personalise it a little towards me and my own experience. The Chicks take me back to checking cows out on a four-wheeler in the middle of nowhere, out by myself, singing along at the top of my lungs! (laughing)
I know you are expecting your baby girl any day now. Are you fed up yet? When my wife reached 8 months with both of our children she had had enough!
Oh yeah! Playing the Opry on album release day seemed to draw a line under the whole thing! (laughing) I was almost 37 weeks pregnant. It was a double header with Carrie Underwood with a little break in between the two shows, it was awesome, loved it but I didn't feel great for the first time. I think my body was telling me it was time to go home and get ready. In between the two shows I was just laying down in the dressing room on the couch thinking that I could just have the baby that night, then and there! (laughing)
I've finally got my nursery done now though! I've barely been home over the summer, I've played 60 shows from the time I found out I was pregnant till now, launched a clothing brand and put a record together! It's been crazy, a whirlwind. But we are ready now and I'm tired of being pregnant right now! (laughing)
Congratulations on the album, the clothing brand, where you career is going and the impending birth – we will keep our eyes on your socials for the big announcement.
Thank you soooo much!
Check out Jenna Paulette's fabulous new album ‘Horseback' in all the usual places right now.
