Signing Story with Jett Holden

The story behind Jett's signing is truly inspiring. He had just given up on pursuing an artist career when Black Opry founder Holly G. stumbled upon his music online. Holly had discovered the first verse and chorus to "Taxidermy," Jett's powerful song about police brutality, which opens his forthcoming album The Phoenix, and while he was initially unsure about finishing it, she secured a grant from Rissi Palmer's Color Me Country Artist Fund to complete the visceral track.

Before feeling welcomed in his new home of Black Opry, Holden, a gay, black country artist, has felt shunned and often rejected from the country world, even more stinging after the sacrifices he made by being a gay, black man. “So I went to the rock scene,” he shares, “and then I decided I wanted to do country again, and I moved to Tennessee. Things just weren’t going well, and then the pandemic hit, and I was like ‘I guess I’m done.’”

“The title The Phoenix represents the resurrection of my career,” Holden adds. “When Holly found me, when the Black Opry found me, I had quit music. I was done. This whole process pulled me back into music. Everything feels possible now.”

Over a decade seriously dedicated to his craft, and with Holly G and a label to support, Holden was able to pull out all the stops with collaborations and reach he feels his music deserves. Recorded at Cartoon Moon Recording Studio in East Nashville, The Phoenix was produced by CMA and Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Will Hoge and features guest vocal performances from ACM and Grammy-nominated artist Cassadee Pope (Hey Monday, The Voice winner) and critically-acclaimed singer-songwriter Emily Scott Robinson. “West Virginia Sky” follows Jett’s debut single “Backwood Proclamation,” which features Charlie Worsham (Old Crow Medicine Show) and John Osborne on electric guitar.

Now that he’s set to share his art with the release of The Phoenix in October, in a genre where Black musicianship is rarely championed, Holden has become a beacon and example of what’s possible. “The first question Holly asked me was ‘Why do you write music?’ and I said ‘I write the music I wish I heard when I was growing up.’ If someone hears my music and it makes them feel safe and less alone, it’s done its job, and I’ve done my job.”