Music & Me!

 Hey y'all! My name is Jasmine Humphries, Jazzy for short. I'm a singer-songwriter, and I play guitar. I started singing in church when I was just three years old, and I sang my whole life, even joining the church choir and middle school choir, too. I was introduced to the guitar by my high school advanced music class and was gifted one that same Christmas from my parents. I then, incorporated playing guitar in the worship team I was in at church, and sang and played in that for a few years. In the meantime, I had been asked here and there to play gigs of my own. I asked the lead guitar player from that worship team if he would accompany me, and the rest is history. I began playing my own gigs with that guitar player, and now, I'm still playing gigs four years later. However, I incorporated my style, country music, into my set and have made it my passion. I'm currently writing songs and chasing the dream of being a performing artist - or honestly, a songwriter - wherever the wind takes me, I would be happy. This past April, I got my first FULL BAND for festivals and bigger shows - they're amazing - and play gigs with them too, AND my same guitar player is in it.

I was born in Union, South Carolina, and have been here my entire life. I chose Converse University because of the music program and started as a biology major with a minor in music, but I quickly changed my mind and took on a Contemporary Music with Media Applications Major, and I have not looked back since. Outside of music, I listen to music (wait that's still music... I just listen a lot and love it a lot), cook (there we go), bake, shop, and I'm a nerd about songwriting, so I love going to songwriter festivals, and I love playing them from time to time (went off topic again). 

I tried a bunch of guitars out before I found the one I love the most, and I don't think I will ever love another guitar like that one. It is a Gibson J-45, I've named Gibby, and I got it when I turned 17. I played a show one time, and cut my thumb as I was picking, kept playing the song with a bleeding finger, and now the sound hole of my guitar is splattered with a bit of blood. The show must go on, right???

1. Current Go-To:

A song that I have been loving lately is "Fall This Way" by Braxton Keith. It's just a good song. I am a lyrics person at heart, and this song is pretty great. It's a love song about not realizing you could ever fall so hard for someone. I am also a hopeless romantic, and the lyrics are so sweet. There are lines like, "You look at me and I feel my feet float away, and no gravity, it might as well be outer space right here in this room". Braxton's vocals are killer in this song, and it just makes me want to slow dance and scream the lyrics in the car every time I listen to it. I know one of the songwriters on it too, Dan Alley. I played in a songwriter's festival at Lake Martin, Alabama, and he played there too. I didn't hear him play this, but I was a fan of every song he played when I heard him. 

2. Meaningful Song***
***If you listen to any song in this list, listen to this one. I'm very passionate about it.

I have a song that has STUCK with me, and it's so good, I wish I would have written it myself. Ashley McBryde's, "Girl Goin' Nowhere" is top tier. I heard this song right when I first started playing gigs and I knew it was special from the moment I heard it. It talks about paying your dues as a musician and chasing the dream starting small but ending up reaching your dream and finally making it your career. This song still gives me chills as a singer-songwriter chasing my dream. I've played to two people before, and that was just my mom and dad, and they were only there because I asked them to help me carry my sound equipment in. And I've played to my entire hometown before with a bunch of people there, and I don't even know the number. That was when I opened for Bryce Leatherwood, and it was incredible. The thing is, I've played this song at almost every gig I've ever played because it means so much to me. I did play it at the hometown show too, and I hope to play it to bigger crowds someday. Or I hope to write a song about starting from nothing and finally reaching my dream just like Ashley did, because it is an absolute diamond of a song in my opinion. It has lines like, "and I need to thank my Daddy, for that first set of strings, and all those folks who swore I'd never be anything. It took a whole lot of 'yes I will's' and 'I don't cares', a whole lot of basement dives and county fairs." Literal chills. I've also seen Ashley McBryde in person before and this song is literally incredible live. The video I've attached has her singing it AT THE GRAND OLE OPRY. How absolutely amazing is that? If you don't know that is a dream venue for country music and basically every person who has ever "made it" has stepped into that circle and played there.

This was my hometown show where I played this song.

3. Music I don't connect with or understand:

I do not necessarily connect with songs that don't tell a story. I don't understand writing words that just sound good and don't have meaning (that is good at times, but not my preference). For this category, I chose a song that I can remember hearing in high school for the first time, and it made me laugh and cringe because I just don't understand it. It is The Beatles, "I Am The Walrus". I love The Beatles, but this song was odd. (If you know, you know.) I also can remember my classmates bursting out into song - and it was this song.

I hope you enjoyed reading my blog as much as I enjoyed making it! This was so much fun, and I can't wait to write more blogs! Bye y'all!