Editor’s Note: Jessica Mitchell will take part in the Bluegrass Situation Takeover at The Long Road festival, to be held September 6-8 in Stanford Hall, Leicestershire, England.
I was on my first writing trip to Los Angeles to try and write the last couple of songs for my first record. It was an array of different songs written over the course of five years so it was all over the place emotionally and storywise, but I liked that about it.
I got into a session on one of my last few days with an amazing writer named Matthew Puckett. He did everything from Broadway to film and TV writing and was definitely a new and exciting kind of writing partner for me. We talked about a lot of things, but mostly talked about a very tough and difficult relationship that had just ended, and that I had made a decision to stop putting myself in situations that weren’t healthy or that didn’t benefit my overall well-being as a woman.
“Rain for the River” was born, and very quickly. It flowed out of us. A beautiful piano backdrop with some of my favorite lyrics I’ve ever written with anyone.
We recorded a demo in the moment that turned out so raw and had this crack in my voice trying not to cry the entire time.
I remember listening back to it and thinking, This is it, this is the last song on the record. Not only just for the record, it felt complete and true for that chapter of my life.
I’ll never forget that.
