ION INDIE MAGAZINE November 2014, Volume 6 | Page 51

WHOA, NASHVILLE HAS A NEW LEADING LADY…
SHE IS JESSICA OTT!
By Yvonne Day
Nashville, Tennessee, known as the center of the Tennessee music industry, has earned its nickname as
"Music City". Last month the residents of Nashville were given an opportunity to see performances by
Country music icons LORETTA LYNN and JERRY LEE LEWIS. Both are legendary singers/performers and
household names whispered to me by my grandparents.
Perhaps our grandparents may have held back their inhibitions in public, but behind closed doors they were
cranking up HANK WILLIAMS, ELVIS and PATSY CLINE. In America, all of the above-mentioned performers
are considered to be pioneers in the music industry.
Fast-forward to 2014, a time where millennials or the present day sub-culture musicians may hope to one
day perform on stage at THE GRAND OLE’ OPRY. They are a new breed. Visualize a morphing of contemporary
Pop-Rock-Blues musicians and what you will find is WHOA DAKOTA, fronted by a very creative singer,
JESSICA OTT.
An emerging young singer and song-writer from Little Rock, Arkansas, Jessica found herself in “The Windy
City” to attend college and get educated. What she learned after a few years in Chicago was more than the
fine art of jamming with a half dozen other players on stage! However, that wasn’t the beginning for Jessica
and her new Nashville-based band Whoa Dakota.
“I started singing around 7 and began writing songs when I was about 13. I had a great music teacher who
sort of took me and a couple of friends under his wing. Two of my girlfriends and I were interested in learning
how to play guitar and he gave us the first few lessons we ever had. After I had a few chords under my belt, I
started trying to put together songs. Some were terrible, and some were actually pretty great looking back.”
While attending college in Chicago, she became a member of the band OTIS. Jessica told me, quote, “It was
a great, funky seven piece (band), and we were at it for close to three years before I decided to make the
move to Nashville. Jamming with those guys made me comfortable performing in front of other people, which
was really the largest obstacle in front of me when it came to being a "singer" (for real, as a job, on stages,
etc.).”
Chicago to Nashville!? Interesting choice, geographically, to attempt to launch a new band and pursue a
career as a professional singer. Jessica claims that Nashville was close to her home town. Also, she had a
friend who lived there and he was very supportive of her pursuit, HOUSTON MATHEWS. Now, he plays drums
for her and the band, Whoa Dakota. Credit is attributed to Mathews for his creative production of her first
music video, “So Much Trouble”.