Jessica Hernandez is a singer-songwriter — but not THAT kind of singer songwriter. She has Latin roots, but we’re not talking Selena or Shakira here. She’s got soul (Hernandez does come from Motown, after all), but is not cookie-cutter contemporary R&B diva. She can be as heartfelt and melodic as any pop singer out there, but she doesn’t sound like a one of them. So if you’re trying to peg Hernandez — good freakin’ luck. Our advice instead is to just sit back and enjoy the kind of rare, genuinely individualistic artist that eschews any conventions and stylistic parameters and instead covers a lot of ground — and all of it well.
“I AM all over the place — everything from my fashion taste to my food taste to my choice of friends and groups of people that I associate myself with,” says Hernandez, who in less than three years has vaulted from late-blooming music-maker to a bona fide leading light in her home town of Detroit — and beyond, thanks to buzz-generating performances at South By Southwest and the Bonnaroo Music Festival. “I’ve never really been very distinct, so I think there’s a lot of different influences coming from a lot of different places at all times. I’m just trying to make sense of everything that’s going on in my head and then make something cohesive that people can relate to and connect with.”
Take a listen to any of the music Hernandez is making with her band, the Deltas and you’ll hear that mission is being accomplished. In spades. A Hernandez song weaves through gypsy style violin and New Orleans-flavored horns, funky rhythm patterns and strikingly detailed dynamics. Her tunes boast a rich, three-dimensional, cinematic cascade, running from gentle and serene to dramatic, swirling crescendos that convey beauty in their near chaos.