Cul-de-Sac Kid
Nashville-based singer-songwriter Jess Jocoy creates music for those navigating life’s in-between spaces — blending cinematic storytelling with folk-rooted introspection shaped by over a decade of loss, heartache, and self-doubt. Raised outside Seattle with the Pacific Northwest as her backdrop, Jocoy’s introduction to country music came through her parents, who filled the car with the sounds of Alan Jackson and Shania Twain on the way to school. That early influence shaped her own mission: to prove that twangy guitars and honest, heartfelt lyrics belong just as much on suburban streets as they do on southern backroads.
Her third studio album, Cul-de-Sac Kid, due Friday, October 24, captures that journey in full. Across 11 tracks, Jocoy dubs her one-of-a-kind sound “cul-de-sac country,” weaving together northwestern and southeastern influences into something uniquely her own. It’s an autobiographical record about accepting where you come from, making peace with not quite fitting in, and leaning into that outsider status with grace. “Cul-de-Sac Kid is about coming to terms with who you are, where you’re from, and the taking of longer roads,” she shares. “I’m finally making peace with not quite fitting in — and leaning into that.”
Jocoy’s acclaimed debut album Such a Long Way (2020) and follow-up EP Brighter Eyes (2021) established her as a distinctive songwriter, blending northwestern and southeastern influences into a voice all her own. American Songwriter praised her “mournful effervescence,” while No Depression recognized her “smooth blend of traditional country and folk sounds.”National TV appearances on NBC’s Songland and airplay on WSM Radio, home of the Grand Ole Opry, brought her wider attention. But it was 2022’s Let There Be No Despair that fully showcased her range: an elegiac collection mixing autobiography with empathetic character portraits, laced with violin, acoustic guitar, and bowed bass.
Jocoy moved to Nashville in 2014 to study songwriting at Belmont University, still carrying the grief of losing her father the year before. That weight hung over her music until Cul-de-Sac Kid gave her a moment to breathe.
Songs like “I Could Live On That Alone” were written in the thick of that pain — back when she was living alone in college, struggling to make a new life while mourning a parent. “This song was almost like God sending a reminder that there’s no darkness that light cannot shine through,” she shares. “You can still write happy songs even if you’re not happy right now.” The song imagines the kind of love she hopes to find one day: steady, trusting, and loyal.
On the flip side, “You Sure Showed Me” delivers a sarcastic breakup anthem, capturing the moment when rose-colored glasses fall away and the bad times finally reveal themselves. “Even though this person’s been left on the bad end of the situation, they still have a fight left in them,” Jocoy says. “Their world isn’t ending.”
Jocoy’s lyrics are deliberate and observant, whether telling her own story or zooming in on small, everyday details. With over 3,000 voice memos saved on her phone, she’s constantly writing. “Every Good Cowboy” paints a vivid picture of cowboy culture: trained dogs, a well-made hat, a good woman at home. “Echo in the Canyon,” written during the pandemic, symbolizes the feeling of losing her voice — shouting her name into the Grand Canyon and hearing nothing back. Meanwhile, the title track“Cul-de-Sac Kid” is her personal manifesto, reflecting on her journey from suburban Seattle to Nashville, and the quiet doubt that came with chasing country music as a transplant.
Throughout it all, Jocoy finds comfort in the linear storylines of country and Americana music. “At the heart of this style of music, there’s always a storyline,” she shares. “There’s a keen sense of observation in these kinds of songs that encourages me to be a better witness to the world turning around me.”
“Cul-de-Sac Kid feels like a door opening,” she says. “On one side I see what came before as memories rather than ghosts, and I carry them with me with a smile. And I look ahead and see what is to come as a hopeful light breaking over the horizon.”
She closes with a wish for those who hear the album: “I hope listeners hear the sincerity in someone trying to bridge experience with imagination. Maybe they’ll find their own truth in these songs — whether they’re a cowboy, a stripper, a hopeless romantic, or someone watching their hometown get replaced by track housing and fast food chains. Maybe they’ve felt like an outsider in a place they wanted so badly to fit in. Maybe, just maybe, they grew up in a cul-de-sac like me.”