Jetta Cole’s new music video for “Woodstock” opens with a gorgeous shot of a classic pickup truck driving through the Sierra Nevada. Images of Guitarfish Music Festival punctuate the frame as the cosmic gypsy songstress takes the stage before a swirling crowd of colorful hippies.
Watch the music video for “Woodstock”
“It’s been a joke that I’ve been singing before I could talk,” says the artist who grew up in Gardnerville, Nev. “My family always kind of made fun of me for being this freedom-loving butterfly who never took life too seriously. I keep things light as best I can.”
“I felt like the universe was telling me: ‘It’s time to face this. You just want to play in the sunshine, but I can’t do that until you confront your demons.’ My soul was asking me to slow down and listen.” –Jetta Cole
Cole’s voice soars powerfully over alt-rocker Pamela Parker’s stripped-down piano on the classic Joni Mitchell composition. Although “Woodstock” is now more than 50 years old, Cole sees the message as ever more relevant today.
“I think about coming from someone’s fresh eyes and that’s my view of the world,” she says. “I’m not the kind of the person who researches everything. I let things come to me. There’s something innocent and unique about that one that tugs at my heartstrings.”
On the first day of filming, Cole jumped off a boat onto the dock and broke her ankle in three places. Laid up at home on painkillers, she went through what can only be described as a personal transformation.
Five years earlier, Cole had been sexually assaulted. While recovering from her ankle injury, remembrances of her assault flooded back.
“All of these repressed memories came up,” she says. “I knew I had been physically abused as a child, but I realized I was also sexually abused. It’s just the truth. I was running away. Now I’m breaking the cycle with my own children. I felt like the universe was telling me: ‘It’s time to face this. You just want to play in the sunshine, but I can’t do that until you confront your demons.’ My soul was asking me to slow down and listen.”
When she finally got out of bed eight weeks later, Cole built a music studio at her condo in Tahoe Keys and began recording demos for her debut album.
“I feel like it’s all part of this empowerment,” she says. “I have nothing to hide. This is my total truth. This is who I am. This is what I’ve gone through. I don’t feel shy about it. I don’t feel ashamed anymore. I feel like if I can be honest about it, then maybe it can help someone going through this.”
Working through the pain has revealed a cascade of creativity Cole has never felt before.
“I actually feel like that was a gift from the universe,” she says. “I don’t have to suffer any more abuse. I’m pouring music out of me every time I turn a corner. I sometimes wake up in the night and a whole song comes through me. I have so much content, so much to work with. I ask myself: ‘What is going to heal people and inspire people the most?’ It’s wild to me how it’s all happened and how it’s brought things together.”
Another tender ballad called, “Give Thanks,” was written while she was sitting with her newborn daughter, November Celeste, on a stormy winter day.
“I felt a little sad somehow,” she says. “I don’t know why. Maybe it was the weather. The song is a journey from this melancholy place to where it’s okay. In the end, it’s a beautiful story about living life and accepting what it means to be human.”
Armed with fresh confidence and personal insight, Cole is set to break out as one of the most talented and charismatic vocalists in the Tahoe Sierra.
“Honestly, I feel very excited and called at this moment,” she says. “I’ve come to a place of maturity through the things I’ve experienced and the hardships I’ve gone through. I believe it’s shaped not only my soul, but my sound. In the past, maybe my goal was fame. It was really coming from an egotistical place. I’ve removed myself now. I have zero expectations. I just want my music to reach as many people as possible. Whoever it’s made for, I want the music to reach their lives and move them. Maybe it makes them feel happy in this time of darkness. I do believe it’s a calling and it’s meant to be. It’s the perfect time to do it. It feels perfect.” | soundcloud.com/jettacole
