I never know what's going to happen when someone hands me a CD to check out. Usually not much. But sometimes, POP! Take "Sold My Sex" by Jillian Marie Kelleher, a.k.a JMK. I met her mom, Gale, at my favorite summer hang -- Sunday afternoons, outdoors listening to bands at The Washington Irving boat club, right under the new Tappan Zee Bridge in Tarrytown, NY. One day Gale introduces me to her daughter Jillian, who's in town for the week from Nashville where she works in music publishing. We had a nice chat about the business and that was that. The other night I ran into her mom at Pete's Saloon in Elmsford, NY and she passes me "Sold My Sex." The album cover intrigues me. I dated someone way back with the name of Kelleher and yet another woman who looks just like her! Once I put the CD in my boombox, I never wanted to take it out!
Growing up with the Beatles and "All You Need Is Love," I get a jolt from the Millenial take on romance. The record starts off with "You'll Be Sorry," a flavorful Reggae jaunt featurng rapper Ricochet. "Never said that I was a romantic. Matter of fact, I'm a little bit sadistic. I ain't got time for the dramatic love. I can tell you're a little narcissistic. So don't say that I didn't warn you. You know that I have told you from the jump... Boy you be good to me or you'll be sorry. I don't know just what you heard about me? But I'm gon' break your face, if you go break my heart." Of course, if a man threatens a woman, he goes right to jail! The sultry "House of Cards" doesn't waste any time getting to it. "Lying down and dirty on the bathroom floor, man in my hands, I can't use no more. I made it easy, made him want to stay. But now he's questioning my wicked ways. He rolls in late, tried not to make a sound... Like I can't tell that he's been doubling down. I smelled the liquor, saw the lipstick stain. I had to start to plan my great escape. Cause your house of cards will come a tumblin' down. You'll look for me but I won't be hanging around. I'm calling your bluff cause boy you can't play the Queen. And your house of cards won't be falling on me."
And it just keeps getting hotter. Take the fantasy, slow-burn title track, "Sold My Sex." "If I sold my sex, I wonder how far it'd get me? If we played pretend, just for the evening, we could build a life, that you've always wanted. You could buy my love, just like nothing's haunting us. Tonight, tonight, you're mine tonight." And then out of nowhere, the gears shift to sensitive singer/songwriter mode with "Too Into You. "Lately you've been so consumed by you. You've forgotten what it means to me. Don't you realize pleasing you, pleases me... it pleases everyone in between. And lately you've been sulking late at night. Hanging around with those asexual types. But I've got warm blood and cold blood and your blood flowing through my veins. Still you sit at home sipping beers all alone. I can hear it so clear on the phone... I wish sometimes I could just hold you, but you're a little bit too... you're too into you."
A master lyricist and songwriter, a commanding singer with a captivating presence, JMK stands poised to break big both with the dance crowd and alt-rockers. Slickly produced by Johnny Blk and Anthony "Rocky" Gallo, watch for these tunes to catapult right up the charts!
©2018 Roger Zee