San Diego Reader

"I never focused on the music scene until a few years ago," says Alyssa Jacey. "I always listened to music and appreciated everyone who was on the radio, selling out shows, but ever since I decided to pursue music instead of a dance career -- such as a choreographer for someone like Usher or one of JT's backup dancers -- I have been paying more attention to acoustic artists and local talent, not so much bands."

Jacey was born in La Jolla, and raised in Rancho Santa Fe and Del Mar. She attended Torrey Pines High School, went to Sonoma State her freshman year of college, then attended Mira Costa (Junior College) for a couple years part time and decided to take a break. She took 2.5 years off, to follow her life long dream to become a dancer (touring with Usher as a back up dancer and/or choreograph for artists such as him). She taught hip-hop classes in gyms and colleges and danced with professional, traveling teams.

During this period, she left San Diego a few times for college and a stint in L.A. for nine months. Before pursuing music, she had many unrelated gigs, including "Nannying three kids -- all under 9 years old -- when I was 17. While living in L.A., one of my three jobs was talent scouting for child actors and models. It sucked. [And] working for Victoria's Secret during the holiday season -- you haven't experienced mayhem until you've been around hundreds of women fighting over bras, panties, and dressing rooms."

“I spent almost 20 years as a dancer,” says Jacey, whose high point as a hoofer was her 2003 appearance at Super Bowl XXXVII. “But then, in 2004, I started doing karaoke, mainly as a joke. I never had a vocal lesson in my life, I didn’t play any instruments, and had only messed around with songwriting a little. But I ended up emailing a producer who said he was willing to record me.”

In 2005, Jacey submitted her demo CD to the Del Mar County Fair and was surprised when they booked her for eight shows. “Each set paid something like $50 to $100, and they were two hours each. I had to learn a ton of cover songs, plus I wrote a few originals and hired a guitar player.”

Jacey was given a guitar by world famous classical guitarist and very close family friend, Pepe Romero in October of 2005. She took one lesson from him that day and, hoping to evolve as a solo act, Jacey began teaching herself guitar; she landed a paying gig behind the axe two weeks later.

“SDSU found my MySpace page and asked if I was interested in performing for their CASE series, held every Wednesday inside one of their Starbucks. I had to get someone else to play with me because I could only perform the first two songs I ever wrote on guitar. We mostly did covers the rest of the hour, so I could sing while he played.”

As of 2010, Jacey performs over a hundred shows each year. “I do a lot of my own booking, I design and print my own labels, and I burn my own CDs,” she says. “When I was recording my first full-length album, I bought a keyboard and taught myself to play.

“I was in my mid-20s when I started, which is pretty old when it comes to the music industry.... I started way late.”

In Autumn 2010, Jacey was featured in the September issue of RediLifestyle Magazine and was the Music Go Round Band of the Month for August. A few weeks later, she announced “I will not be performing in public for a long long time. At least, nowhere you’ll know about.” She was taking time from performing to work with a professional mentor, producer/singer/songwriter Jim Reilley, in hopes of becoming “the artist this person could already see was there, [I] just needed some professional TLC. Kind of a lot of it.”

In Autumn 2011, she began recording an album in Nashville, On the Spot, with drummers Nick Buda (Taylor Swift) and Steve Bowman (Counting Crows), guitarist Audley Freed (Black Crowes), bassist Chris Autry (Jo Dee Messina), keyboardist Michael Webb (LeAnn Rimes, John Fogerty), and producer/singer/songwriter Jim Reilley (the New Dylans).

In January 2012, the newly-30 singer/songwriter moved to Nashville and released a new single, “Gush,” on iTunes.