Let’s define the word songstress: “1. A woman who performs songs, especially ballads or popular songs. 2. A woman who writes songs.”*

Jessica E. both writes and sings her own songs. She also performs cover versions of songs by other artists. “I chose to use the word songstress as opposed to singer because it sounds more feminine. I wanted to highlight that I am a woman who sings. I think it’s a classy word,” Jessica E. explains. “I study lyrics. I pay attention to how others play with words and ask how I can bend a word to fit my own meaning, or place it against another to inspire a feeling. My songs reflect my outlook on life. The joy and struggle of finding and keeping love, serendipitous encounters, happiness, sadness, everyday heroes, sunny days, warm cups of tea…whatever I think is worth putting in a song,” she says of song writing.

Some of the earliest memories she has of singing occurred while in the car with her parents. “They would turn off the radio to hear me and my brother Paul sing. We sang songs by Céline Dion or Alanis Morissette…or stuff we learned in school. We were really young then and we had a long commute home, so we sang quite a lot,” she laughs. In elementary school she sang in choirs and in high school, acted and sang in musicals. “Singing is important to me, it’s cleansing and liberating,” she says.

Jessica E. is influenced by Joni Mitchell, Norah Jones, Tracy Chapman, the Beatles, Elton John, Simon & Garfunkel, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Tori Amos, Sheryl Crow, Florence + the Machine, among many others.

*Answers.com http://www.answers.com/topic/songstress