JBM, also known as Jesse Marchant, is a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 singer songwriter who plays acoustic guitar

Acoustic guitar

An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...

 and sings about subjects including "personal experience and the familiarity with loss," according to Glide Magazine. His music has been compared to "Bread

Bread (band)

Bread was a rock band from Los Angeles, California. They placed 13 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart between 1970 and 1977 and were a prime example of what later was labeled soft rock....

 meets America

America (band)

America is an English-American folk rock band that originally included members Gerry Beckley, Dewey Bunnell and Dan Peek. The three members were barely out of their teens when they became a musical sensation during 1972, scoring #1 hits and winning a Grammy for best new musical artist...

". In 2011, he signed a recording contract with Brooklyn-based Partisan Records

Partisan Records

Partisan Records is an American independent record label based in Brooklyn, New York. It was started in 2007 by Ian Wheeler and Tim Putnam. Their first releases were an expanded version of Holy Sons Decline of the West and The Standard's fifth studio album Swimmer...

.

Beginnings

Marchant was born in Montreal. He was classically trained in guitar from the age of seven. According to one account, as a young man Marchant lived in his family's home in the Adirondack Mountains

Adirondack Mountains

The Adirondack Mountains are a mountain range located in the northeastern part of New York, that runs through Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Herkimer, Lewis, Saint Lawrence, Saratoga, Warren, and Washington counties....

 for three years, living mostly in seclusion, to realize songs that he had written earlier in Los Angeles. In 2008, he recorded songs in a church studio in Hudson, New York

Hudson, New York

Hudson is a city located along the west border of Columbia County, New York, United States. The city is named after the adjacent Hudson River and ultimately after the explorer Henry Hudson.Hudson is the county seat of Columbia County...

. Vocals were recorded in such a way as to give a "reverb-washed" sound, according to critic Brittney McKenna. In an interview he emphasized the importance of songs that must "sit right" with him and feel that they "belong together" with consistent "textural elements and colors" before being recorded:
Marchant has toured with Nathaniel Rateliff, Rogue Wave

Rogue Wave (band)

Rogue Wave is an indie rock band from Oakland, California, , and headed by Zach Schwartz who created the band after losing his job in the dot-com bust. Their first album was Out of the Shadow which was released privately in 2003 and re-released in 2004...

, Avi Buffalo

Avi Buffalo

Avi Buffalo is an indie-pop band based in Long Beach, California founded by singer/songwriter and guitarist, Avi Zahner-Isenberg. Their self-titled debut album was released on the 27th of April, 2010, and was given positive reviews by The Onion A.V. Club, NME, Filter, Drowned in Sound and numerous...

, and Sondre Lerche

Sondre Lerche

-Career:Sondre Lerche was born in Bergen, Norway. Growing up, Lerche was heavily influenced by the '80s pop that emanated from his older siblings' rooms. Compelled by a defining fascination for bands such as The Beatles, A-ha, the Beach Boys, and Prefab Sprout, Lerche began formal guitar...

. He shared the stage with other singer-songwriters such as St. Vincent, Elvis Perkins

Elvis Perkins

Elvis Perkins is an American folk-rock recording artist. He released his debut studio album, Ash Wednesday, in 2007...

, and Swedish

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 singer The Tallest Man on Earth

The Tallest Man on Earth

Kristian Matsson is a singer-songwriter from Dalarna, Sweden. Since 2006, he has released two full-length albums and two EPs...

. His sound has been compared to that of Jim James, Justin Vernon, Buddy Guy

Buddy Guy

George "Buddy" Guy is an American blues and jazz guitarist and singer. He is a critically acclaimed artist who has established himself as a pioneer of the Chicago blues sound, and has served as an influence to some of the most notable musicians of his generation...

, Nick Drake

Nick Drake

Nicholas Rodney "Nick" Drake was an English singer-songwriter and musician. Though he is best known for his sombre guitar based songs, Drake was also proficient at piano, clarinet and saxophone...

, Neil Young

Neil Young

Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...

, and M. Ward

M. Ward

Matthew Stephen Ward, known by his stage name M. Ward, is a singer-songwriter and guitarist who rose to prominence in the Portland, Oregon music scene. In addition to his solo work he is known as a member of She & Him and Monsters of Folk.-Career:...

.

In 2011, he lives in Brooklyn and Los Angeles

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

 and in New York State near the Canadian border in Lake Clear

Lake Clear, New York

Lake Clear is a hamlet and a lake in Franklin County, New York, United States. The area is named for Lake Clear, part of the original Seven Carries canoe route...

.

Reviews

Music critic Nick Gunther described JBM's music as instilling a "unique depth of emotion and feeling." Brittney McKenna in American Songwriter wrote that there was a "level of peace and of stillness unique to a church" in Marchant's debut album and that his music "feels like one man’s soft, musical prayer for hope in a world that too often has too little," and she compared his style to Thom Yorke

Thom Yorke

Thomas "Thom" Edward Yorke is an English musician who is the lead vocalist and principal songwriter for Radiohead. He mainly plays guitar and piano, but he has also played drums and bass guitar...

 and Neil Young

Neil Young

Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...

. JBM's song "Ambitions & War" was described as a "honey-of-a-song" in Future Sounds magazine, with lyrics about a person who is losing their mind

Mind

The concept of mind is understood in many different ways by many different traditions, ranging from panpsychism and animism to traditional and organized religious views, as well as secular and materialist philosophies. Most agree that minds are constituted by conscious experience and intelligent...

 in Los Angeles

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

. Clubdistrict.com described the album as "exquisitely crafted" which feels "as weathered and wise as an old home" and which is a "mostly acoustic venture" with "atmospheric arrangements, lyrical purity and unaffected baritone." Mikela Floyd in Filter Magazine

Filter (magazine)

FILTER, the publication that promises us that "Good music will prevail," is a seasonal American music and off-beat entertainment magazine. It features commentary and photos of up-and-coming musicians and filmmakers ranging from actors to writer-directors...

described the debut album as "heartfelt compositions" reflecting "a meticulous and carefully crafted sound" from a "handcrafted talent." Steven Mansmith in Slowcoustic described the album as "a fantastic album" of 2010 and noted that the video by Brody Baker accompanying JBM's song Not Even in July, with "images of strewn lawn chairs, sunsets and searching through a dark forest" was a "great video for a great song."

Discography

• Not Even in July, 2010, Partisan Records
  Partisan Records
  Partisan Records is an American independent record label based in Brooklyn, New York. It was started in 2007 by Ian Wheeler and Tim Putnam. Their first releases were an expanded version of Holy Sons Decline of the West and The Standard's fifth studio album Swimmer...
  
  
• Not Even in July, 2008, Vinyl format