Jolie releases "I Can Only Be Me"

Jolie...

releases “I Can Only Be Me”

by Adriana Cabezas

Two years after starting her music career, Jolie Wright has released her first album of original songs. Her EP, I Can Only Be Me, talks about her journey through life and how her experiences have made her better and stronger today.

Jolie started her music career in mid-2017 singing outside a pizza restaurant in downtown St. Augustine. She got the gig after answering an ad looking for a musician on Facebook. “After high school, I was working two jobs and I thought, ‘I know I can make a living doing what I love, why am I not doing it yet?’” she recalls.
Two years later she was voted Best Female Vocalist in St. Augustine 2019 with Folio Weekly. “I didn’t even know I was nominated to be honest,” she said. “I was going on to vote for somebody else because I saw that they were advertising it. And when I went to vote for them, I saw my name was on the Best Female Vocalist category. I was freaking out. I had only been playing for a year, so I was really not expecting anything. And the fact that I did win was just insane.”

It wasn’t an easy road for her to get where she is now. Jolie knew she loved singing since she was a child but didn’t share her musical talent until she was 12 because she was too shy to sing in public. “I actually told my dad one day [that I wanted to sing] and he thought I was messing with him,” she recalls. “I am the shyest kid in the family; so painfully shy I would hide behind my parents when they introduced me to people.”

The release of her EP, I Can Only Be Me, comes to show how far she’s come. This album is a door to her true self and emotions. Writing is her favorite part of the process, she says. “Music has always been an outlet, a way to express myself. I’ve never been able to talk about how I feel, but for whatever reason, writing songs has always been my way of channeling my emotions and figuring myself out.”

“It’s been such a long time coming,” Jolie says about her EP, and she couldn’t be happier with the result. “I’m excited,” she said. “It’s cool to see stuff like that come to life and it’s scary to put myself out there, but I’ve had so many people asking for my songs because the lyrics resonate with them which is really cool. I never thought in a million years someone would hear my song and relate to it.”

“I want people to know they’re not alone if you’re going through something hard. Everyone is going through something hard,” she says, about what she wants to transmit through her music. “Eventually you will be on the other side of it and stronger for it. And to not be afraid to take the leap if you’re a musician, because it took me forever.”

If you want to see Jolie perform live, she usually can be found in Casa de Vino 57 in downtown St. Augustine, and she has two performances coming up at Colonial Oak Music Park on Dec. 12 (7pm) and Dec. 24 (5pm). You can also buy her new CD on her website, www.officialjolie.com, or you can stream the album on Spotify and Apple Music.