Jillian Jacqueline reflects 'Honestly' on her new album

Nashville-based singer-songwriter Jillian Jacqueline's latest release marks the arrival of "Honestly," her debut album – after two decades in the music industry – from UMG's Virgin Music Label and Artist Services crafted in an spacious new home studio converted from a renovated garage.

It bears mainstream acclaim and a nuanced mastery of the hit-making craft.

The album's current single is "Iconic," a ballad that highlights her willingness to plunge with unprecedented depth into her life story, plus showcase assured clarity in Jacqueline's voice.

While lounging on a couch in her studio, she tells The Tennessean, "when I wrote ('Iconic') I had just gotten engaged (to her now-husband, guitarist Bryan Brown). In some ways, getting married terrified me because my parents didn't stay together. So, to me, the idea of figuring out how to stay in love, forever, is the most badass and iconic thing you could ever do."

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Pausing while remembering writing the song's hook, she adds: "In a world where divorce is – and should be – accepted, it's brave to romanticize forever, again."

Philadelphia-born and New York City-raised, Jacqueline's career has been informed by the Lunabelles, the country band she formed with her sisters Olivia, Dominique and Gabriela a decade ago. Also, affiliations with country and pop icons, including Richard Marx, Kenny Rogers and Keith Urban, as well as "Honestly" collaborators Charlie Worsham and Lori McKenna, are notable.

However, at 33, she's a married mother (of Rockwell, her 7-month-old son) who has traveled the world and lived a life that is greater than the sum of its incredible parts. The nuances of that existence now appear in her approach to telling stories in country music.

"It was exciting to grow up worldly and open-minded, on the road, as a home-schooled child," she says. "That included living in a cultural melting pot like New York City, where you're influenced by other well-traveled and intelligent people who led rich, unique lives."

It's in meeting at the confluence of dynamic periods of each other's "rich, unique lives" that makes her "Honestly" single "Better With a Broken Heart" (a duet with the Brothers Osbornes' T.J. Osborne) resonate.

"I hope people feel the weight of what we put into that song," says Jacqueline. "How we genuinely (convey "Better With a Broken Heart's) emotion in our performances actually makes it the cornerstone of the album."

To Jacqueline, "Honestly" reflects Nashville becoming "a place that welcomes artists with layered, deep and unique personalities, more so than (pigeonholing) them into country music's expected precedents."

The veteran artist's album pays homage to '90s country stars like Pam Tillis and Patty Loveless.

It also honors an unheralded moment: An overwhelmed career daughter and musician-turned-parent-and-wife who finally sat down, exhaled, had a glass of wine, and reflected on a life defined by enriching experiences.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Jillian Jacqueline's album 'Honestly' reflects on marriage, parenthood