Jesse Chambers has been infatuated with music since he was 5 years old. The Lexington resident and senior at OCHS started playing guitar then, and more recently, has been pursuing singing as a self-taught musician.
“I’ve been playing guitar pretty much my whole life,” he said. “There’s pictures of me when I was 5, playing guitar, but singing has kind of been more like recent. I didn't really start playing and singing until around like a couple of years ago.”
Chambers’ favorite style of music is blues and jazz, and his favorite artist is John Mayer.
When Chambers was an infant, his grandmother, Laurie Turner, remembers how he would start crying if she stopped singing.
His parents and grandparents play guitar, his mother sings and his great-great grandmother sang with the Atlanta Opera in the 1940s. His early love of music makes sense, considering his family’s involvement with singing and playing.
“We used to have jams and stuff at the house,” Chambers said. “So pretty much my whole family is just really music oriented.”
Recently, Chambers has been showcasing his guitar and singing skills at Town and Country Kafe and expects to play at Lexington’s American Legion Post 123 on Wednesdays in the near future.
He initially sang and played guitar at the Town and Country Kafe in February 2024, and he has played there four or five times in total.
“The first time that I played there was this couple, and they were there and they gave me $300 or something like that,” Chambers said. “They were just so sweet and they were borderline crying, and they were just really happy.”
Since then, Chambers has been balancing singing and guitar practice with other activities, including OCHS wrestling, working as a video editor for The Oglethorpe Echo videographer Colton Smith, assisting with marketing content for The Grove at Bailey Farms and performing live at various venues.
Early last year, Chambers would practice around 6-8 hours a day, but now he typically practices from 7:30-9 p.m. weekdays and after wrestling practices.
After Chambers graduates from OCHS, he plans to join the Army as a Black Hawk mechanic. He hopes to utilize his military benefits toward funding music school, his dream being Berklee College of Music in Boston, or funding his own personal music journey.
Chambers’ biggest supporters are his parents and grandparents.
“This past time playing at the cafe was probably my favorite, because a lot of my family came that I don't really see a lot, and I’d say it was just a really great environment, and I kind of had it down,” Chambers said. “I wasn’t as nervous, because I’ve played a lot more now, so I kind of got to feel it out a little bit more, and I wasn’t so nervous about how I sounded and everything.”
Chambers’ grandparents, Laurie and James Turner, deeply cherish his childhood memories surrounding music and are excited to see where music leads him.
“I just think he’s going to go places with it, whether he becomes wildly famous or whatever, he’s good and music needs to be shared, because music touches the soul and feeds your soul,” Laurie Turner said. “He can be an inspiration to other people, and encourage others to pick up an instrument and play it.”