Its Unsigned/Indy Artist Thursday and today we bring you a singer and songwriter born in Montpelier, Vermont, raised in Waterbury, VT, and who began performing professionally at age 15, appearing with his father, who was a popular band leader throughout New England. An artist who has been through the fires in Nashville, and who's life has already been the basis of a movie screenplay.

photo courtesy of www.facebook.com/381345518718589/photos
photo courtesy of www.facebook.com/381345518718589/photos
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Jamie Lee Thurston says while that he wasn't born performing on stage, some of his earliest memories are of being on stage with his bandleader father. At age three he would join his father on stage, and by his early teenage years he was working for his dad's bands as a roadie. He occasionally would sit in on guitar with the bands, and by the time he graduated high school, he was promoted to full time guitarist.

After a couple of years touring with his father's bands, Thurston began playing bars and clubs around New England and Canada. Before long, he was opening for acts like the Dixie Chicks, Brad Paisley, Charlie Daniels and Jason Aldean. He released the album I Just Wanna Do My Thing independently in 2003, featuring the lead single "It Can All Be Gone", peaking at #48. His live performances drew the attention of Warner Bros. Records, who signed Thurston in 2003, transferring him almost immediately to the subsidiary label Country Thunder Records. The relationship was short lived, and produced no albums or singles.

photo courtesy of www.facebook.com/381345518718589/photos
photo courtesy of www.facebook.com/381345518718589/photos
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Thurston has released two subsequent Indy albums. 2012's Where's An Outlaw When You Need One and The Stayin' Kind in 2012. He has kept active in Nashville as a songwriter, penning the single "15 Minutes" for Rodney Atkins' 2009 album It's America. He has also written songs for Trace Adkins, Montgomery Gentry and others. Thurston's life has been into a as yet unsold movie screenplay, written by Tim Rhys, the founder of MovieMaker Magazine. Jamie Lee has also continued to pursue his second passion, helping America’s veterans. He partnered with the Easter Seal’s Veteran’s Count program to release  “Ghosts In His Eyes,”a mini-documentary, to help raise awareness  for veterans with PTS and TBI.

Thurston is back in the studio, and the fruits of his latest efforts are in our spotlight. Jamie Lee Thurston and "Givin' Up Breathing" is our Unsigned/Indy Artist Thursday Catch of the Day, new music you haven't heard, but you'll want to hear it again.

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