Meet Ja’net Eastman

An American country music singer / songwriter, Ja’net Eastman released her debut album, “Lucky Enuf” in November 2020.  The album earned Eastman a Josie Award nomination for “Rising Star of the Year” category for the seventh annual Josie Music Awards held in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

Eastman was born and raised, for the most part, in South Dakota.  As truck drivers, her parents let a gypsy-like lifestyle during her upbringing.  Even still, she claims the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota her home and that is where she currently resides.

As a young child, Eastman was drawn to the sound of her mother’s classic country vinyl records.  A collection that included the likes of Don Williams, Emmy Lou Harris, Waylon Jennings, Patsy Cline and Jim Reeves.  Time would later prove these artists’ influence on Eastman.

Eastman received her very first guitar from her grandmother around age 14, ironically, she did not learn to play a single chord until her mid 30s.  As a middle schooler and in her early high school years, Eastman participated in band and choir, competing in vocal competitions and participating in school concerts.

It wasn’t until age 33, as a mother of four middle-school aged children, Eastman made good on the promise she had made to herself years earlier.  She purchased a $65 Harmony Hummingbird six-string guitar from the Fingerhut catalog and bartered lessons for six-packs of brew a couple times a week for a year or so.

Armed with a guitar and newly re-kindled passion for music, Eastman started networking and meeting up with other local artists and musicians.  She dove in head-first, even working in set-up and tear-down for a local band, singing back-up for free when possible—all to gain valuable, hands-on experience of what it takes to be a start-up musician.  All of this prepared Eastman to step out and form her own band in 2015, “South Highway 85 Band“.  They were booked and played local venues on a regular basis.

Not long after this, Eastman met and became fast friends with local musicians, Lance and Lilly Nilson.  Lance and Lilly encouraged Eastman to step out further as a solo artist.  Fueled by a successfuly solo gig in the fall of 2016 in Three Forks, MT, Eastman has now performed regularly as a solo artist and with South Highway 85 Band for the last five years.

In the fall of 2019, Eastman partnered up with Lance Nilson to independently produce her first EP album, “Lucky Enuf”.  ALl five traditional country-sounding tracks were written by Eastman.  The album has launched Eastman clearly as an up-and-coming country music artist and songwriter with a very bright future.

Ja’net Eastman currently travels, plays and performs regularly in the Tri-State area—South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana.