Mirriam Johnson (born May 25, 1943), known professionally as Jessi Colter, is an American country singer who is best known for her collaborations with her second husband, country musician Waylon Jennings, and for her 1975 country hit "I'm Not Lisa".

Colter was one of the few female artists to emerge from the mid-1970s "outlaw country" movement. After meeting Jennings, Colter pursued a career in country music, releasing her first studio LP in 1970, A Country Star Is Born. Five years later, Colter signed with Capitol Records and released "I'm Not Lisa", which topped the country charts and reached the top five on the pop charts. In 1976, she was featured on the collaboration LP Wanted: The Outlaws, which became an RIAA-certified platinum album.

Mirriam Johnson was born on May 25, 1943, in Phoenix, Arizona, and raised in a strict Pentecostal home. Her mother was a Pentecostal preacher and her father was a racecar driver. At age 11, Colter became the pianist at her church. After graduating from Mesa High School in 1961, she began singing in local clubs in Phoenix. After marrying guitarist Duane Eddy in 1961, and still using her real name of Mirriam Johnson, she released two singles that were issued on the Jamie label. The first, "Lonesome Road", received scattered airplay in several US markets, though not enough to make any national charts. After a second single failed to even get regional airplay, Johnson did not record again for nearly a decade. She continued to tour with Eddy until divorcing him in 1968. The following year, she met country artist Waylon Jennings, who helped her secure a recording contract with RCA Victor, and married him.

Johnson, now billing herself as "Jessi Colter", resumed her recording career in 1970. That year, Waylon Jennings and Colter sang duet on two top-40 country chart hits. On March 25, 1970, she played keyboard for her husband during his appearance on The Johnny Cash Show. She released her debut album, A Country Star Is Born, on RCA, with Jennings and Chet Atkins co-producing. The album was not successful and did not make an impact on the country music market. It was Colter's only album for RCA, and she left the label soon after, though her face appears on several of Jennings' record covers from this period.

In 1975, Colter signed with Capitol Records. On the label, she released her debut single, "I'm Not Lisa". The song was Colter's breakthrough single; it reached number one on the Billboard Country Chart, but only peaked at number four on the Billboard Pop Chart. Her second album, titled I'm Jessi Colter. was also released that year and reached number one on the Cashbox Top Country Albums chart, number fouron the Billboard Country Albums Chart, and number 50 on the Billboard 200 Top 100 Pop Albums chart. The follow-up single from that same album, "What's Happened to Blue Eyes", was also very successful, peaking at number five on the Billboard country chart and number 57 on the pop chart. The single's B-side, "You Ain't Never Been Loved (Like I'm Gonna Love You)", charted among the Top Pop 100, also in 1975.

A survey of industry sources reveals that Capitol was releasing both "You Ain't Never Been Loved" and "What's Happened to Blue Eyes" as simultaneous singles for the pop and country markets. The confusion in marketing was made evident when programmers were uncertain of which single to play. Both sides of the same record scored on the Pop Top 100, but "What's Happened to Blue Eyes" powered into the Country Top 5. Capitol clearly recognized that a miscalculation had occurred and subsequently purchased full-page industry ads saying, "We've FLIPPED. What's Happened to Blue Eyes IS the single." It was too little, too late. With two competing singles marketed to radio, Capitol's risky move made certain that Colter would not naturally follow up the success of 'I'm Not Lisa' in the Pop Top 40.

The second single was nevertheless a huge country/pop success, and later that year, Colter launched a nationwide tour as part of Waylon Jennings' program at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. In 1976, Colter released her second and third Capitol studio albums, Jessi and Diamond in the Rough. Both albums were as successful as Colter's 1975 album, both debuting at No. 4 on the Top Country Albums chart. The lead single from her Jessi album, "It's Morning (And I Still Love You)" was a Top 15 country hit in 1976 on the country charts. Her second album that year, Diamond in the Rough produced only one charting single, "I Thought I Heard You Calling My Name". At this point, Colter had established herself as a big-selling "albums artist," rather than a casual honky-tonk hitmaker, given that her talents were far more inclined to soul-rock than to mundane country music. For the remainder of the decade, Colter toured with her husband, Waylon Jennings, and released her studio album Mirriam in 1977. She then released her next album, That's the Way a Cowboy Rocks and Rolls the following year. Her success began to decline through the remainder of the decade, with her final two albums of the decade not producing any Top 40 country hits.

In 1981, Colter and her husband returned to release a duet album entitled Leather and Lace. The album's first single, "Storms Never Last", was written by Colter, and the second single, "The Wild Side of Life"/"It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels," was also a major hit in 1981, peaking at number 10 on the Billboard Country Chart. The album was certified gold in sales by the RIAA that year, Colter's second RIAA-certified album to date. Stevie Nicks wrote the title track of the album, but after receiving word that Colter and Jennings might divorce, Nicks released her own version of the song as a duet with Don Henley. It peaked at number six on pop chart, also in 1981. Also in 1981, Colter released her final studio album on Capitol records, Ridin' Shotgun, which also spawned Colter's last charting single on the country charts, "Holdin' On".