Journal


Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Okay...I have to say it even if it sounds cliché - we have the best fans on the planet! The shows were so much fun and it was so great to be out on the road again playing for you all. This was a whole new experience for us, as many of you know. Nicky brought her beautiful twin boys out on the road for the first time and somehow managed to be a mother to two and a Jenny all at the same time - she can tell you more about her experience herself (in all her spare time) but suffice it to say she is a force of nature. Papa-Grant and Auntie-Tracy were also amazing, and although it was hard work for them everyone survived and it was wonderful to have this new energy on the road with us.

Some highlights: Napa wine, the bats and sirens of the Stoughton Opera House, the beautiful folks and abalone shells of Ft. Bragg, sweet people and the best co-op ever in Decorah Iowa, The O'Shaugnessy in St. Paul (felt like Hometown!), Heather Stewart (helper extraordinaire), playing our new songs for you, two amazing sold-out audiences at the gorgeous new Freight and Salvage in Berkeley, pedicures in Pasadena (with participation by Jeremy), Weezie massages in Chico, Heather's birthday cake on stage in Chico, Nicky singing the Mr. Doodle song in Chico, Pismo beach strolling, and California in general.

We just got back from playing A Prairie Home Companion at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle - it was so much fun to be back on the show and to see everyone again! And what a treat to meet and hear Brandi Carlisle! Good times all around - thanks for listening and thanks for all your sweet comments and messages. (And thanks to Jamie for the ice-cream!)

We have a week or so off the road and then we are back out there. It's a big one - Oregon, Washington, North Carolina, Georgia, DC, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Phew!

See you at the shows, and thanks, as always, for all your support.

~Ruth and The Jennys


Monday, September 21, 2009

We have some exciting news to report - on July 17th, early in the morning, Nicky and her partner Grant welcomed their twin boys Beck and Finn into the world. Everyone is happy, healthy and enjoying these first busy weeks. The entire family will be out on the road in the New Year and we look forward to seeing you all at the upcoming shows. Stay tuned for more exciting news from the rest of The Jennys - as you can see, it's been a fruitful hiatus and we have much to tell you!


From left: Finn and Beck


The Jennys and The Twins in production

~The Jennys


Thursday, July 23, 2009

The Wailin' Jennys Live at the Mauch Chunk Opera House available in Canada on July 28! Available in the U.S. on August 11!

Mark your calendars! We will be releasing our brand new live album in Canada, on the Outside Music label, on July 28. It comes out in the United States on Red House Records, on August 11. It will also be available in Australia and New Zealand in early August through Shock Records.

We're excited! This is the first album that features Heather Masse in the Jennys line-up and it also includes eight previously unreleased tracks. (For a complete list of songs, see below.) We hope you like it. It certainly makes us happy to be able to give you a live Jennys experience while we are on sabbatical.

The album was recorded in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, at the Mauch Chunk Opera House on August 30, 2008, by Kent Heckman. It was produced and mixed by David Travers-Smith.

It will be available in stores, online, from the Outside Music and Red House Records websites, and pretty much anywhere. We’ll put up the links to buy online very soon.

More updates to come about our new studio album (to be recorded during the fall), new tour dates (starting in February 2010) and what we're all up to individually.

Love from The Jennys

Complete track listing:

Deeper Well
Summertime
Driving
Bold Riley
Glory Bound
Arlington
Bring Me Lil' Water Silvy
One More Dollar
Racing With The Sun
Paint A Picture
Begin
Motherless child
Calling All Angels
One Voice

~The Jennys


Monday, April 06, 2009

Since The Jennys have a page on their website dedicated entirely to food, having a song featured in a movie called The Cake Eaters seems entirely appropriate. You can hear "Begin," off Firecracker, in the new movie directed by award-winning actress Mary Stuart Masterson and starring Twilight's Kristen Stewart. The movie also stars Oscar-nominated actress Melissa Leo, who recently appeared in Frozen River (which featured music by our good friend Keri Latimer of nathan). Nicky also notes that she was a huge John Hughes fan in the '80s and therefore a huge Mary Stuart Masterson fan, so having a song in her new movie is pretty exciting. She has also hinted that Masterson's performance in Some Kind of Wonderful may have inspired her to take up the drums... We haven't seen the film yet so we're not sure where the song pops up, although we think it might be in a scene with a bridge. If you've seen the film, let us know! You can find out more about The Cake Eaters, which opened to limited release in mid-March, at www.thecakeeaters.com.

In other news, you can hear Ruth play in her home-town of Winnipeg at the Times Change(d) High and Lonesome Club on April 17. She will be playing a set of brand new songs before going into the studio in May. For those of you on the West Coast, you can hear Ruth on May 1, in Chemainus, BC (Vancouver Island). For show details, click here.

Heather has been a regular guest on A Prairie Home Companion during the Jennys sabbatical, and you can hear her again on April 18, live from Town Hall in NYC. She also hits the road on April 22 for a short tour of Oregon and Washington with one of the Jennys' favourite singers, Aoife O'Donovan ( Crooked Still). Don't miss seeing Heather and Aoife together! For tour dates, click here.

Lastly, The Jennys have been hard at work planning the release of Live at the Mauch Chunk Opera House, tentatively scheduled for July. Stay tuned!

~Jennys Web Team


Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Hi everyone,

We hope that signs of spring are just around the corner in everyone's hometown and that you've all made it through the winter in good spirits.

We've been busy making plans for the next year and we're excited to let you all know that we expect to release our live album in the early summer! Recorded at the Mauch Chunk Opera House in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania in August 2008, the album will feature previously unrecorded tracks, some new versions of old favourites and some surprises. But we need your help!

We are looking for some great live shots of the Jennys for the album artwork - if you have any favourite photos from a Jennys' performance please send them our way. If we use them, we'll send you a free live CD and you'll be credited in the album notes. Please send high resolution photos to jennysweb@gmail.com.

We also want to let you know that the sheet music for the Jennys' arrangement of the Parting Glass is now available on the website. Just click on the Music & Store link, click "Other Merchandise", scroll down a bit and follow the ordering instructions.

Also, we're pleased to announce that the Jenny's version of "Calling All Angels" is now available on CDBaby.com. and iTunes. (as well as on our website under the Music & Store link).

There will be more news to come so please stay tuned!

~The Jennys


Monday, December 22, 2008

Hello everyone,

We hope everyone is getting ready for a little R&R over the holidays and gathering close to family and friends.

We Jennys have been enjoying home ourselves but we've also been working on a little something. We're happy to let you all know that we finally have a live version of Jane Siberry's "Calling All Angels" available for download on the Jennys' site! It will be more widely available on iTunes in the new year, but we wanted those of you on our mailing list to have first dibs on the track.

This version was recorded at the Mauch Chunk Opera House in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania by Kent Heckman of Red Rock Recording (with live sound by Grant Johnson) and mixed and mastered by David Travers-Smith and we're thrilled with how it all turned out.

Just go to the following link and you can download the track for $1 (US) using Paypal, a secure server. We will be donating a portion of each sale to the Red Cross in support of the organization's international relief work.

Thanks so much for your continued support as we take this break from the road. Have a happy and safe holiday and we look forward to keeping in touch with you all in the New Year.

~The Jennys


Monday, November 24, 2008

Hi everyone!

Although we miss performing for you all we are relishing this time at home, reconnecting with our loved-ones and our creative selves. We thought we'd let you know what we are all up to. On the Jennys front, next month we will be digging into the live recordings we did in Jim Thorpe, Pensylvania and will let you know what we find! We also wanted to let you know that we finally have sheet music for the Jennys' arrangement of 'The Parting Glass' and it will be available on the website under Music & Store, along with 'Arlington' and 'One Voice'. Stay tuned!

To find out what all the Jennys have been up to, check out some updates below. If you want to stay informed about each member on a regular basis, head over to the links page on the website and you'll find everyone's websites and MySpace pages.

Heather
Heather is performing regularly in NY with her band Heather and the Barbarians as well as with many other varied projects. She has plans to record a solo record in January at Red Rock Recording Studios with Kent Heckman (the amazing engineer that recorded a live Jennys show in Jim Thorpe, PA in August). Heather and some of the members of the band will be doing a short tour in the Northwest in December with the help of our good friend Jess Byers. Heather is also releasing an ep in the next few months called Many Moons, a dreamy duo album with pianist Jed Wilson that includes a couple of Heather's original songs and as the title suggests, songs about moons. She's enjoying some nice quality time with her sweetheart and getting accustomed to the bright lights and fishy smells of her Chinatown home.

Ruth
Ruth is happy to be off the road for the first time in ten years. She has been enjoying living minutes away from her favourite organic grocery store, experimenting with winter soup recipes, and doing lots of yoga. She is spending most of her creative time writing and preparing new songs for her first full-length solo CD, which will be recorded in the spring of 2009. More details to come. She is also involved in the 'Praetorius project' with Camerata Nova, which will be the Winnipeg premiere of the glorious Praetorious mass. This will be the first (and likely the only) time Ruth will ever be heard singing solo in German, accompanied by a lute. In the New Year, Ruth will keep her musical interests balanced with some old-time banjo studies in Toronto with Chris Coole, and some special appearances with her old band-mates Jeremy Penner and Oliver Swain. For now, keep an eye out for brand new songs from Ruth on her Myspace and Facebook pages.

Nicky
Nicky (and her partner Grant, the Jennys' sound engineer) are happy to be hanging out in their house with their two cats after an epic road trip that took them across Western Canada, down to L.A. and back. Since then, Nicky has been busy working in different capacities as a mentor and consultant to other musicians through Manitoba Music, a non-profit organization that fosters the development of the local music industry. At the moment, she's getting ready for a performance and a stint as a judge with the Winnipeg International Centre's musical showcase for new immigrants. After many years of traveling around the globe, she's excited to be involving herself as a volunteer with different community-based organizations on a regular basis. Nicky is also looking forward to taking some drum lessons with local drummer Daniel Roy and writing some new songs (and maybe finally updating her website!). In the meantime, she's taking tai chi, has joined her very first book club and is generally feeling the creative juices flowing!

(Wailin') Jeremy
In September, Jeremy and his wife, Erin, embarked on a three week road-trip along the West Coast, from Vancouver all the way to Jalama Beach, California, and back. It was a trip filled with spectacular views, great camping, and of course, amazing wine-tasting in the Napa region! Since October, Jeremy has been working on writing new instrumental old-time-influenced tunes, as well as exploring new musical collaborations. He has also been spotted working out and eating healthily, as he needs to deal with the residual effects of life on the road (at least how he experiences it)!

That's all for now but please stay tuned to the website for more information.

Have a lovely holiday season,

~The Jennys


Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Hello!

It's hard to believe the summer is over. We toured almost the whole way through, playing in New England, California, Montana, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, New England again, and then Oregon, where we ended this year's touring at the Sister's Folk Festival. Let's see what I can remember…

We played (and felt right at home) in the Moody Mountain Barn in Wolfboro, New Hampshire. We watched a massive storm hit and flood our uncovered outdoor stage in Portsmouth, NH. We played, hung out and rocked the bgs to California Dreamin' at Stone Mountain in Brownfield, Maine (best green-room in the world, and one of the best venues). We swam in Kezar lake and recharged with the lovely Masse family in Lovell, Maine. We played a record eight shows in three days between California World Fest and our shows at the Freight in Berkeley (and survived!). We opened for the awe-inspiring Ani Difranco in Bozeman, Montana. We descended like vultures on the Patagonia clothing outlet store in Dillon, MT (Jeremy spent the most money). We sampled some stellar steaks (fish for Heather) at the Lynn Street cafe in Iowa City (some of us two nights in a row, mmmmmmm). We revisited some familiar territory in Minnesota (love the Paramount theatre in St Cloud!) which i think put us at our 57th tour of that state. And we rocked the Big Top in Bayfield, Wisconsin, where the crew gave each of us a bag of warm, decidedly squeaky cheese curds when we went up for our encore (we love you guys!).

After a short break, we reassembled in Burlington for more good fun at the Higher Ground, returned to Saranac Lake, NY (great to see you Frannie!), played two shows at Joe's pub in NYC (a great venue, in spite of the subway trains that roll right underneath the stage every five minutes and the two and a half hours it takes to park the van), spent two whole days off in NYC!!!, skipped over to Weehawken, New Jersey and played an outdoor show in front of one of the loveliest backdrops imaginable (for one of the loveliest presenters!), potentially recorded a live album in Jim Thorpe, Pensylvania at the Mauch Chunk Opera House (these are real places), and finished off in Massachusetts at another one of our favourite venues, the Iron Horse. That was it for Grant, but the rest of us flew out to Sisters Oregon for one last hoorah at the Sisters Folk Festival, which included some good hang-time with friends Jess Byers, Deanna Masse, Carl and Tracy, Leela and Steph, and Jamie 'the ice cream man' Webber, some well-overdue catching up with our friends The Waifs, creative inspiration in the form of witnessing Tim O'Brien rock various stages, an impromptu on-stage collaboration with the amazing Rose Polenzani, margaritas for breakfast on Sunday ('when in Mexican restaurant'...), and an emotional Parting Glass at the end of our final set on Sunday. Oh, and who could forget the special appearance made by our beloved US agent Herschel Freeman (aka Herschie), who came to see us all the way from Tennessee?

Now it's time for the Jennys to take a break from touring. After almost seven years on the road we've decided to take a year to rest and reconnect with life, home, family, and our creative selves: all the things that take the back-seat for a touring musician. Don't worry, there will be special appearances, and there will be live material released throughout the touring break. There will also be news updates, and new photos and videos from the road up soon. And, most importantly, we will be writing and planning our next studio album during this time off, so there will be much to share with you in the New Year.

As always, thanks so much to all of you for your support. Stay tuned to the website, as we will be in touch...

~Ruth


Saturday, May 03, 2008

Hello!

Well, it's May and we're finally getting some nice weather here in Winnipeg. Unfortunately I'm spending it indoors getting ready for the next tour, but my windows are wide open and it feels like Spring is really here this time.

We've had about 10 days at home and we're starting to feel like semi- normal human beings again. Last tour was quite the whirlwind: 7 shows in 6 days on the East Coast and then California, Oregon and Washington in a week and a half. Some highlights: convoying with our pal Heather Stewart for the three California shows, tanning our white legs by the hotel pool in Lancaster, working up 'Tiptoe through the Tulips' in the van and sending it out to our friend Jamie Weber in Mount Vernon, shopping/returning at Anthropologie (yes, I have a problem), the audience in Portland, having Laura Cortese and Aoife O'Donovan open for us at the Birchmere, playing (and eating!) at the Tripple Door in Seattle, hangin' with Heather's awesome peeps in New York city and Portland, the Rhododendron Cafe for breakfast in Bow, Washington, and the organic cheese farm up the road (samish bay cheese, yum!), and seeing Tony Scherr play on our night off in Seattle. Nicky got to hang out with her friend Kyra and Grant got to drool over vintage guitars and basses in LA. Heather and I made spirulina-super-salads and agave-almond-treats in the van, and the rest of the gang indulged us by sampling our concoctions and forgave us when the van started to smell like compost. Jeremy continued to enlighten us on the subject of mando strings, airline policies, and the ways of the world, providing non-stop entertainment as usual. Oh, and he played some mean fiddle.

We're off to Europe in a couple of days and this tour sees us playing in Ireland and Holland for the first time. Can't wait! I've dreamed of going to Ireland since I was a kid and I can't believe it's finally happening.

Thanks again for all your support, it has been an amazing year of touring so far. Plans for the next album are starting to come together and we'll keep you posted as they solidify!

See you soon,

~Ruth


Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Once again, the time is nigh for our return to the road. Taxes are done, to-do lists are dotted mercifully with check marks, and the relentless pursuit of packing perfection is in high gear. I am quite satisfied with our current attempt to pack my kick drum suitcase in a larger hard shell case that will be checked instead of lugged around airports. No more pleading with flight attendants to put it under my seat. No more admonishments from airlines about the ten pieces of carry-on luggage I am single-handedly trying to bring on the plane. Fascinating information, all this, but such is our traveling life.

We've had a great time at home despite the fact that Winnipeg's love affair with winter is still as passionate and unyielding as ever. We've got the two U.S. coasts to look forward to but our poor families and friends at home have the weary, glazed look of the living dead. Canada's win this afternoon at the Women's World Curling Championship has made some people feel better about that phenomenon called "ice" but not by much. I feel almost guilty packing open-toed shoes for California. Almost.

We are looking very forward to the set of upcoming shows. As this newsletter mentions, I finally got around to posting about three years worth of restaurants on the food page, and I was reminded of some of the fantastic places we've visited on the coasts - ahhhhhh. But as always, if anyone has any new recommendations, we are all ears. Actually, we are all mouths, really. Big mouths and perpetually growling stomachs.

Well, it's time to go and finish packing. As Ruth said in her last journal, we appreciate your guestbook comments very much - your stories continue to surprise, delight, and humble us. Thanks for writing in and we'll see you soon.

~Nicky


Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Hi all,

We just spent four days in Tallahassee, Florida. Thanks to everyone who came out to the show last night - our first ever in Florida. 'All y'all' were fantastic and we can't wait to come down south again - particularly if it's winter, which it most definitely is here in Minneapolis, where we just landed. We are all getting ready for two shows with A Prairie Home Companion, which promises to be an exciting and unpredictable affair as usual, I am sure. It's been nine months since we were last on the show and we're so looking forward to being reunited with some of our favourite people and musicians. Tune in on Saturday for the broadcast!

It's been an interesting tour so far. Despite balmy weather in Alaska, British Columbia, and Florida, we haven't managed to avoid getting sick with whatever monster flu has been making it's way around the world. It has certainly made its rounds in this band - twice. Only Grant and Jeremy have remained untouched. Does this mean that cheeseburgers really are good for the immune system? Luckily there was an amazing natural food store just minutes away from our hotel in Tallahassee, and Nicky, Heather and I single-handedly supported them for four days, stocking up on enough vitamins, herbs, and natural remedies to last a lifetime. I think we are coming to the end of it now. And I'm sure we are past the contagious stage, for any of you that just thought twice about coming to see us next week in Illinois or Kansas.

It's an early night tonight. Here's hoping that with some good rest and some healing energy from the universe our voices will mend themselves and be ready for tomorrows and Saturday's shows.
Thanks so much for all your beautiful guestbook comments. We feel so lucky to have such amazing fans. Lots of love right back to you all from the Jennys and 'Wailin' Jeremy'.

~Ruth


  
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