Local Trio Building on Strong Start

In the middle of January 2002, a trio of Winnipeg singer/songwriters got together for a one-time show at Sled Dog Music in Wolseley. The immediate interest in that show spawned a second night, and the interest in both nights would go on to spawn a very promising career that’s taken off over the past 22 months In the middle of January 2002, a trio of Winnipeg singer/songwriters got together for a one-time show at Sled Dog Music in Wolseley. The immediate interest in that show spawned a second night, and the interest in both nights would go on to spawn a very promising career that’s taken off over the past 22 months.

The three musicians who make up The Wailin’ Jennys had each previously worked hard to carve out their individual careers, each with different focuses, but all with promising success.

Nicky Mehta has been singing and playing around Winnipeg since 1995. In 2001, she released a critically acclaimed solo CD called Weather Vane. It’s a collection of serious and thought provoking songs that are introspective and poetic and beautiful. Cara “Lovely” Luft was raised by professional folk singing parents, and has a great love and appreciation for traditional folk. She also harbours, what she calls “her inner rock child” which has helped make her a well-respected guitarist who once played England’s prestigious International Guitar Festival. And Ruth Moody spent four years touring the world as the lead singer for internationally renowned celtic band, Scruj MacDuhk. When that band broke up, she went on to release a solo CD called Blue Muse.

With such promising individual careers, there was no plan to form a band and start something else, the pieces just sort of fell into place, says Nicky Mehta, “I remember at the time, the person who helped us put our first show together, the owner of Sled Dog Music, John Sharples, I remember him saying, ǃ

Update on Recording and Winnipeg Show

Hello,Nicky is sure putting us to shame with her consistent journal entries! Things are going well in the studio - we have just started the second half of the recording process and will hopefully be finished by early December. We will have recorded about fifteen tunes by that time, and will then go about chosing the ones we like best. Our producer is great - he has been working so hard and is really dedicated to the project. He has also suceeded, so far, in keeping himself sane throughout the whole thing, which is no small feat, considering how wild and unmanageable we can be, especially Cara. We will keep you posted on more album-related news as things unfold. For now we know that it will be officially released in February and that it will have medium to high sailor-related content. One thing I want to mention is that we are doing a big show in Winnipeg at the West End Cultural Centre on Decmber 5th. It's been a while since we've played here in our home town and we're looking forward to it. Doors open at 7:15 and the show starts at 8:00, with Winnipeg's own Dale Nickel opening the show. Tickets are 14$ in advance and 16$ at the door. Hope to see you there. That's it for now. Thanks to everyone who helped us out, cooked for us, and promoted or came to our shows on our last tour - we really appreciate the support.~ Ruth

It's Getting Cold Out There

Hey everyone,It's the end of October and we are in Calgary at the present moment--tonight we play at The Drake in Canmore and then we have a couple of days to work on material for the record. Thanks to everyone who came out to our shows in Calgary, Edmonton, Athabasca, Minnedosa and Carman. We had a great time and learned about some fabulous new restaurants (heehee). We have been talking more about having a page on our site devoted to our favorite eateries and I think that will happen when the new site is built.It's getting cold here and we are soon to join our hometown in some snow, I hear. So far the weather has been kind to us. We were hoping that it would stay mild so that Ruth could go out trick-or-treating as she usually does, but it looks like we may have to amuse her with a movie or something on Halloween. Speaking of movies, we just rented "28 Days"--creepy and suspenseful and worth a gander, we think.Anyway, we do hope to see lots of you in Canmore and Forestberg for our last shows of this tour. After that we'll keep you posted on all the news as the recording is wrapped up.Take care everyone!

Western Canadian Music Week and Recording

Hello all,It's the middle of October and we're right in the thick of the recording process. We finish up this session today and then head out on the road for a couple of weeks. The first show will be in Carman on Thursday and then we fly to Red Deer, Alberta for a conference. After that, we pack up the van and head out through Minnedosa to Alberta for a few shows in Edmonton, Calgary, Athabasca, Canmore, Jasper and Forestberg. Check out the On Stage page for more details.Once we return home we'll be heading back into the studio to finish the record. It's going to be pretty wild to hear the finished product!Just wanted to let everyone know that Western Canadian Music Week was an excellent event for us and alongside the various CBC spots we did (thanks CBC!!!!), we performed a pretty successful showcase. It was great to have a chance to see some of our favorite artists and friends (Kim Barlow, Jon Nordstrom and many others) and get back to performing live. We also discovered an amazing restaurant in Regina called La Bodega. It's a tapas style place and we highly recommend it. It's all about the food...Must go and call to the studio to see when I am needed. Hope to see some of you at the shows!

New Material, New Website, New Photos - News!

Hey everyone,Well, we're nearing the end of September and getting closer to the start of the recording. Yeeha! But first we get to drive to Regina to perform at the inaugural Western Canadian Music Awards. It's going to be a crazy weekend of music and meetings and a chance to say hello to some old friends. We're looking forward to it!Then we come back and start working with the fabulous David Travers-Smith--he's produced such artists as Veda Hille, Kevin Breit and Harry Manx, Katherine Wheatley and Cate Friesen and we are excited to be collaborating with him on the upcoming album. We think he is going to do a great job with the new songs and we hope he survives the whole experience with psyche intact. We have told him that sushi goes a long way with us, so maybe he'll employ that tactic if we start to make him crazy.Thanks to everyone who has been writing in with supportive and encouraging comments. We can't wait to unveil the new material in upcoming performances and I think we are all itching to get back out on the road to play some live shows again.Stay tuned to the "Images" page for new shots from the summer--it's taken a bit to coordinate the additions as my brother is in the middle of moving to Winnipeg (yay!), but hopefully they will be up soon.Also, we will be presenting a new website in the new year to coincide with the release of the album so we'll keep you posted on that.Thanks again for your interest and we hope you have an excellent autumn!

Hi everyone. We are back from an amazing summer and are gearing up to record the new album! We'll be starting at the beginning of October and we expect to release it sometime in February. Stay tuned! And we are also happy to announce that we are now being represented by Julien Paquin at Paquin Entertainment. For booking and management information, please refer to the end of our "Biography" page. Thanks!

In Search of The Jennys

Hi everyone,We are home now and that means that once again I get to discover how many emails have mysteriously slipped through the cracks while I have been gone. This is one that made it to my home computer but didn't reach me on the road. Thankfully, I found it because it is yet another fabulous poetic offering! Apparently, Mr. Brian McGrath was so inspired by Jillian Bell's writing that he penned some verses of his own. Thanks for sending it, Brian.IN SEARCH OF THE JENNYS.Like many of the folks in the guestbook below, I, too, heard you first on the Nations radio Just like friend Jillian out Saskatchewan way, I had to have the music that very same day.Alas and alack, I searched all round, Not a trace nor a hint of the Jenny's was found. Then into Sam's place I desperately went, To find me this sound, I charged in hell-bent.attacked the clerk with my arms a-flailin', Only, once more, to be sent on to Waylon. With a tsk and a tsk, he showed me some pity, "Was it on the CBC that you first heard this dity?"."A dity its not" cried I in disdain, "but the voices of angels". Then he said through my pain, "Well, they do that a lot, those CBC hosts, They taunt you with tunes created by ghosts".They cannot be spirits, thought I in despair, The Jenny's are real, made of one plus a pair. Surely there's someone who's heard of these lasses, But my internet dial-up has the speed of molasses.At last I arrived at the Jenny's home page. With a sigh of relief, I let go my rage. I devoured the words in their bio' toot sweet, I ordered the EP, now my life is replete.I have only one question to pose to you all, OK, maybe two. but that will be all. When will you sing for us here in T.O.? Are there plans for an LP now on the go?To mangle the words of the late, great Bob Hope, (And I hope you don't think me too much of a mope), "Thanks for the Harmonies.", I can't wait for more. Please let us all know what you may have in store.Thanks, Brian. You put smiles on our faces. And to answer your query about the upcoming album, we expect to release it in early February and we will be out your way (Ontario) in March. There ya go! Keep an eye on the site for new dates and journal entries and check out the "Pictures" page soon for new shots from the summer.Take care and thanks for the great guest book entries!

Three of a Kind

Three singer/songwriters were comfortably pursuing careers, recording albums, playing concerts and festivals, until Ruth Moody, then a member of the soon-to-be-defunct folk/bluegrass band Scruj MacDuhk considered the possibility of hooking up and singing with other female artists Trio stacks the deck with talent

Three singer/songwriters were comfortably pursuing careers, recording albums, playing concerts and festivals, until Ruth Moody, then a member of the soon-to-be-defunct folk/bluegrass band Scruj MacDuhk considered the possibility of hooking up and singing with other female artists. That was two summers ago, when she approached Winnipeg musicians Cara Luft and Nicky Mehta at the Winnipeg Folk Festival-and the Flying Jennys were born.

"A mutual friend of ours who owns a little guitar shop in Winnipeg got wind of the whole thing and thought that it would be a fabulous idea," says Mehta. The proprietor of that establishment (Sled Dog Music) offered to stage a show for them in January, and even give them a name (a play on the late Waylon Jennings' moniker).

The original intent was just a one-off performance, but the response was so persuasive that the three shelved their solo aspirations for the benefit of the collective.

"In the beginning we had our eye on our solo stuff," Mehta explains. "There is still the intention of doing that, but we've decided that our primary focus at this particular point is the trio. We're still able to do original material and there's just way more work for the trio."

"There's so much interest in the act that it would be kind of stupid not to follow it."

When the natural soprano (Moody), mezzo (Mehta, and alto (Luft) are combined, the results are dazzling, an effect well demonstrated on the six song CD they put together last year. The record is a nice introduction into their world of folk and country, with a touch of acoustic pop, and their version of Leadbelly's "Bring Me L'il Water Silvy" is simply breathtaking. Now their next problem is getting together enough material to record a full-length effort, probably sometime this spring.

"We haven't had a chance (to write together) because we've been on the road so much, and if we're not on the road, we're planning tours or we're dealing with business. We actually are going to make it a priority in the next few months. Some will be done independently of each other, but we're probably going to take a stab at writing together at some point."

However, despite the hectic pace at which the group has evolved, they've managed to get their act onto such a solid platform pretty quickly because, as Mehta puts it, they just know what the gig involves.

"It's kind of like the way our voices are: we're very different singers and we're very different people but for some reason it just works when we come together. It's a nice blend of personalities and a nice blend musically. There's not a whole bunch of ego happening in this band. We're all pretty respectful of each other, and by virtue of having done this for a while and our age and just making sure we listen to each other, we do pretty well."