We are on a plane on our way to Vancouver for our show at Capilano College. This will be the last show in western Canada for quite some time as we start recording the album in a week and then spend the next few months splitting time between the U.S., eastern Canada, the U.K. and Australia. Our itinerary is daunting but we are looking forward to starting work on the record. We have tried to find time on the road to rehearse new material and it has been exciting to hear things take shape. Lots of things to think about!So some random thoughts and impressions about the last few months: lots of Mexican food in Indianapolis, off the highway on our way to Bloomington, Indiana and other places far from the Mexican border (someday we will visit our culinary homeland), catching a jaw-dropping set by Ruthie Foster at the Lotus Festival in Indiana, getting my Orca tattoo in Philadelphia after months of deliberation and debate with friends on the folk circuit, helping our producer David Travers-Smith choose the band for the album (just you wait!), having my partner Grant on the road as our tireless road manager/sound engineer/driver/schlepper (yay!), finding Chinese lessons in our fortune cookies in Cedar Rapids and teaching Grant how to call me his boss (Lao Bahn, I think? - he humoured me for a while), filling in for Loudon Wainwright in Chicago and adding our name to an autographed wall featuring Joni Mitchell and Bruce Cockburn, listening to Burton Cumming's phone conversation at the Minneapolis airport (he's not much of a quiet talker), finding a new and interesting piece of rotting produce in our van every day. Good times.So after 5 days at home spent mostly on my computer with brief forays out to fail spectacularly at fishing and then catch The Arcade Fire in all their mulit-layered glory, I am back on an airplane. Still working on my invention to help stabilize people's heads while they sleep on planes. Busy, busy, busy. Hope you are all well out there. We have met some great people out there at shows and we are grateful for your interest and enthusiasm. See you soon!P.S. I wrote this entry before the show and had to wait to post it. Thanks so much to our incredible audience at Cap College. You made the night very memorable and we loved performing for you!~ Nicky
Hello everyone,
We just arrived in Chicago to discover that due to a flight cancellation, Loudon Wainwright is stuck in Winnipeg (!) and won't be able to make it here for the two shows tonight. We will be performing longer sets for both the 7:00 pm and 10:00 pm shows and we wanted to mention that there will likely be tickets available for both. As it stands, the first show is sold out and the second has tickets currently available. Once people are notified of Loudon's cancellation, tickets may open up for the early show. For anyone in Chicago who is interested in coming to the show, please call the Old Town School of Folk at 773 728 6000. Tickets will be reduced in price but we're unsure of the end price at this moment. Hope to see you!
The Jennys
A Brief Note about a Pink Briefcase
P.S I almost forgot to mention, Annabelle is now traveling with a pink briefcase. She says it's lightweight. I just thought that was noteworthy.~ Ruth
Questionable Sunflower Seed Pate
Hello,Well it's definitely my turn for a journal entry. Funnily enough I used to be an avid diary-writer as a kid, but apparently it takes more effort these days. Still, I promised my friend Larry I'd write entries more often, and I know I can keep that promise. We've been traveling so much recently so there is certainly a lot to tell.We are in the States right now. We have crossed the border 7 times so far in the last three weeks. This last crossing was particularly strange. I was forced to eat my sunflower seed pate in an isolated glass room before going though security. Because of Mad Cow, he told me. I didn't realize there was such a relationship between Mad Cow and vegan food these days. I ate two pieces in one sitting because I couldn't bear to throw it out. I felt a little sick. Then I got thoroughly searched, my baggage and person included. What is it about accordions that appear so menacing?A slightly challenging journey, but worth it. It's great to be here. We spent the first few days of this tour in Indianapolis where we showcased twice at the 'Arts Midwest' conference. I think it went well. These showcases are only 15 minutes long so even with two of those there was a lot of time to kill. We spent most of it in our hotel, working on the material for the upcoming recording. It's exciting (and somewhat daunting) to be developing the new tunes. We also explored downtown Indianapolis and discovered a great Mexican restaurant, 'El Sol'- apparently we didn't get enough Mexican food in Albuquerque last weekend. It was authentic and delicious and Nicky was once again reunited with her long-lost love, the margarita. We did some window shopping and I got lost in a parkade. We also met up with Grant, our road manager and soundman for this tour, which was very exciting for us because we usually don't have someone helping out with the lugging and driving when we are on the road (not to mention making us sound good!) and it really does help a lot. Thanks Grant!Last night we played in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to a very lovely audience and it felt great to play a two-set night again. I think it's been since before the festival season. We tried out some new material and it felt good. Annabelle felt all warm and fuzzy when she learned that CSPS (the venue/gallery where we played) stood for 'Czech and Slovak Protection Society'. We all enjoyed the license plate collages that adorned the gallery walls. Stay tuned for silly pictures.And now we drive...it's an eight hour trek to Ann arbor and I have a plan. Who says you can't play banjo in a moving vehicle? I need the practice, and Annabelle is reaching for her mandolin, so at the very least we'll see how long we can jam it out before we get told to keep it down by our parents in the front seat.Happy frails,Ruth
Hi again,
Thanks so much for all of your guestbook entries - we had a great time performing on A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison and his crew and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. We hope they've found a good place to rest until they can return home to Louisiana to reckon with the aftermath of Katrina. We send them all of our best wishes.
To answer some of the guestbook questions, "Swallow" will be on the upcoming album due out in the spring and we are looking at recording "Long Time Traveler" though no firm decisions have been made. For anyone wondering if we are visiting your area of the world, please refer to the On Stage page. We will be in the US for much of the fall (Midwest, Alaska, West Coast and East Coast). Be sure to scroll through the numbers at the bottom of the calendar for more dates.
Also, for those wanting to order discs, we are on the road right now so your best bet is to order online at Festival Distribution, Red House Records and Spirit River. All links to our distributors can be found on the Merchandise page under the Music tab.
Thanks!
The Jennys
Mourning The Gulf States
I woke up yesterday morning in St. Paul by the north end of the Mississippi, went for a brief walk before catching my flight home to Montreal. Prairie Home companion was joyful, as ever, but intense with the awareness of disaster in the gulf states. I am ever more grateful to be able to return home these brief moments between tours. Not everyone is so lucky. We shared the stage with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band from New Orleans, bonded with Efrem the trumpet player who is trying to figure out his next steps, going home not an option right now. The PHC crew of musicians gave a heartfelt tribute, gorgeous sad songs referencing broken levys and floods of the past in that region. I kept my head tilted back for that set. Mascara runs donǃ
Hi everyone,
We're writing this from the Minneapolis airport to let everyone know that our performance on A Prairie Home Companion at the Minnesota State Fair will be broadcast at 5:00 p.m. CT today (Saturday, September 3rd). If you are in the States, there are many stations broadcasting the show - just go to the PHC website (www.prairiehome.org) and click on the link that lists those stations (Sirius radio also broadcasts the show). If you would like to listen online, please go to www.prairiehome.org. During the live show, they post a special Webcast homepage with links to the live audio, as well as to the regular homepage. (The regular homepage returns after the live performance is over.) Thanks for your continued interest!
Hi everyone,
We are on the road right now and we noticed that many of you have asked questions in the last few guestbook entries. To save some time and make sure your questions receive an answer, we're going to answer some of them right here. Here we go:
1. Someone was wondering why "40 Days" is not on Itunes. Apparently, it is a little bit of a process to get an album up on Itunes but our trusty management is on the case. Hopefully we'll see the songs on there soon.
2. We are so happy to hear that so many of you would like us to come perform in your home town. If you don't see a show listed on the "On Stage" page for your area (please remember to scroll through the pages by clicking on the numbers under the list of shows), let us know where you are. And if you are so inclined, if you know of a suitable venue in your city, you can always call them up and request our presence. Venues love to hear that people are willing to come support an out of town act. And if they've never heard of us, then they will through you! Many of you are familiar with our aim to conquer the world, so please know that we are trying to visit every place we can!
3. We have had many requests for chords/tablatures and songbooks for the songs on "40 Days." We regret that we haven't had time to put a songbook together and that we don't have sheet music available online. Right now we are actually working on the new album (hopefully due out in the spring), but we will try to answer the call for chords if we have a break - that may not be for quite a while. Hopefully you can all muddle through the process by ear til then. I might try to con a friend into helping us get this going. Stay tuned.
We hope to have new journal entries up very soon as well as new photos and video so check back often. Thank you so much for your kind and enthusiastic comments. It only takes a few minutes with our guestbook to give us a good blast of energy. Thank you!