Three fine singer-songwriters from Winnipeg, the Jennys tap a breezy vein of folk-country tradition on their faultless second album Three fine singer-songwriters from Winnipeg, the Jennys tap a breezy vein of folk-country tradition on their faultless second album. Acoustic guitars, spacious harmonies and the backporch tones of mandolin and violin set the mood. Yet rather than opting for a less-is-more strategy, producer David Travers-Smith colours in the sonic gaps with real artistry. And the trio isn’t afraid to shadow its beautiful sound with sobering reality checks (“Apocalypse Lullaby”) and a zen nod to our collective “live and die and gone” destiny. This Firecracker is no damp squib.
The Wailin' Jennys - Firecracker
Winnipeg vocal trio The Wailin' Jennys made two good moves since their inaugural 2004 CD: they found a solid replacement for departed founding member Cara Luft in singer and multi-instrumentalist Annabelle Chvostek, and they brought all-star instrumentalist Kevin Breit aboard for this, the group's second CD Winnipeg vocal trio The Wailin' Jennys made two good moves since their inaugural 2004 CD: they found a solid replacement for departed founding member Cara Luft in singer and multi-instrumentalist Annabelle Chvostek, and they brought all-star instrumentalist Kevin Breit aboard for this, the group's second CD. No sophomore jinx, here. The aptly titled Firecracker lights up the aural sky with 12 rich original songs, plus one traditional number. With all due respect to Luft, the group is stronger for the changes it has made. This is apparent from the opening track, Chvostek's “The Devil's Paintbrush Road,” a rhythmic number fuelled by the songwriter's strong lead vocal and violin, the group's sweet harmonies, and by Breit's incisive dobro playing. Ruth Moody's “Glory Bound,” first of several lovely ballads, could be something from the American Civil War, with Moody's banjo and Chvostek's violin underscoring the lyrics about "crossin' o'er the great divide." Third Jenny, Nicky Mehta, contributes a haunting song about a failed relationship with “Begin,” the key lyric being the line, "Hey, let go." Two of the strongest songs are Moody's “Prairie Town,” on which Breit plays electric and National guitars as well as mandolin, and the traditional Long Time Traveller, performed a cappella with all three voices in perfect alignment.
4 out of 5 stars
YOUR OPINION MATTERS! And The Wailin Jennys would love to hear it. Heres how you can help. Tell us a few things about yourself in our Firecracker survey and well enter you into a draw for exclusive Wailin Jennys prizes. Well be drawing a name a month until June 2007. Thanks again for taking the time in assisting us with completing the survey. We appreciate it!
Sincerely,
The Jennys and the folks at Jericho Beach Music
Hi Everyone,
We will join Garrison Keillor, Meryl Streep and the Prairie Home Companion regular cast for an Independence Day special. The two-hour show will be broadcast on NPR on July 1 and telecast on PBS in the Great Performances slot at 9 pm on July 2, repeating at 1 am on July 9. The Jennys have been frequent guests on Keillor's show over the past year. Check www.prairiehome.publicradio.org for radio times and www.PBS.org for TV stations accessible from Canada.
The Jennys
Songs with a bang
With a baker's dozen of fresh, rootsy songs and their signature heart-stopping harmonies, the Wailin' Jennys' second recording should prove explosive for their careers With a baker's dozen of fresh, rootsy songs and their signature heart-stopping harmonies, the Wailin' Jennys' second recording should prove explosive for their careers.
The three Canadians, Annabelle Chvostek, Nicky Mehta and Ruth Moody already have won the admiration of Garrison Keillor, who featured them on his popular program “A Prairie Home Companion," heard on National Public Radio.
The first Wailin' Jennys disc, 40 Days, with vocalist Cara Luft, earned the trio a 2005 Juno -- the Canadian equivalent of the Grammy award, for Roots and Traditional Album of the Year.
Miss Luft left the group and was replaced by Miss Chvostek. The Jennys' sound remains as pure as a mountain stream, though, and just about as bubbly. With claw hammer banjo, mandolin and fiddle high in the mix, producer David Travers-Smith capitalized on the trio's penchant for the old-time sound, adding just the edge of rock guitars, percussion, organ and horns to make the disc palatable for modern tastes.
Each of the women wrote four songs for the recording, and the first four set the tone for the rest of the disc. Miss Chvostek wrote "The Devil's Paintbrush Road," with its hooky refrain, plus "Live and die and gone," followed by Miss Moody's composition, "Glory Bound," practically a hymn complete with "hallelujahs." Either of these songs would be welcomed by the most die-hard traditional music lover.
With Miss Mehta's "Begin," the Jennys steer into more of a pop sound with layered, sustained harmony vocals, tinged with accordion and fiddle. The disc hits its stride on Miss Moody's "Things That You Know," with goosebump-inducing three-part harmonies backed by a rhythm-and-bluesy combo that includes mandolin.
The Jennys' a capella arrangement of the traditional "Long Time Traveller" would have been at home on the "O Brother" soundtrack.
These songs have a hint of folk politics. What traditional recording would be complete without a call for peace?
But this is not peace in the sense of protest; rather, it calls for universal justice. In "Avila," with its refrain "O sweet peace," Miss Mehta writes, "I will not rest until this place is full of sunlight/Or at least until the darkness is quiet for a while."
The lyrics also display a playful quality at times. Miss Chvostek writes in "Swallow," "You got me, arrow shot me/Now come connect-the-dot me."
This isn't your grandfather's folk music. There are no ballads with 20 verses -- no heart-rending tales of woe, murder, freight trains or rivers.
Yet in the Wailin' Jennys' pleasant, well-produced songs there is an undercurrent of a century and more of homespun songwriting, set to musical sounds that conjure traditional themes and images. It was the formula for success in the 1950s and early '60s for groups like the Kingston Trio, Limeliters and Brothers Four.
Could Firecracker ignite another folk boom?
A Prairie Home explosion
U.S. radio appearances drive album sales for The Wailin’ Jennys
It helps to have friends in high places U.S. radio appearances drive album sales for The Wailin’ Jennys
It helps to have friends in high places.
The Wailin’ Jennys will tell you exactly that if you catch them during the handful of days they’re not on tour.
They can even point to their own career as an example: since catching the discriminating eye of larger-than-life American radio host Garrison Keillor last year, the Jennys have been learning just how friendly those Prairie Home Companions can be.
“When it started, I don’t think we had a sense of the magnitude of it,” founding Jenny Nicky Mehta says of the band’s regular appearances on the National Public Radio show. “I’m glad we didn’t, because we would have been absolute wrecks. That has put us in front of audiences the numbers of which we haven’t dealt with before.”
The numbers Mehta refers to are indeed staggering: the radio show reaches over four million people.
“When we do Prairie Home Companion our album goes up to the Top 20 on Amazon, then it goes back down again,” she laughs. “But the exposure that the show has given us in the States? We couldn’t ask for anything better.” What’s more, just this past week the Jennys appeared on U.S. TV in a special television edition of A Prairie Home Companion ǃ
The Wailin' Jennys - Firecracker
Though Cara Luft, a founding member of the Wailin' Jennys, was replaced by Annabelle Chvostek, the band's tight harmonies and pretty folk songs haven't changed at all on their second album, Firecracker. In fact, they've even gotten better Though Cara Luft, a founding member of the Wailin' Jennys, was replaced by Annabelle Chvostek, the band's tight harmonies and pretty folk songs haven't changed at all on their second album, Firecracker. In fact, they've even gotten better. Chvostek's voice is seductively low and versatile, and it blends well with and adds a lot of strength and depth to the higher ranges that Ruth Moody and Nicky Mehta provide. All three Jennys are also great songwriters, and everything on the album is well done, with thoughtful reflective lyrics about love and friendship and death, the cold autumn wind of the Canadian prairie blowing through the record, shaping and influencing the mandolin, the banjo, the acoustic guitar, the violin, the National Steel. It's music with a dark, sweet edge, like it understands the pain in the world but still chooses to focus on what's good instead. "Swallow," however, in its attempt to maintain rhythm and rhyme the lyrics can occasionally sound a little corny ("You got me, arrow shot me/Now come connect the dot me"), lilts along like the bird itself as it explores love's transience while "Avila" is simple and pretty, with a delicate chorus of "O sweet peace never have you fallen/never have you fallen upon this town," sung in three-part harmony, that sense of longing lodged between the notes of a slow, aching electric guitar solo that winds its way through the song. A similar feeling is also apparent in "Glory Bound," manifested as a desire for a reprieve from life's hardships. It's not morbid, it's simply sad and honest in that uplifting way that only country and folk music can be. There is a melancholy that lies within many of the Wailin' Jennys' songs, but there's still an overwhelming sense of hope and happiness that is even stronger, and makes Firecracker a really great, uncontrived album.
4 out of 5 stars
The Wailin' Jennys - Firecracker
Local roots trio The Wailin' Jennys have a lot to sing about these days: a U.S. record deal, a Juno Award in 2005 and stints on the NPR radio show A Prairie Home Companion Local roots trio The Wailin' Jennys have a lot to sing about these days: a U.S. record deal, a Juno Award in 2005 and stints on the NPR radio show A Prairie Home Companion. Now they can add their new CD Firecracker to the list. Out this Tuesday, the disc is an affirmation of all the praise heaped on the ladies (Annabelle Chvostek, Nicky Mehta and Ruth Moody) for their debut back in 2004. Mixing contemporary pop-rock with traditional folk and bluegrass, the trio elevates everything to a level of near-transcendence with elegant backwoods harmonies that recall Alison Krauss and her O Brother ilk. But it's the individual touches -- Moody's Celtic training, Chvostek's cabaret background and Mehta's keen ear for classic pop -- that ensure Firecracker really lights up the skies.
Sun Rating: 4 out of 5