Herschel Freeman Agency

Heart-Stopping Harmonies

The Wailin' Jennys have taken advantage of a break in touring to honor many fans' requests to produce a “Live” CD, which will be released in August 2009, and begin compiling all new material for a studio CD to be released in Spring 2010. They will resume their U.S. Touring with concerts in February and April 2010, and festivals in Summer 2010.

The Wailin’ Jennys have toured three continents, and are enjoying burgeoning international acclaim and a rapidly growing fan base. They continue to garner rave reviews for their album, Firecracker, which has spent over 30 weeks in the Top 5 on the Billboard Bluegrass chart, and has charted in the Top 20 on Billboard’s Top Heatseakers, Top Independent Albums and Top Internet Albums. Firecracker also rose to #2 on the Amazon Top Sellers Chart.

Over the past two years, The Wailin’ Jennys have made many appearances on Garrison Keiller’s ‘A Prairie Home Companion’, sharing the stage with luminaries such as Bonnie Raitt and Meryl Streep.  This February, the band had the honour of performing alongside Roseanne Cash and Phil Cunningham as well as other notable artists at the venerable Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow, Scotland. 

”…perhaps more beautiful than ever. The Wailin' Jennys are the darlings of the North American roots music arena.” Greg Quill, The Toronto Star, July 2006.
 
“Like three little birds singing softly and sweetly in the early morn, the harmony of the Wailin’ Jennys pleasantly rises from the speakers and greets the listener with a refreshing start to the day.” David McPherson, Exclaim! 

“Fueled by the elemental power and transcendent glory of their honeyed three part harmonies, Firecracker is guaranteed to soothe your soul with its earthy passion and heartfelt compassion.”  

Creem Magazine/Metro Times Detroit

BIOGRAPHY

Three extraordinary voices, two founding singer-songwriters, one singular vision: The Wailin' Jennys continue to evolve into far more than the melodious sum of their individual talents five years after blowing in on a fresh acoustic breeze from Canada's mid-western heartland.

Spurred onward by a growing fan base that swoons at their intuitive harmonies and revels in their engaging stage presence and uplifting repertoire, the Jennys embarked on a giddy blur of activity following the release of their second album, Firecracker, in August, 2006. Numerous head-turning reviews ("quiet, warm, subtle, mellifluous ? almost too good to be true," noted British daily The Independent) greeted a recording produced by David Travers-Smith (Jane Siberry, Harry Manx) and featuring a crew of ace musicians led by guitarist Kevin Breit (Norah Jones, k.d. lang). The trio wooed progressively larger audiences throughout North America while also making successful forays to the U.K. and continental Europe. And foremost among an unfolding series of life moments have been a second Juno Award nomination in Canada, the continuation of a much-cherished relationship with A Prairie Home Companion (Garrison Keillor's popular National Public Radio show) and a memorable date alongside Rosanne Cash at the prestigious Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow.

"One Voice," a live staple and highlight of the Jennys' Juno- winning debut album 40 Days, remains a metaphoric statement of intent that to this day underlines the group's original mandate: three individuals with unique gifts combining seamlessly into a single beatific entity. Soprano Ruth Moody (guitar, banjo, accordion, bodhran) and mezzo Nicky Mehta (guitar, harmonica, ukulele, percussion) are charter members who've anchored the Jennys since the first line-up formed in their Winnipeg hometown. The critical third voice, an alto who fills out the chordal range of the group's vibrant three-part harmonies, has been filled in turn by Cara Luft, Annabelle Chvostek and, now that the latter has returned to her own solo career, new recruit Heather Masse.

Launching what fans are fondly calling version 3.0 of the Jennys, Heather is a New York-based singer and pianist who finds the middle ground between contemporary bluegrass (through her work with roots supergroup The Wayfaring Strangers) and jazz vocals (which she studied at the New England Conservatory of Music). She gelled immediately with Ruth and Nicky during an impromptu audition in a bathroom backstage in Philadelphia. Singing raw versions of "Amazing Grace" and an old Hank Williams song, the three women quickly nailed the essence of the Jennys' exquisite sound while hinting at exciting new possibilities that will flower in the months of touring and studio sessions that lie ahead.

"Heather fits in astonishingly well with us," enthuses Nicky.  "She's got a smoky, enveloping kind of style. People will go nuts when they hear her." Adds Ruth, who first learned of Heather from their mutual friend, Crooked Still's Aoife O'Donovan: "We found a perfect vocal blend the first time with Cara, then we captured it in a different way with Annabelle. So naturally we were thinking, 'Oh man, can it really happen again?' But we have stumbled on such a rich treasure. Her voice is just so round and warm."

Ruth Moody has long understood the power of three. She grew up in an accomplished musical family singing with two sisters, then spent five years fronting Winnipeg's Scuj MacDuhk. When the popular Celtic/roots road warriors broke up in 2001, she again craved what she calls "the sense of completeness and wholeness that can only come with three female voices. The Jennys provide a sense of continuity that threads through my entire life."

For her part, Nicky Mehta was on track for post-graduate studies in communications when she released a buzzworthy solo debut CD and, not long after, signed on as a first-generation Jenny. "The group sort of just happened to us," she says, laughing. "The idea was to present our individual visions in a larger collective, but before we knew it things had taken on a life of their own. We've constantly been playing catch up ever since. What's great is that nothing has been premeditated and we keep being surprised in the most creative, interesting ways."

"Now we've closed another chapter in the Jennys' story and opened a new one," says Ruth. "We're thrilled to be writing it with Heather. She's a kindred spirit. That we can find the magic while laughing and singing together in a dimly lit bathroom says it all really."

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Review

Songs with a bang

By Jay Votel
June 6, 2006
The Wailin' Jennys
Firecracker Red House Records

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?

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Press Photos

The Wailin' Jennys The Wailin' Jennys Jennys  

 

Tour Schedule


2010

August 13 Higher Ground Ballroom, Burlington VT
August 15 Infinity Hall, Unionville CT
August 18 Prescott Park, Portsmouth NH
August 19 Tupelo Music Hall, Londonderry NH
August 20 Stone Mt. Arts Center, Brownfield ME
August 21 Strand Theater, Rockland ME
August 22 Jonathan's Restaurant, Ogunquit ME
October 5 A Place For The Arts, Fergus Falls MN
October 6 The Reif Center, Grand Rapids MN
October 8  Unity Temple, Oak Park IL
October 9  Saugatuck Performing Arts Center, Saugatuck MI
October 10 Columbus Performing Arts Center, Columbus OH
October 12 Goshen University, Goshen IN
October 13 The Ark, Ann Arbor MI
October 14 Oberlin College, Oberlin OH
October 15 Kent Stage, Kent OH
October 16 Stoughton Opera House, Stoughton WI
October 17 Englert Auditorium, Iowa City IA
October 21 Hesston-Bethel College, Hesston KS
October 22 Sheldon Theatre, Red Wing MN
October 23 University of Minnesota, Morris MN

2011

February 3 Myrna Loy Center, Helena MT
February 4 The Ellen Theater, Bozeman MT
February 5 Alberta Bair Theater, Billings MT
February 8  Center for the Arts, Crested Butte CO
February 10 Strings In the Mountains, Steamboat Spring CO
February 11 L2 Arts and Culture Center, Denver CO
February 13 The Rialto Theater, Loveland CO
February 16 Wheeler Opera House, Aspen CO
February 17 Ft. Lewis College, Durango CO
March 17 Messiah College, Grantham PA
March 18 Juniata College, Huntingdon PA
March 19 Arden Concert Guild, Arden DE
March 23 Bergen Community College, Paramus NJ
March 24 Sussex County Community College, Newton NJ
March 25 Emelin Theatre, Mamaroneck NY
March 26 Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, Troy NY
March 27 Somerville Theatre, Somerville MA
March 30/31 The Birchmere, Alexandria VA
April 1 Montpelier Arts Center, Laurel MD
April 2 The Weinberg Center, Frederick MD
April 26 Virginia Arts Fetival, Norfolk VA
April 28/29 Merlefest, N. Wilkesboro NC


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