News

For folks who like to play with cameras, check out this contest to have your original photo used in the artwork for the new album, and to win other prizes!

I got the official word from the folks at Edward's Meadow that "Can't Touch You," won first place in the Twilight Battle of the Bands. I was amazed to learn that the song is already my second best seller on iTunes! It will get a lot of exposure on the contest site and earns a permanent spot on their Twilight Playlist, as well as a shot at being in one of the upcoming films in the series. So keep your fingers crossed for that!

I've got a new song to share with you, one I was excited about enough to record it as a single! I've been getting a lot of great feedback from some friends in the film and tv industry, so with any luck it could land in a show soon. And a big thanks to my friend, Melissa, for suggesting I enter the song into the Twilight Battle of the Bands contest. So far, it's made it to the Top 5 and is waiting to be ranked by the judges on Feb. 3. So stay tuned for that! Thanks to everyone who took the time to vote for the song. If you haven't heard it yet, you can check it out by clicking HERE.

It's been a a few weeks, but we did a 2 week tour of So-Cal--what a beautiful place!  The absence of humidity and mosquitoes, alone, had me ready to transplant.  But traffic and cost of living will most likely keep me in Tennessee...for now ;)

We played several house concerts on this trip, which is one of my favorite ways to perform.  Actually captured live birds on the recording, which was rather fitting for my touring partner, Marie McGilvray's song, "Mockingbird."  We have some video of a couple of shows which we'll be putting up soon.

We almost got a booking at The Viper Room in Hollywood, yes the one owned in part by Johnny Depp.  It fell through on account of the bands booked for that night being heavy rock/metal...(hey I used to sing Metallica, yeah, seriously once and only shamefully badly once) but we just thought it was cool that the booking agent who came to our show was impressed enough to try for it!  Rumor is we may be playing there in the fall.

Other adventures worth mentioning would include getting pulled over by a totally gorgeous man of the law--who was kind enough to let us off with a warning.  While waiting for our fate to be determined, we should have been worried about a ticket, but we were too busy giggling about asking him to use the handcuffs, pretty pretty please ;)   A drive past the rollercoasters at Magic Mountain had me clawing at the window and uttering unintelligible things to the unlucky person on the other end of a phone call.  Next time nothing will stop me!   An opening act, who happened to be related to the McGilvray clan, wowed us with his first public performance--I'll exploit him further once he gets his music online.  We sang on the beach under the moonlight, with the waves crashing almost in time with the music.  I need a beach piano =)  We had authentic Mexican food as often as possible (Laura, you're the bomb!!), BBQ with salsa (surprisingly tasty, thanks to Mark!) and seriously strong coffee (Nigel, you're a life-saver!)  We met wonderful people, drank too much wine & soaked it all in.  I feel so lucky to do what I do!!  What an amazing place this world is, how connected we all are--it never fails to inspire me.

I just wanted to take a minute to thank everyone for voting for me in the Lilith Fair Nashville contest.  It's not actually over until tonight, but I wanted to say how honored I am to be in the top 10 and to have hit #1 several times!!  That, by itself, feels like a win =)  Funny too, how I almost talked myself out of entering because I read another artist's bio and thought the competition was too steep--glad I took the jump anyway!

 

Lilith Fair is a bit of a resurrected dream for me.  I knew about the festival growing up and daydreamed about how incredible it would be to play it one day.  Then, they stopped the tour and I thought I'd missed that boat.  I even did an interview for a music magazine a couple of years back, and they asked me, "If you could play any stage anywhere in the world, where would it be?"  I told them it would be Lilith Fair because of what is represents, which in my opinion is not brash feminism, but rather amazing music made my truly amazing women.   And this year, I found out that Heart will be joining the tour--so the thought of meeting my childhood idol, Ann Wilson, is enough to keep me up at nights....seriously, it's hard to sleep ;)

 

But regardless of the outcome, I'm glad to have been a part of this.  There are so many great artists in the running & many outside the Top 20 who would represent Nashville well!  Thanks for giving me a really good shot at it & keep your fingers crossed =)

 

sleepless in Nashville,

Jenn

I think last night's show deserves a few words because it was not at all what I expected it to be, which was a good thing in this case ;)  You see, I've never been a big fan of competitions...and that goes all the way back to grade school field days of having to run races for silly ribbons.  Funny how being one of the fastest kids in my class was no help whatsoever, as every year my insides turned to jelly at the thought of the horrible day approaching.

 

And seriously, I don't like the idea of competing against other artists.  I know people go wild for shows like Idol, but it makes no sense to me because of apples to oranges and lots of other fruits--obviously some riper than others.  So it was with a touch of trepidation that I went out to perform at Eddie's Attic for the first time, where they select 3 finalists and a winner.  Yep, it sent me all the way back to track and field day panic mode ;)

 

But once the night started off and I got to hear artists from the local area, and others who drove a ridiculously long way (one all the way from Rhode Island)  I could feel that it really didn't have anything to do with winners and losers.  It was just artists of all different levels and styles coming together to share their art.  And it was really cool!  There were some people who really blew my mind and others on their way to becoming amazing.  I was honored to be part of it.

 

And of course, at the end we did the competition part.  I was pretty giddy to be selected as a finalist (yeah, I know that makes me a big hypocrite) and I got to play a new song that I dedicated to the artists in the room.  Dylan Sneed was next.  He writes the kind of songs that make you want to hear them over and over to let the meaning between the words sink in and bring you home to yourself.  And last, was my friend & touring partner, Marie McGilvray.  Her song, "Carl Jospeh" was written in memory of the 11-yr old who took his own life, after being tormented at school for being gay.  It was no surprise to me that Marie was crowned the winner--and I couldn't have been happier to be a runner-up.  So sending much love to all the artists, to Eddie and everyone at Eddie's Attic for an incredible night!

 

In case you were wondering,  I won't be signing up for any races just yet...but I think it was a good step =)

I got to work with a new photographer, who was incidentally, extremely hot ;)  It was a perfect day of gray clouds and drizzle...but I went with it, so far in fact as to sit myself down on wet playground equipment in my paper-thin dress.  OK, that was just downright cold!!  But here's a shot I kinda dug, a bit blurry and artsy....what do you think??

Saturday, we headed up to NY and kept enoying the trees...in fact, I was enjoying them so much while driving that I gave Marie a few scares!  Then we had some excitment when we got close to our hotel, which was supposed to be Chelsea.  But our GPS took us to Coney Island instead...Marie was looking worried, but I didn't realize the problem until I started seeing all the barbed wire around the homes.  Fortunately, after calling our hotel, we discovered that we had used the wrong zip code--big sigh of relief!  I was starting to imagine us huddled together in the corner of a dingy room with all the furniture barring the door--yikes ;)

So we finally made it to our very nice hotel, not far from the Bitter End.  We hit the streets to do some sightseeing, and I couldn't get enough of the fall air & the chance to walk around after hours of being in the car!  I had Ethiopian cuisine for the first time--and I can say that it's one of my new fav's!  I tried the honey-wine, tej..which I didn't care for too much by itself, but it blended nicely with the food. 

Sunday before the show, we attempted to do more wandering & some shopping--but it was a dreary, drizzling day ;(  I got to see Greenwich Village area, part of the Flat Iron district, Soho, and a few other areas I can't quite remember now...it is quite an intense place, especially for a girl who grew up on the Kansas prairie.  But I could have easily spent a a couple of weeks there, or until I ran out of money! 

The show itself went really well!  Of course it was awesome to be in a place that has seen the likes of legends like Bob Dylan, Linda Rondstadt, Stevie Wonder...not to mention, Miles Davis & Etta James!  But probably my favorite part of the night was getting to play on a grand piano formerly owned by Billy Joel.  The sound was unbelievable--which made me feel a 1000 times worse for butchering the sound guy's name while attempting to thank him! 

It was a pretty magical evening, but it was all too soon that we had to board our carriage back to Nashville.  I'm very thankful to have made so many new friends & to have seen things I'd never seen before.  I think this trip has given me the travel bug--which means a lot more dates for 2010...quite possibly some in Europe.  So, stay tuned for more adventures & a show coming to you soon!

P.S. I have the live recording from the show at The Bitter End--will let you know when I get it up!  Sorry to those of you who tried to listen online.  Apparently, they had technical difficulties.

Well, it's been over a week since the mini-tour up to NYC--but I wanted to give you all the tasty scoop!

Marie and I have made an important discovery.  Whatever time we actually need to hit the road, we just have to plan to leave about 45 minutes earlier--and lo & behold, we can be on time!

She was an awesome tour manager for the trip, even packed up a healthy bounty from Trader Joes (i wonder if they would sponsor us)...it's amazing how much energy you can have when not under the influence of a fast-food McFog!  And one should never underestimate the joy of a cup of freshly brewed coffee (we brought Drew's) in the morning--ahhhhh.

We played in Johnson City on Wednesday--big shout out to our gracious and lovely hosts, Christy and Chris =)  They put on a fabulous house concert--and make a mean sausage & cheese dip! 

Thursday night was in Lynchburg, VA.  Great spot called the Whitehart Cafe, bookshop & cafe in-one.  I had to the resist the urge to add to my collection--boxes of books in my garage that I have yet to read & keep hoping that perhaps, by osmosis,  I will discover their secrets ;)  We had a fun crowd, with several music majors in the audience and one southern gentleman whose accent completely melted us!

Friday we were in Towson, MD.  Talk about small world, I found out that my next door neighbors went to college there.  The French Press Cafe was a cozy little stop with very friendly staff and clientele.  One man brought homemade german sauerkaut & sausage--made the Bohemian girl in me rather happy!  We stayed with friends in D.C.--Tommy & Joe were the best..making us dinner & breakfast, totally spoiling us rotten! We love you guys =)

This gets kinda long...so for those of you who are enjoying--please turn to side B ;)


  


   

  

I have twenty tickets left, so get them while they are hot!!

I'm really getting into this house concert thing...love hanging out with cool people & sharing some music.  Totally different vibe from club gigs, which are fun in their own way--but not as personal.  If you're a music lover & want to do your part to support independent artists like myself, I'd encourage you to consider hosting a show.  And being the host comes with a few perks, like scoring some free autographed merch & being the cool kid in the neighborhood =)  Check out this site for more info on how to host a house concert:

http://www.concertsinyourhome.com/beahostintro.html

I had to chuckle at myself today and thought I'd share...I've been feelng a bit sorry for myself as of late, stressing out over money, over not having enough time in the day to do everything, and did I mention money?? 

And I'd been feelng particularily frustrated about not getting paid for several music deals that happened over the past 2 years.  And I had emailed my PRO several times but finally decided to call them today (not sure why I waited so long...except for, perhaps, my touch of phoneaphobia ;)  And sure enough, they hadn't updated by address and had money waiting for me! 

So, as it turns out I have an increased budget for releasing the new album--yipppeee!  I guess good things come to those who stop waiting and pick up the bloody phone =)