At the heart of The Wailin’ Jennys’ music is good storytelling. At the heart of The Wailin’ Jennys’ music is good storytelling. Through harmonious voices or banter with the audience, group members often share the stories behind their award-winning songs, said mezzosoprano Nicky Mehta.
“We love to talk to the audience and tell stories,” Mehta said. “That’s a huge part of our show.”
The Canadian folk trio won a Juno Award in 2004 ǃ
This is the sound of voices three/Singing together in harmony/ This is the sound of voices three/Singing together in harmony/Surrendering to the mystery/This is the sound of voices three/ This is the sound of voices three.
This is the sound of one voice/One people, one voice/A song for every one of us/This is the sound of one voice/This is the sound of one voice.
So goes a trademark Wailin' Jennys song, "One Voice." When the Jennys sing, it can be hard to tell where one voice ends and another begins.
It's the Canadian folk trio's signature sound -- clear, warm and honeyed three-part harmonies laid over old and original tunes, ballads and traditional songs.
The Jennys frequently turn up as musical guests on American Public Media's A Prairie Home Companion. They'll be in Greensboro on Wednesday for a show at Guilford College.
For Nicky Mehta, the group's medium-pitched mezzo voice, singing with her band-mates -- Ruth Moody as soprano and Heather Masse as alto -- is as much a physical experience as it is an artistic one.
"You can feel it when it really blends," Mehta said in a recent interview. "It feels right physically. It just kind of settles in you somehow. When things are not blending well ǃ_ you feel like you're a bit on edge physically.
"It's hard to describe. The analogy I've used before is if you're on a really snowy road and you kind of get into the ruts in a street, that's what it feels like. Like you sort of just slide into the ruts and you're on rails in a way, and when you're veering off you can feel it, you can feel it physically that you're off the tracks. It's not just about your ears and it's not just about what's in your throat and your diaphragm."
In this age of Auto-Tune and digital manipulation, the Jennys' sound feels familiar and fresh at the same time.
"You can't manufacture that," Mehta said. "It's just the voices. Nobody can take credit for something like that, it's just the quality of the voices and it's getting lucky with having them match."
All three of the Jennys had -- and have -- solo careers, too. Mehta started singing with Moody and other original member, Cara Luft, while she was in the midst of taking a year off between college and graduate school to work on her singing and songwriting and promote her own solo album.
"(Moody) just wanted to sing with two other women and we were just lucky that the voices worked together," Mehta said. "I hadn't a lot of experience singing three-part harmony alone. I have done choir stuff and I had done two-part harmony, so that was a new experience for me. I think the signature sound comes from the voices just blending well."
Today, Mehta and Moody live in Canada, and Masse lives in New York. Masse is the group's third alto -- Luft and later Annabelle Chvostek left to pursue their own musical careers.
But through the years, the group has continued to garner accolades and success. In 2005, the Jennys won a Juno (Canada's equivalent of a Grammy) for Roots and Traditional Album of the Year.
The trio are so in synch that Mehta won't even single out one favorite song off the Jennys' new and yet-to-be-titled album, which will be released later this year. "I'll pick a favorite of all of ours, then, because I can't just pick out one person," she said diplomatically.
So that would be: "Cherry Blossom," a cheeky jazz-inspired song, by Masse; "You Are Here," by Moody, and "Away But Never Gone," a lullaby Mehta wrote when she was pregnant with her twin boys. She originally started the song a few years ago when a friend died, put it down and then picked it up again. "I realized that it was kind of about both things. It ended up being about that world where people go and people come from that we don't know a whole lot about."
The Jennys will likely play all three during their Guilford College performance next week.
They also favor covers old and new -- their last album, Live at the Mauch Chunk Opera House, includes Jane Siberry's "Calling All Angels," jazz standard "Summertime," and Emmylou Harris' "Deeper Well."
"On albums, the majority is original. In shows I would say it's a 60/40 split, originals being 60 percent and covers and traditionals being 40," Mehta said. "We love to re-interpret traditional music. Anything from something that's actually field music, that's sort of public domain stuff, to a standard like ǃ
This is the sound of voices three Singing together in harmony Surrendering to the mystery This is the sound of voices three This is the sound of voices three
Singing together in harmony
Surrendering to the mystery
This is the sound of voices three
- "One Voice"
Ruth Moody
From the Wailin' Jennys' Juno-winning debut album, 40 Days, one voice is what it's all about for a trio of singer/songwriters who weave their individual gifts into a seamless and harmonious sound that is guaranteed to stir and soothe your soul. Friday, May 7, the Wailin' Jennys appear live on stage at the Quadra Community Centre, 8 p.m. Please check your ticket: concert day is Friday not Saturday.
An extraordinary group of two Winnipeggers, Ruth Moody and Nicky Mehta, and New Yorker, Heather Masse, the Jennys are picking up awards and audience recognition around the world for their collaboration on an uplifting repertoire which cuts across musical genre to include folk-roots, alt-country, blues, traditional, and pop/rock. They've travelled extensively, performing in hundreds of venues inspiring critics to pen compliments such as: "...a timeless quality, the songs could have been written last week or at any point in the last two centuries." (PopMatters) "Some of the most pitch-perfect gorgeous harmonies you're likely to hear." (Review M Magazine, Australia)
The Wailin' Jennys musical sensibility and vocal prowess is no accident. Soprano Ruth Moody (guitar, banjo, accordion, bodhr__n) is a classically trained vocalist and pianist who came to the stage as the lead singer for the Juno-nominated roots act Scruj Macduhk. As a songwriter, she is known for her moving and haunting ballads. Mezzo Nicky Mehta (guitar, harmonica, ukulele, percussion) is a trained singer and dancer whose solo album Weather Vane was nominated for a Canadian Music Award in 2002 for vocal ability and poetic songwriting. Alto Heather Masse, (upright bass) a jazz graduate and singer/musician with the Wayfaring Strangers, brings a jazz/bluegrass background to the group. Together, these three women deliver inspiring lyrics and good, old fashioned melody "...in harmonies that could melt a Manitoba February." (Boston Globe) "The three-part harmonies of Winnipeg's Wailin' Jennys should be considered some kind of national treasure." (The Hamilton Spectator)
The Jennys have two award-winning discs to their credit: 40 Days 2004 (Juno Award winner, Roots and Traditional Album of the Year, Group 2005) and Firecracker 2006 (North American Folk Alliance winner, Best Contemporary Album, 2007.)
Come hear the Jennys for their great songs, their musicianship and for "the sense of completeness and wholeness that can only come with three female voices." (Ruth Moody)
Tickets are $20 and are on sale now at Quadra Crafts and Hummingbird Office and Art Supply on Quadra and at the Music Plant in Campbell River. For more information, call 250-285-2580 or visit the Jennys' website www.thewailinjennys.com
No matter how good the body of work is on an album, it’s seemingly impossible to ǃ
Ruth Moody can't wait to get on the road again with The Wailin' Jennys. Ruth Moody can't wait to get on the road again with The Wailin' Jennys. The all-female folk trio of Moody, Heather Masse and Nicky Mehta took about a one-year break from touring because Mehta gave birth to twins about eight months ago.
"The break has been really good and now we are recharged," Moody said in a phone interview Tuesday from her home in Toronto. "We are rejuvenated and have a new and exciting energy to what we are doing."
The Wailin' Jennys perform at 7:30 p.m. April 9 at the Kent-Meridian Performing Arts Center, 10020 S.E. 256th St. They open a nationwide tour April 8 in Portland. They play in Mount Vernon and Friday Harbor after Kent and then head to North Carolina.
The trio has had several Bluegrass hits. The group often is featured on "A Prairie Home Companion," a popular National Public Radio show hosted by Garrison Keillor.
In fact, The Wailin' Jennys were in Seattle March 27 at the Paramount Theater for a live broadcast of "A Prairie Home Companion."
"We had a great time," Moody said. "We've done a bunch of shows with them over the years, probably over a dozen."
Concertgoers soon discover what makes The Wailin' Jennys so entertaining.
"We are known for our three-part harmony," Moody said. "That's our thread throughout the show."
The trio mixes a little bit of pop, Celtic, country and jazz to give audiences a variety of songs. Many of the songs are original, since all three women are songwriters. They also perform cover songs.
"We do a lot of acapella and a little humor," Moody said. "But people really like the harmony and we do a very healthy dose of that."
In addition to singing, Moody plays guitar, accordion, banjo and bodhran (a Celtic drum). Mehta plays guitar, harmonica and a drum kit. Masse plays the upright bass. Jeremy Penner, a fiddler and mandolinist, also tours with the group.
"We call him our boy Jenny," Moody said.
The variety of instruments played by the women and Penner gives the group plenty of options.
"We're pretty diverse," Moody said. "We cover a lot of different sounds. It keeps things interesting for our fans when we can change it up."
The name of the band itself draws a lot of interest. It's a pun on the name of country singer Waylon Jennings, and one of many names suggested by a friend of Moody and Mehta when they formed the group in 2002.
"We just wanted to use our names," Moody said. "But a friend was convinced we would go beyond that one show and said we should have a name. A lot of the names we rejected."
But Moody, Mehta and Cara Luft, who later left the trio, didn't really think they were forming a group when they got together to sing for what they thought would be one show at a Winnipeg, Manitoba guitar shop. The solo artists were such a hit as a trio that one show sold out as well as a second show and all of a sudden the group got bookings and started to tour.
"We've had a couple of lineup changes over the years but it's been an amazing journey," Moody said.
The group's most recent album is "Live at the Mauch Chunk Opera House," recorded in 2008 at a concert in Pennsylvania and released in 2009. They plan to release a new album this fall.
"We all love performing and connecting with the audience," Moody said. "It's a powerful experience. We're all writers and it's rewarding when people respond to a song you wrote. And we all love singing in harmony. That's what keeps us going."
Okay...I have to say it even if it sounds cliché - we have the best fans on the planet! The shows were so much fun and it was so great to be out on the road again playing for you all. This was a whole new experience for us, as many of you know. Nicky brought her beautiful twin boys out on the road for the first time and somehow managed to be a mother to two and a Jenny all at the same time - she can tell you more about her experience herself (in all her spare time) but suffice it to say she is a force of nature. Papa-Grant and Auntie-Tracy were also amazing, and although it was hard work for them everyone survived and it was wonderful to have this new energy on the road with us.
Some highlights: Napa wine, the bats and sirens of the Stoughton Opera House, the beautiful folks and abalone shells of Ft. Bragg, sweet people and the best co-op ever in Decorah Iowa, The O'Shaugnessy in St. Paul (felt like Hometown!), Heather Stewart (helper extraordinaire), playing our new songs for you, two amazing sold-out audiences at the gorgeous new Freight and Salvage in Berkeley, pedicures in Pasadena (with participation by Jeremy), Weezie massages in Chico, Heather's birthday cake on stage in Chico, Nicky singing the Mr. Doodle song in Chico, Pismo beach strolling, and California in general.
We just got back from playing A Prairie Home Companion at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle - it was so much fun to be back on the show and to see everyone again! And what a treat to meet and hear Brandi Carlisle! Good times all around - thanks for listening and thanks for all your sweet comments and messages. (And thanks to Jamie for the ice-cream!)
We have a week or so off the road and then we are back out there. It's a big one - Oregon, Washington, North Carolina, Georgia, DC, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Phew!
See you at the shows, and thanks, as always, for all your support.
Winnipeg, Manitoba’s The Wailin’ Jennys became the toast of the Americana-folk scene with the gracious three-part harmonies of their debut full-length 40 Days (2004) . Winnipeg, Manitoba’s The Wailin’ Jennys became the toast of the Americana-folk scene with the gracious three-part harmonies of their debut full-length 40 Days (2004). Founding Jennys members Ruth Moody (soprano) and Nicky Mehta (mezzo) have since recruited alto Heather Masse to the band. The first disc by this trio, Live at the Mauch Chunk Opera House doesn’t merely present stage versions of songs from the band’s previous three releases, although it does include fan favorites like “Arlington” and “One Voice.” Instead there are eight new songs, most featuring Masse singing lead, as on an interesting arrangement of “Motherless Child,” that goes from mournful to rockin’, and on a couple of her own compositions. Masse is also out front for a cappella versions of Gershwin’s “Summertime” and Lead Belly’s “Bring Me Li’l Water Silvy”(a haunting rendition), both of which showcase how gloriously these three voices blend together. The band’s playing, augmented by Jeremy Penner on violin, is fresh and uncluttered, even with the additions of Masse’s upright bass and Mehta’s drums bringing a new bottom to the mix of acoustic guitar, banjo and accordion.
We just wanted to let you know that we are three days away from heading back out on the road! We're looking forward to seeing you all at the shows and singing you some new songs. We're going to be everywhere in the next few months: from Minnesota to California, Oregon to Georgia, British Columbia to Ontario, and more...so please see our tour page for upcoming dates.
In the meantime, if you haven't already watched it, we invite you to check out our behind-the-scenes video for our new album to be released this summer!
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