In our fantasy, we are totally BFF with Jenny Owen Youngs. After all, we know her first two albums by heart and totally relate to her musical aesthetic. In this fantasy she would call us up on Friday night and ask us to come over to drink beer and listen to records before we went out for Palek Paneer and then went bowling. Yes, we’d have great big plans.
Luckily, our real life isn’t that far from our fantasy life and today we got to invite Youngs to take a tour of Stax with us and then come to Ardent and hang out and record a few songs. She brought along drummer Elliot Jacobson, who is not only a nice guy, but drums for a bunch of our other favorite musicians, like Ingrid Michaelson, Bess Rogers, Regina Spektor, and Jim Bianco and was recently voted #1 Up And Coming Drummer by Modern Drummer Magazine. And did we mention he is super nice?
All in all – it was a pretty great day. Check out our interview and then go see Jenny and Elliot play TONIGHT at The Levitt Shell at 7:30 FOR FREE!
Jenny Owen Youngs, singer/songwriter and natural history enthusiast, grew up in the woods of New Jersey and currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. After self-releasing her first album Batten the Hatches in 2005, Youngs signed with Nettwerk Records, and went on to release two albums and three EPs through the Canadian indie label. She has toured extensively through the US, UK, and mainland Europe, both as headliner and support to artists such as Regina Spektor, Motion City Soundtrack, Aimee Mann, Kevin Devine, and Amanda Palmer. Her songs have been heard on Weeds, Nurse Jackie, Privileged, Life Unexpected, and in Victoria’s Secret stores the world over.
In late 2010 she launched a campaign to finance her next album via crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, and was pleasantly surprised when she was met with immense support from her fan base – to the tune of $38,000. She is currently counting her blessings while working to finish that record. Her spirit animals are Johnny Cash, Kate Bush, Tom Waits and Jack White.
, she has raised the bar and supplied her fans with a much bigger sound – but don’t worry if you originally fell in love with her down-tempo folk ditties, she does not forget to pause to share her more mellancholly musings. Don’t miss the full range of Miss Youngs on this week’s edition of The Ardent Sessions.
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