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November 2011
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Abby Jenne:
Infusing Music with the Marrow of Life
by Carrie Chandler
Music chose me,” Abby Jenne likes to say. And anyone who hears Jenne’s smooth-as-silk voice and honest lyrics are very glad that it did.
 Making music is also “the one thing I’ve done my whole life that I still do,” she says. A self-described flatlander, Jenne hails from southern New Hampshire where she began playing the piano at age five, eventually adding the cello and guitar. She often performed with her older brother’s various bands. Jenne recalls that, at age eight, “the first song I ever sang in a band was ‘Angel of the Morning,’ by Juice Newton, on top of a chicken coop – that was our stage.”
After watching her parents working in jobs they didn’t love and struggling with debt, Jenne dropped out of school and ended up following Phish tours. “I didn’t know where I wanted to be, so I traveled the country for three or four years and got to know some really great people.”
Jenne realized that she would rather play in a band than follow one, and settled in Vermont after house-sitting here for only two weeks. She started the Abby Jenne Band in 1996 and, with members Stacy Starkweather and Ezra Oklan, perfected acoustic rock with a bluegrass influence in their first release, Random Road (2004).
Although the album was successful, almost selling out [the first edition], Jenne was not pleased with the final product. “I loved the rough tracks. The rough tracks are really raw and really good, [but the album] lost the demo feel. It started out as a demo, and then it just got lost, glossy. I’m not a glossy girl.”
Jenne cites influences with that demo feel, from Led Zeppelin to Neil Young, that resonate throughout her music. Random Road embodies music she listened to as a child – “disco, the Grateful Dead, all of my parents’ music. I just love music, I love to dance.” Rock’s haunting chords drive tunes like “Johnson, VT,” while Jenne’s country and bluegrass roots show through in “Redneck Love.”
Jenne approaches her craft idiosyncratically. “I don’t write like normal people write, I guess, where they have the A-A-B-chorus thing going on. I write when I can’t think about it anymore. I puke it out.” From “Do Something,” which urges listeners to look around at what’s going on in the world and act, to “Brave New Woman” in which she answers that mid-twenties question of why she’s not married yet, Jenne’s lyrics are straight from the heart and straight out of her life. “You have to suck the marrow from life and then teach other people how to do it in your songs,” she says.
Jenne fell in love with the relaxed Vermont lifestyle, although she admits that living here is not the best way to grow a music career. “I fell in love with the mountains at an early age and I love towns like Montpelier,” she says. “I like small towns. I like community. I like being able to see where you fit in the social nexus. I think it keeps people honest when people know what you’re up to all the time.”
Jenne has thought about moving away and is constantly urged by family, friends, and fellow musicians to “be where the music is. But I want to be where my life is because music comes from life. Music is my life, so being famous has never been a really big draw. I’d rather just live a really good life.”
The Abby Jenne Band, whose second album is still in progress, recently signed with Halogen Records and has been booked to tour with Clara LeFarro. “They have taken me on and have given me worldwide digital, and are also hooking me up with other artists that they have signed,” Jenne noted.
Jenne has also found time to be a part of another band, called Calamity Jane, playing bluegrass covers and originals. With fellow members Erin McDermott, Sarah Grace, Jen Wells, and Patty Garbuck, they are exploring the new territory of alt country and revisiting roots music.
For a list of concert dates, or to listen to The Abby Jenne Band’s music, visit abbyjenneband.com.
Carrie Chandler is a freelance journalist living in Barre.
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Vermont Woman is a forum for news, issues, features, arts and entertainment from the perspective, experience, and voices of Vermont women. Vermont Woman is a bi-monthly
newspaper published in South Hero, Vermont and is excerpted here on this site. All content © Copyright 2011, Vermont Woman Media.
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