Thursday morning, as I was reading the "weekend" supplement for the Union (our local), my eyes landed on a photo of just about our favorite performance group (I'm really not into labeling a thing as "favorite", but it's sometimes the best way to communicate how high up on the list "x" or "y" might be, e.g. I always respond, when pressed, that Cherry Garcia is my "favorite" ice cream, but I don't know if I really always like it better than, say, Peanut Butter and Chocolate--so please don't make me choose. I'll have both, thank you very much).
Seriously, the Wailin' Jenny's are SO close to perfection--harmonies, choice of material, personality. I've rattled on about them before. We first heard them on Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion show some years back. He features them regularly, and, in fact, they will appear on his March 27th show--check your local NPR station (we get it Sunday, for example). They're a mostly Canadian group of three women (somewhere in their thirties?) who have a folk-ish sound in perfect three-part harmony. They all play instruments, sometimes multiple, and travel with a so-fine fiddle player. Their blend and nuanced musicality are, well, I guess you just have to hear them. We stalked them at a local World Fest a year and a half ago, hearing them live and up close several times (I have photo of Tom chatting with them after one session).
So, anyway, as I was leafing through the paper, I saw the ad that they were appearing at the local high school theater THAT NIGHT! What? How could we have come so close to missing this?! I got dressed and buzzed down to the Briar Patch (natural foods market/ticket agency) to get the best tickets possible. The "preferred" were gone and the rest were cattle call.
No worries! We sat right across the aisle from the "preferreds" near the front and were plenty close enough. We loved every minute! I can't really say more. We were so happy! We also added to our cd collection (I know, so "yesterday", but we haven't yet made a complete transition to ipod technology). Here's one sneaky iphone photo Tom took.
If you're wanting to see/hear them (and I know that you do), they have a Youtube page (who doesn't?). Here's one of our favorites (at a venue similar to the World Fest here in Grass Valley) which is "Parting Glass", a song they use as their final for each concert, but check 'em all out.
http://www.youtube.com/user/WailinJennys#p/u/9/ZYGts2TuXLU
And their website: http://www.thewailinjennys.com/home.aspx
Do yourself a big favor and sign up for tour notification. I mean it. I'm pretty sure you will be very pleased to make their acquaintance, if you haven't already.
