May 2023: The Different Bands Explained

Okay Jenner, what's the deal with all the different band projects? I'm confused! 

Good question! But first a piece of good news:

I won second place at the Texas Songwriter Serenade songwriting competition a few weekends ago! It was wonderful to hang with the other songwriters and judges, and feel the love. A songwriting competition is an inherently odd thing, but it was a good excuse to gather. Susan Gibson, who wrote The Chicks mega hit "Wide Open Spaces," was one of the judges, and she offered a piece of sage wisdom in talking about writing that career defining song in her early 20s: 

"I wouldn't have been able to write the song now because I would have changed it or tried to be clever, and furthermore, if I had written the song now after working as a songwriter for decades I might have thought that I earned it somehow."

The bands breakdown:

Jenner Fox Band – A 4/5 piece group of humans who really enjoy playing music together. The JFB started unofficially with recording "Good Luck Road" in 2021, and then more officially on the road on bicycles in CA in 2021. The electrified band includes Aaron Guest (keys), Jeremy Elliott (electric guitar), Aaron Moore / Mark Karwan (bass), and Benji Nagel (dobro). Band video. 

Jenner Fox & Jeremy Elliott  – An acoustic duo project that tries to make one super harp-like guitar thing out of two acoustic six strings. This project features my dear friend and co-writer Jeremy Elliott (video above). New album to be released sometime this year!!! 

National Guitar – A Paul Simon tribute act with the members of the Jenner Fox Band. We started the project as a way to sell more tickets for our original music, and then it became an overnight success selling out beautiful theater spaces and bringing out Paul Simon devotees from near and far. Not to mention it's been a blast to try to re-imagine the material. We've got some exciting venue announcements coming in 2024. National Guitar video.  

Six O'Clock News / A John Prine Christmas – Yours truly with a rotating cast of wonderful musicians playing some near and dear songs. John Prine cover video. 

Juice Box – Songs for kids of all ages. A writing/recording outlet for Natalie and me. This project started with an album of lullabies for my niece Mia. Music release pending...

Lots of tour dates below! Hope to see some of you out there this summer. 

Kindly,

Jenner

Fox Recommends

One Long River of Song by Brian Doyle – A book of essays by Oregon's "spirit animal" as the friend who gifted it to me wrote. It's stunning, every essay is a gentle and life affirming magnifying glass for some small bit of wonder. Read it! I also just finished listening to Doyle's novel, "Mink River," on audiobook, it's brilliant too!

Taking lessons / going to a class / learning! – I took a banjo lesson the other day. It was thrilling to be on the learning side. What a gift! Perhaps these sort of interactions are an anecdote to isolation/lonely? It also just feels really humanly good to be learning. 

P.S.

"You can brick up your heart as stout and tight and hard and cold and impregnable as you possibly can and down it comes in an instant, felled by a woman's second glance, a child's apple breath, the shatter of glass in the road, the words I have something to tell you, a cat with a broken spine dragging itself into the forest to die, the brush of your mother's papery ancient hand in the ticket of your hair, the memory of your father's voice early in the morning echoing from the kitchen where he is making pancakes for his children." – Brian Doyle, One Long River of Song