I’m very happy that I managed to get myself out of the house yesterday and down to Brooklyn to see Steph Jenkins at a solar powered house concert. You can take that as solar-powered-house concert or solar-powered house-concert. They are both accurate. The house it was held in is solar powered, courtesy of Brooklyn SolarWorks. Despite their name they will install solar panels on flat roofs in Manhattan, Queens, and parts of the Bronx, in addition to Brooklyn. They had representatives at the show and gave a tour of the installation. I love when good things come together.
Google Maps reminded me that I had been to the house before, to see Kristin Andreassen and Lauren Balthrop. This was incidental Kristin day. She’ll come up twice more in today’s blog even though she wasn’t there.
I first saw Steph playing with the Calamity Janes when they opened for Crooked Still at the last CS show before they went on hiatus. Once I met her I discovered that we very much traveled in the same circles. I saw her often socially in addition to performing. I think of her as an old-time banjo player, but she’s expanded into singer/songwriting, and last night sang a standard. She’s a renaissance woman. That doesn’t even scratch the surface as her primary occupation is documentary filmmaker. She’s worked with Ken Burns. While extremely cool this is not my coolest two degrees as David Hein worked with Kermit the Frog. I’m two degrees through multiple routes from PBS. Cool means something different to nerds than the general population. Steph made wordplay on the different meanings of conceit and her brother Reid, who joined her complained. She said that at work they’d call that PBS humor and would earn her major points. My people.
Reid is also my people as is Steph’s entire family; her parents Rich and Sandy were there too. Rich and Reid joined her on stage. I just discovered that Sandy plays bass. Steph’s sister Cassie couldn’t make it as she was sitting on a beach in Mexico. Let’s all give a moment to feel sorry for Cassie for missing the show. Somehow I think she isn’t suffering. The Jenkinses are like a cool version of the Partridge family. It just hit me that Steph has a distinct resemblance to Susan Dey. The difference is that Steph does her own singing and playing.
Even though I travel in the same circles as Steph I didn’t know anyone that wasn’t related to her at the show. I was a bit surprised. A week from now I’ll be seeing Steph in the audience to see Kristin Andreassen. I told you Kristin would be back. We both told Grant, someone I met last night, about the show, and told him he should go. That’s at the House of Love. I no longer live in Brooklyn but it’s still the home of my people.
As always Steph was great. She played banjo and guitar, Reid played fiddle and backing vocals, and Rich played piano. Susan Dey wasn’t cool enough to even pretend to play banjo. Not that I let that stop me from having a crush on her; Not enough to get me to watch much of the show. I’m going on a lot of side trips today. It’s poor writing style but perfect being me style. This is the way my mind works.
Steph has a great song California, about a friend moving to the Golden State. She talked about her exodus of friends to Nashville and LA. I nodded my head as I had the same experience. Kat Quinn and Kate Copeland both moved to LA. That’s because they knew I associated them because of their names so I’d continue to associate them. More musician friends moved to Nashville; Amy Speace, Meg Braun, Annika Bennett, Melissa Greener, Michaela Anne, Miss Tess, and Kristin Andreassen. Third Kristin mention! I bet I missed some Nashville peeps and that doesn’t include people that didn’t move directly from greater New York. Nashville is stealing my friends.
I was challenged by the host, sorry host I forgot your name, to make a dent in the pile of fried chicken. I told him that might mean there’s enough for me. No, he was right, the pile was huge, but I did my part and had three pieces. It was exceptional. I never found out if it was homemade or store bought. If from a store or restaurant I want to know which one. I told you this entry was very me. That means food.
Here’s my challenge to My Gentle Readers; join me next time I see Steph. She doesn’t heavily promote her shows, but I will let you know when she plays. I’m a musical evangelist and Steph is one of the artists everyone should know. Her talent to notoriety ratio is high, and my goal is to make the make people’s fame commensurate with their quality. Now if I could only decrease the fame of Dawes.
There’s a house concert series I went to a few times that still sends me invites. They now specialize in acts that I strongly dislike. How does that happen? at once time our taste clearly was similar. That’s why I was there. This leaves me feeling like Schrödinger’s Cat. Taste is subjective and there is no absolute right or wrong. At the same time, I’m clearly right and they are wrong. It’s tough to simultaneously be an understanding liberal and a person of strong preferences. We won’t know the truth until somebody opens the box. I wish I knew what that means in this situation.
I don’t seem to have any plans for today. That means making myself a proper dinner and recording Gord’s Gold for Folk Music Notebook. The toughest part is deciding whom to talk about. Maybe I can be extra good and record several segments.
Wise Madness 