jennie stearns

I was born a Cotton merchant’s Daughter near the Assabet river. i liked to hide in my grandfathers study, plinking away on an old piano, or dangle my skinny white legs over the Atlantic and inhale the salt air mixed with the oil paint from a painting that would someday hang in my old farm house...built by farmers by the looks of it. My first concert ... Ry Cooder and Tom Waits. That was then...this is now... here I am living in N.Y. state and making music when I can with the likes of Mary Lorson, Billy Cote, Johnny Dowd, Mike Stark, Willie Watson, Chad Crumm, Kathy Ziegler Gurf Morlix, Jim Lauderdale...the list grows. These days I have a litle band that I prefer to call “Little Day” I’ve played in holes in the wall , I’ve played the Paradiso in Amsterdamn...does it matter?... I like to sing...i especially love to record...this is all for now... jAmericana-UK Michael Mee Oct 07If Jennie Stearns’ ambition for Birds Fall was to make an album that is almost overwhelmingly powerful then she has surely succeeded beyond her wildest dreams, the difficulty comes from that there‘s no respite.Birds Fall is the very essence of ‘high and lonesome‘, heartbreak stalks every note and line like a prowler in the night. But whether by design or happy accident, in baring her soul so completely she has left us with an album that is truly unforgettable if a little exhausting.By rights the final track, When You Go, Stearns should have wrung every last drop out of herself and the listener but her voice sustains the whole experience. She is able to reach deep down inside herself and find the real truths on Birds Fall, they are sometimes uncomfortable, sometimes biting but every track is a devastatingly honest statement.But it is also an album built around an unbreakable spirit, she bends during Pieces Of My Girl and Sad Girl but remains defiant to the end and eventually Everything offers a sense of hope.Birds Fall is not easy, relaxed listening and it is likely that neither it nor Jennie Stearns will ever reach a mass audience. But her music demands and commands your attention and one thing is sure once you’ve heard her sing, you’ll never forget Jennie Stearns.AMERICANA-UKBirds Fall Expertly crafted alt country from earthily sombre chanteuseIf you like the moody, plangent Americana of Gillian Welch, you’ll love this album of exquisitely crafted songs from singer/songwriter Jennie Stearns.Although it’s hardly a bundle of laughs - the songs are confessional in tone, dealing with the oldest themes of love, loss and damage in a hauntingly individual voice. They’re familiar - and yet not so. Stearns is enough like other country ladies to draw you in, but soon exerts her own fascination.Stearns has been much championed by Bob Harris - yes, Whispering Bob of Old Grey Whistle Test fame - on his BBC6 music show, and her current producer is Gurf Morlix (who has previously worked with luminaries like Lucinda Williams.This is one of those albums where it’s difficult to pick a standout track -m not because the songs aren’t up to it, but because they sit closely together as part of a sonic journey that needs to wield its own particular power. Cynics might call the songwriting samey - and perhaps it is. Neither does Stearns really vary instrumentation, pace or delivery from track to track. But somehow, none of these things matter at all.If forced at gunpoint to single out some downloadable highlights, I might advise starting with title track Birds Fall or the gentle waltz-time Step Into The Picture. Beautifully made and impeccably performed, this is a minor jewel within the genre.www.suba-cultcha.comBy: Clare O’BrienRADIO: Birds Fall continues to receive extensive airplay in the U.K. including Bob Harris, BBC Radio Scotland, BBC Radio Ulster, BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Lancashire, BBC Radio Merseyside, and CMR Nashville.PRESS: Birds Fall gets a 4 star review in THE SUN (UK July 07), 4 stars in the Maverick (UK), The Independent (UK), 3.5 stars Subacultcha.com (U.K.), 4.5 stars Heaven Popmagazine (N.L),OOR (NL), "Artist of the Month" Le Cri du Coyote (France) 4.5 stars AltcountryNL (NL). You Save Me

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.. CDBABY LINK for JENNIE STEARNS: Birds Fall --NETRHYTHMS UK SEPT 07 Bluesy earthy folk Americana, produced by Gurf Morlix and featuring guest vocals by Jim Lauderdale, this is the Ithaca born former founder member of Donna The Buffalo’s fourth album and, while sadly unlikely to much broaden awareness beyond her current following, its will send a shiver down the spine of anyone who wondered what a meeting between Gillian Welch and Lucinda Williams might produce.Although Thirty Years almost breaks into a midtempo pace and sports some mildly throaty electric guitar, the pace is otherwise kept to a sleepy, late night slow waltzing sway as she lays bare her confessional tales of love and loss. Sparsely arranged with lap and pedal steel providing the occasional extra colour to the guitar, bass and drums, ears looking for persuasion might well be directed to the moodily pulsing Grandfather, the overcast swampy atmosphere of the title track, a keeningly wistful Morning Glory (not Buckley’s) with its Weissenborn and mandocello, and the tear-stained farewell to love album sad waltz closer When You Go. She could well prove your best new discovery this year.www.jenniestearns.comMike Davies, Sept 2007