Jeni Hankins & Billy Kemp: News

Yesterday we were honored to share our music at the unveiling of the Tri-Cities Miners' Memorial in Cumberland, KY. Stella Morris, who lost her husband, Bud, to a mining accident, raised the money to install a beautiful memorial at the mouth of the Tri-Cities Miners Memorial Highway.
For us, the highlight of the service, was a rousing speech given by UMWA President Cecil Roberts. Mr. Roberts reminded us that since coal mining began in the USA, 200,000 miners have died from mine accidents or black lung and that in any other US industry that number of fatalities would foment public outcry. US Citizens and Congress would not stand for 200,000 dying on the job at Walmart.

Yes, it's a dangerous job, but we had no Mine Safety Act in this country until 1969 after the Farmington, WV, mine explosion took the lives of 78 miners. In the 25 years preceeding Farmington, 12,000 miners died in accidents. In the 25 years following Farmington, 3,000 miners were killed. Those 78 miners in Farmington -- whom Mr. Roberts called heroes -- and the 1969 Act saved 9,000 miners' lives.

Mine Safety is not an issue to be debated among politicians or coal bosses, it is a life or death matter and deserves our advocacy 100%.

"A sweet and surprising high point [of the Beverley Folk Festival] was the Appalachian duo Jeni Hankins and Billy Kemp. Singing songs from the Southwest Virginia coal mines, the pair melted hearts with songs like Tazewell Beauty Queen and Back Then, a heartbreaking tale of tragic love. Jeni Hankins' smile-infused Mother Maybelle voice was . . . perfect."

- Hazel Davis
Maverick Magazine

We mentioned in our last newsletter that we would be heading over to the UK and Ireland in June & July. Well, we've been over and back and feel like we found a second home over there. We want to thank everyone in Yorkshire, Cumbria, Northern Wales, and Ireland who made us feel so welcome! We thoroughly enjoyed every place we played.



One highlight was meeting a lovely singer named Fiona who had sung "Tazewell Beauty Queen" at her local folk club the week before she met us at Beverley Folk Festival! What a compliment! As vegans, we were certainly challenged by the abundance of dairy, but were rescued by the Marks & Spencer ready-made salads at the Moto stops on the M's.

Billy quickly adapted to driving on the left and our Sat-Nav made the going easier, but the A-roads made Chicken Ridge look like an interstate. Speaking of Chicken Ridge, while in the UK, we were asked to play for the Sydney Smith School in Hull and had the pleasure of singing it with about 200 school kids!

We are returning to the UK and Ireland in May & June of next year, so we welcome suggestions for venues, festivals, and folk clubs. We also love to do house concerts and would love to hear from those interested in hosting one!

Also, if you have any photos of us from our visit, we would love to see them and add them to our scrapbook. See you in 2010!

A special thanks to Chris & Sue, Barbara, Harvey & Thelma, Gill & John, Laura & Kelly & Chris W, Dave, Bill, Peter, Richard, Hedley & Lynne, and Nigel in the UK. And to Michael, Barry, Niall, Sandy, Charlie, and Ralph in Ireland & Northern Ireland.

We're back and full of gratitude and wonder for the beautiful people and places all so welcoming in the UK and Ireland.
Gigs coming up right away and then a writing retreat in Maine, so we'll be getting together a new newsletter at the beginning of August.
Hope to see you at the Champlain Valley Folk Festival the first weekend in August!
www.cvfest.org

In recent years it's been practically considered a given that the writing of coal-mining songs is a thing of the past, but lo and behold, along comes an album of new songs related to, or inspired by, the coal-mining lifestyle. Jeni Hankins is the granddaughter of coal miners, so she is well steeped in the tradition. Her mournful vocals compare favorably with other Appalachian old-time folks singers . . . the accompaniment is always very spare, and the performances are never rushed . . . Jewell Ridge Coal is a very worthy addition to a genre that may not be so antiquated after all.
- Paul-Emile Comeau
Dirty Linen

You may have noticed a slight change of continent on our tour schedule above! That's right, we are heading to the land of tea & rain, pints & pixies, Beatrix Potter & many non-vegan breakfast options!
Are England & Wales too far to travel to see Jeni & Billy, not for Maryland fan Al Goldstein who may find himself on a plane to the North Wales Bluegrass Festival if he can eliminate all of the Welsh consonants in his flight path! Honestly we are as thrilled as can be to bring our music to the UK. If you know any folks over there, we hope you'll encourage them to seek us out!

Thanks to some family photos, a little Flip camera, and the magic of iMovie, we have entered the world of YouTube!
Jeni's Dad put together a lovely slideshow using the photos from MawMaw Smith's Stride Rite Shoebox for our song "Tazewell Beauty Queen."
We caught a few of the performances from our May tour and they are collected in a short film on YouTube as well. Hope you enjoy them!
http://www.youtube.com/user/jeniandbilly

We just returned to Nashville from a 21 day tour that started in Kirksville, MO and ended in Annapolis, MD! We fell in love with a new town, Kirksville, MO, signed with a wonderful agent, Josh Dunson, in Chicago, picked up our home on wheels, Little Grey, from the Airstream hospital, made a mini-world tour of one of the loveliest places on Earth, Central Virginia, where we ate way too many Bodo's bagels, and topped it off by enjoying our very own dressing room with bathroom & dining room at The Ram's Head! Heady times indeed!

Thanks especially to all of the wonderful folks who made us welcome as John McCutcheon's opener in VA & as Bill Frisell's opener in MD. And thanks also to all of you who came to see us in our own right. We'll be back in Central VA on March 27, 2010 at the Richmond Folk Music Society and in MD this coming July 12 at the Columbia Lakefront Festival.

Jeni can't think of a better birthday present than having a whole bunch of people come out for Jeni & Billy at PSALM, The Philadelphia Society for Art, Literature, and Music. Saturday, May 30th @ 8 pm.

The PSALM Salon is reminiscent of the old-world salons of Europe, where the cultural cognoscenti would gather to experience and discuss the works of the leading artists of the day. In that spirit, the evening will begin with a guest appearance by mountain-top removal activist Larry Gibson. There is also a stunning gallery exhibit of Coal Country by photographer Mark Schmerling.

The PSALM Salon is Philadelphia's premiere small space for serious listening. It boasts an audiophile quality sound system in an acoustically pristine space, allowing guests to experience performances with ultimate clarity in a stately old Overbrook Farms mansion. It is a space for performers to connect with guests one on one.

Bless our lucky stars! We can hardly contain our excitement! Bill Frisell is one of our favorite music makers, so this makes our debut at the Ram's Head all the more sweet.

It's a weeknight, Tuesday, May 19 @ 8 pm, but we promise you won't regret staying up with us.

We are proud to announce that Jeni & Billy have signed with Real People's Music. We visited with agent, Josh Dunson, in Oak Park, just outside of Chicago earlier this week to seal the deal over some authentic Greek food at The Parthenon.

We are particularly honored to be in the company of 2008 Grammy nominee Peggy Seeger, and songwriter-activist Si Kahn. Real People's Music has been helping artists share their music for 35 years and we are certainly happy to be part of their roster!

Jewell Ridge Coal, is steeped in the traditions of the mines and the families whose lives depended on them. The production is simple and uncluttered; the lead instrument is clearly the voice of Jeni, for whom these songs are like members of the family.
- Wayne Winkler, Now & Then: The Appalachian Magazine

I found Jeni & Billy's second album Jewell Ridge Coal to be like Billy Elliot meets the Mamas and the Papas meets Dolly Parton. A little bit bluegrass, a little bit folk, and all original, the music feels simultaneously familiar and completely new. Their combination creates this powerful and unique flavor, and they sound so natural together, it feels calming and clear. Its as if you were there sitting on a back porch in old-timey South and they were right there with you and just stumbled upon some instruments.
- Nicole Levitz, Feminist Review

Hi all,

Just a quick note to let you know that this Friday we'll be performing live on the air as part of the WFHB Community Radio's "Radio Variety Extravaganza -- An Evening with Border Radio." This event will raise funds for this wonderfully diverse Bloomington, Indiana, station.

If you are outside of Bloomington, which many of you are, you can stream it live on the web from www.wfhb.org!

We'll be playing several tunes from Jewell Ridge Coal, songs from our upcoming record & a couple of songs especially worked up for the show.

Here are the details from the WFHB website:

On Friday, March 27th from 8 to 10 pm Bloomington's historic Buskirk-Chumley Theater will become a time portal to another age; the age of "Border Radio" when high power stations on the Mexican border could be heard over large areas of the U.S. from the 1940's to the '70's.

The show will also be broadcast live on WHFB, at 91.3 and 98.1 FM in Bloomington, at 106.3 for Ellettsville, at 100.7 for Brown County and online at wfhb.org as well as on CATS television.

We hope you'll join us!

Happy Spring to all!

Love & Happiness,

Jeni & Billy

www.jeniandbilly.com http://www.myspace.com/jenihankinsbillykemp http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jeni-Billy/19363808924 http://www.pandora.com/?sc=sh67921948649022534 http://www.sonicbids.com/jeniandbilly http://www.twitter.com/jeniandbilly http://blip.fm/jeniandbilly

We have just confirmed that we will be playing the Beverley Folk Festival in Yorkshire, England this coming June! http://www.beverleyfestival.com/
Time to try out our wings!

Thanks to all of the prayers and positive energy that folks have sent our way!

Jeni & Billy

Well, January snuck by us and we are just coming to our first newsletter of the year!

We just finished our first leg of touring for 2009 in Florida. Thanks to all of you who came out to hear our songs and stories! We are already booking dates for late January/early February in Florida next year, so if you happened to catch one of our concerts there and are interested in booking a house concert with us or if you have any suggestions for venues, we would be all ears.

We already have a lot of dates booked for this year, so please check our calendar to see if we are coming to your area. If we aren’t and you wish we were, then please get in touch and we’ll see what we can do.

We are planning to head out West next spring at the end of April, so we are really interested in hearing from folks on the West Coast about ideas. Thanks to those of you who have already written!

Some really special dates on the horizon:

March: Opening for Claire Lynch at Eddie’s Attic in Atlanta, GA, on March 8!
Bloomington, Indiana -- three shows, including a benefit for WFHB Community Radio.

May: Kirksville, Missouri -- two shows, including a performance at the Kirksville Arts Association to celebrate the Smithsonian exhibit New Harmonies. Philadelphia, PA, concert at PSALM on Jeni’s Birthday!

June: Seedtime on the Cumberland in Whitesburg, Kentucky!

July: A return to the Columbia Lakefront Festival in Columbia, Maryland.

August: The Rooster’s Wife Concert Series in Aberdeen, NC and Music on the Square in Jonesborough, TN.

September: Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion, Bristol, TN/VA and a performance for the Citizens for the Arts in Jeni’s hometown of Richlands, VA.

We are adding new dates all of the time, so please check our website.

We are heading to Folk Alliance in Memphis next week and to SXSW in March. We are Standby Showcase artists for both of these conferences, so any prayers and good wishes would be most appreciated.

Lastly, we hope that you will take a moment to visit
http://www.grassrootsleadership.org/index.html and consider joining Si Kahn in Grassroots Leadership’s Campaign to End Immigrant Family Detention and in their mission to challenge the existence of For-Profit Prisons in our country. These folks are doing extraordinary work to defend human rights and promote justice.

This is a time of year when we are especially grateful to be touring around and making music together, so in that spirit, we recommend that you check out these other true love duos:

www.hungrytown.net (Rebecca Hall & Ken Anderson)
www.robinsongs.com (Dana & Susan Robinson)
www.sallyspring.com (Sally Spring & Ted Lyons)

Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you!

Jeni & Billy

By the way! Did you know that you can learn what we’re up to on a whole bunch of sites? They’re all right here:

www.jeniandbilly.com http://www.myspace.com/jenihankinsbillykemp http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jeni-Billy/19363808924 http://www.pandora.com/?sc=sh67921948649022534 http://www.sonicbids.com/jeniandbilly http://www.twitter.com/jeniandbilly http://blip.fm/jeniandbilly

We are so happy to announce that we have been chosen as Standby Showcase Artists for SXSW & Folk Alliance! So, if someone gets called to be on Letterman or decides to relax in the Bahamas instead of going to these conferences, we are their replacement! We will be at both conferences regardless, so if you're planning on being there too, be sure to say hello!

Happy New Year All!

We just posted this note on Whole Wheat Radio www.wholewheatradio.org in Talkeetna, Alaska. They have a really great site with streaming audio and a wiki interface where listeners can talk to each other.

This is just to give you an idea of what we've been up to during our touring hiatus!

We (Jeni & Billy) spent most of December & January in a (generous!) friend's cabin in Western NC. Though we initially intended this to be a much needed break from a summer of heavy touring and a fall of industry conferences, we got the wild idea to make another record. We don't like to say it's our second record, probably because of all of the weight that comes with putting out a sophomore effort, so we think of it as 1 1/2. This has allowed us to enjoyed ourselves a lot more we imagine, though we did neglect the whole rest part of the equation. Luckily our touring begins in about a week in Naples, Florida, so we are starting off right!

The new record is a combination of traditional and original songs. We spent a lot of time at fiddler's conventions in 2007 and learned some traditional songs so we could join in the competitions. Then they became part of our set as we set off to promote last year's release "Jewell Ridge Coal." The originals are a collections of songs we've had in our set for a while, but didn't really flow with the Jewell Ridge theme, and one song that we just wrote in the cabin.

Today is our last day of work at the cabin. Tomorrow we put the cabin back in order and on Wednesday we head home to Nashville for three brief days to do laundry and pick up our live sound equipment. Then our touring begins. We are really looking forward to this year on the road and hoping that it might bring us to the home of Whole Wheat Radio in Talkeetna. If you're curious about us, please look us up on www.jeniandbilly.com and drop us a note.

Peace, love, and happiness in the new year,

Jeni & Billy

Hey all!

We are super excited to be opening for Claire Lynch at the McGlohon Theater in Charlotte, NC, on Dec. 30. The show starts at 7:30 and there are still some tickets left!

Wahhooo! What a great Christmas present!

For more details on the show please see our tour page.

Happy Holidays to all!

Jeni & Billy

We are so glad to report that we will be joining the festivities and celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Apppalshop at Seedtime on the Cumberland in Whitesburg, KY. The festival runs from June 10-13 and we will be performing on Friday, June 12, and Saturday, June 13.
http://www.appalshop.org/seedtime/
Appalshop is a very special organization that has supported traditional music and encouraged social activism over the last four decades! We encourage you to learn more about the good they do at www.appalshop.org

Jeni & Billy are now posting on Twitter!

You can follow us at www.twitter.com/jeniandbilly
If you haven't heard of Twitter think of it as a little bulletin board where people post the things they've been doing or something they saw, heard, or ate. It's a little like Facebook paired down to it's basic essence.

Anyhow, if you're curious to know what we're up to on a more day to day basis, then Twitter us!

We are excited to report that Jewell Ridge Coal held it's #5 position on the Folk DJ Chart for the month of November. www.folkradio.org
Thanks to all of you who called in to your local folk radio station to request our music. "Chicken Ridge" climbed from #18 in October to #7 in November! And we moved from #9 as artists to #8!!!

Thanks also to Kari Estrin, our radio promoter, who has supported our record so enthusiastically during these last two months! www.kariestrin.com

We are very excited to announce that we will be performing at the Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion in Bristol, TN/VA. This is one of our favorite festivals to visit, so imagine our happiness to be among the performers! The festival organizers do a really fine job of turning the downtown into a traditional music lover's paradise. If you haven't been to Bristol yet, this is your year! Come on out and see us! http://www.bristolrhythm.com/

You know that old adage about getting coal in your stocking? Well,
how about coal mining songs instead?

Jewell Ridge Coal is available for sale at
www.cdbaby.com/cd/jenibilly and we hope you'll consider sharing our
music with friends and family for the Holidays.

Quite some time has passed since our last newsletter. Billy & I have
been traveling all over the country playing concerts and attending
music industry conferences. Our favorite trip took us out west to the
FAR-West Folk Alliance in Phoenix, AZ. Neither of us had seen Grand
Canyon. We were so wowed by the experience, we are already planning a
return trip next spring. Our tour also brought us to Las Cruces, NM,
on the Day of the Dead (Nov. 1). We walked around the old town of
Mesilla looking at the shrines made by families celebrating the lives
of their loved ones who had passed on.

We are outside of Boston right now. We'll be playing a house concert
in Boston on November 23 at the home of Judy & Doug Hall. If you are
in the area, there are still some seats left. For more details please
see our website: http://www.jeniandbilly.com/calendar.html
With all of our time on the road, we've had an opportunity to listen
to a lot of music and there are a few commercial releases that we are
really keen on and we hope you'll give these records a listen:

Randy Newman, Harps & Angels
She & Him
Steve Earle, Washington Square

For those of you up in the DC/Baltimore area looking for a great
show, we heartily suggest you go see The Grandsons. These fellas have
a really superb selection of songs and they present them in a style
totally unique. Alan holds a trumpet on his arm while playing the
guitar. Moe's eyebrows move up and down with the musical moment.
Chris moves in with the saxophone while Matt provides just the right
amount of rhythm. www.thegrandsons.com
This past Monday we made a cameo appearance at a NYC benefit for Dos
Pueblos. John McCutcheon (www.folkmusic.com/homepage) who graciously
invited us was the featured artist. Dos Pueblos is an amazing
organization providing Nicaraguans in the city of Tipitapa with
practical training and tools to initiate and sustain change for the
better in their community. You can find out more about their work at
www.tipitapa.org.

We are now working on our tour schedule for next year and would like
to make a general offer to try and work house concerts into our tour.
If you have any inclination to have us play a concert in your home,
please be in touch. This is a beautiful way for us to share our music
with you, your friends and your community. If you want to learn more
about giving a house concert, please visit
http://jrp-graphics.com/houseconcerts/ourfaq.html. Russ & Julie are
veteran house concert people and you can learn a lot from reading
their FAQ page.

Lastly, we wanted to let you all know some good news about Jewell
Ridge Coal. Last month JRC and our song "Tazewell Beauty Queen" were
both #5 on the Folk DJ list. This is an airplay chart for folk
stations around the world, but mostly for places like Bloomington,
Indiana, and Nevada City, CA. So, if you happen to listen to
community and public radio stations like WAMU or WGBH and you'd like
to hear our record, we encourage you to give them a call or send an
e-mail. But please only contact stations that you actually listen
to.

After our house concert in Boston, we are going to take a much needed
break from touring and hunker down in a cabin for some writing and
recording. We are looking forward to visiting with our families for
the holidays and we wish you all a beautiful holiday season.

Jeni & Billy

www.jeniandbilly.com http://www.sonicbids.com/jeniandbilly http://www.myspace.com/jenihankinsbillykemp http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jeni-Billy/19363808924

Good News!

Jewell Ridge Coal charted at #5 on the folk DJ list for October 2008! "Tazewell Beauty Queen" is also #5 with "Chicken Ridge" and "Miner's Reward" on down the chart. Jeni & Billy charted #9 as artists. The Folk-DJ list is compiled from around 150 reporting DJs each month. If you would like to find a station or a folk show in your area, there are several resources: http://www.allthingsacoustic.org/tifrl/, http://www.publicradiofan.com/cgibin/progsearch.pl?type=folk+music&when=listall, and http://www.radiofolk.org/.

We hope that you will support your local folk/bluegrass/community radio station and that you'll consider requesting one of our songs from Jewell Ridge Coal. This helps us in many ways. The folk DJs are a well respected group among promoters, artists, agents, and labels. If they play our record it's a sign to others in the industry that we might be worth a listen. Also, as more people across the country discover our record, they begin to ask venues and festivals in their area to bring us to their town or perhaps they even contact us for a house concert. This means so much to us as full time touring musicians.

Thanks to all of the DJs who are playing our record!

Jeni & Billy