Jeni & Billy

Artist Information

Biography

“This is either the most sophisticated simple music or the simplest sophisticated music I’ve ever heard.”

That comment, heard after a Jeni & Billy performance, sums up the appeal of the duo’s “New Old Music.” With exquisitely spare accompaniment and performances that are never rushed, Jeni & Billy’s harmonies harken to a lost time and reverberate with a rare honesty as they inhabit the lives of miners, preachers, ramblers, lovers, and plain-living folks. Their music is quiet enough to be heard and just loud enough to be unforgettable.

Sharing the duties of songwriting, arranging, and performing, Jeni & Billy bring to the work very distinct musical backgrounds that both draw from the deep well of Appalachian roots music.

Jeni learned to sing in church choirs, school musicals, glee clubs, and family sing-a-longs, but traces her vocal style to Virginia Lowe, the blind music minister of the Friendly Chapel Church on Smith Ridge, VA. Watching her lead hymns, Jeni learned to bear witness through song by feeling music bodily and inhabiting the lyric emotionally. A natural storyteller and prolific writer since childhood, Jeni trained formally with Pulitzer Prize winning Northern Irish poet, Paul Muldoon, and earned a Masters in English Literature. While her singing has been compared to the lonesome voices of Maybelle Carter and Iris Dement, her writing has been likened to that of Southerners Carson McCullers, Flannery O’Connor, and Lee Smith.

Billy grew up with the sounds of Tin Pan Alley and his mother’s piano at home in Baltimore, but spent his weekend nights high atop a hill in the nearby community of Oella — the home of Appalachian migrants who came to the city looking for work in the mills. There, among people much like Jeni’s grandparents, Billy fell in love with country music. Fired on by dreams of the Grand Ole Opry and his passion for the sound of Flatt & Scruggs, Billy headed to Nashville and toured with country bands all over the US, Canada, Germany, and right onto the stage of the Opry. He honed and shared his skills as both student and instructor at the University of Maryland, and built a producing career working with roots artists. Billy’s uncanny sense of song, spaces, and timing were gleaned from sources as diverse as Willie Nelson and John Cage. His innate and masterful musicianship lends itself to any instrument he choses to play and any line he sings.

Jeni & Billy met in the spring of 2005 when Jeni recorded at Billy’s Maryland studio. Within months they began writing and performing together. In 2006, they pressed a six-song EP, Sweet & Toxic, which was praised for its pure vocals, excellent instrumental work, and heartbreaking tales of tragic love.

In the fall of 2008, Jeni & Billy released their first full-length recording project, Jewell Ridge Coal -- a love letter to the forgotten coal mining community in Southwest Virginia where Jeni grew up. Debuting at Number 5 on the International Folk & Bluegrass DJ Chart, Jewell Ridge Coal appeared on top ten lists from LA to New York to Belfast. Ralph McLean of BBC Northern Ireland writes, “These guys understand the magic of understatement and the pure, unadulterated simplicity that flows through all great American roots music” -- a sentiment echoed by fans, colleagues, and fellow musicians, from folk icon John McCutcheon to United Mine Workers of America President Cecil Roberts, who asked Jeni & Billy to perform at his inauguration.

With positive reviews in every major folk publication, as well as niche magazines including the United Mine Worker’s Journal and the Journal of Appalachian Culture, Jeni & Billy took their songs and stories of the coalfields on the road, finding devoted fans from Florida to New Mexico, Vermont to England. Of their performance at the Beverley Folk Festival in the UK, Maverick Magazine’s Hazel Davis wrote, “A sweet and surprising high point was the Appalachian duo Jeni & Billy. Singing songs from the Southwest Virginia coal mines, the pair melted hearts.”

Jeni & Billy continue the tradition of the sweetheart duo, winning hearts with their genuine presence on stage and their true to life recordings, while bearing witness to the simple grace of plain folks.

Jeni comes by her mournful, lonesome voice honestly. Born in the coalfields of Southwest Virginia, her singing has been compared to that of Mother Maybelle Carter and Hazel Dickens. A born storyteller, she has been a writer almost since she could put pen to paper, a vocation inherited from her journalist father and grandfather. Jeni honed her powers of observation and turn of phrase as a student of Pulitzer Prize winning Northern Irish poet, Paul Muldoon. She has emerged as a first class song writer and poet with both modes deeply rooted in Appalachian culture.

Billy comes to the duo with a long history of music-making. He has been everywhere from Germany to the Grand Ole Opry playing his guitar and singing. A Baltimore native, he was introduced to the world of country music through the fateful movie house experience of seeing Bonnie & Clyde featuring Flatt &Scruggs's soundtrack, going back just to listen fourteen times. He has played numerous bluegrass festivals sharing stages with Jim & Jesse and Jimmy Martin. Billy has also performed solo at nationally known venues such as the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, the Lonestar Cafe in New York, the Kennedy Center and the Birchmere, opening for Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Kathy Mattea, Janis Ian, and Joe Ely among others. He has leant his talents to the shows of many folk luminaries including Oscar Brand, Christine Lavin, and Tom Paxton, as well as producing and touring with Debi Smith.

Jewell Ridge Coal is the new record from Jeni & Billy. With their sparse sound and absorbing lyrics, they have caught the attention of Americana greats Jim Lauderdale and Buddy Miller and folk-rock artist Jim Reilley of the New Dylans. Yet one of their favorite reviews comes from Asheville, North Carolina, antiquarian map dealer John Ptak who writes, “I knew within 10 seconds that you guys were for real . . . Jeni's voice is that clear Mother-M kind of quality that I love. I like the music you two make – inspired, true-to-your roots, spare (excellent) guitar. I like silent places in music . . . Quiet, silent places give you time to listen, and also time to think – they are vastly underrated.”

Jewell Ridge Coal chronicles the changing fortunes of the Southwest Virginia coal mining community of Jewell Ridge. Though the subject is regional, the songs are meant to present universal themes -- earth & heaven, rich & poor, love & loss, work & rest. Local 6167, named after the UMWA Local in Jewell Ridge follows a laid-off miner as he rambles and reminisces among the places that boomed in big coal’s heyday. In Oxycodone, a song based on a January 2008 Washington Post feature story by Nick Miroff, a miner contemplates the advice of his estranged father after a prescription drug addiction has left his home in shambles. Middle Creek is sung from the perspective of grandchildren trying to braid together the strands of their moonshining grandfather’s life and to understand his hardness and his outsider status in their community.

Though many of the tracks on Jewell Ridge Coal feature Jeni & Billy only, they couldn’t resist inviting a few friends to take part. Grammy award winning artist Jim Lauderdale and his Grammy award winning producer Randy Kohrs sing harmony. Virtuoso fiddler Shad Cobb of the John Cowan Band lends his soulful strokes to a couple of tunes. And singer-songwriter Kim Peery Sherman lends a gorgeous alto harmony and twinkling guitar to the ballad Tazewell Beauty Queen.

Si Kahn calls Jewell Ridge Coal "the best CD by new folk/edge of bluegrass artists I’ve heard in a long time. Jeni’s singing sounds to me like a cross between the young Hazel Dickens and the young Iris DeMent. The songs range from raw and powerful to sweet and funny. The instrumental work is excellent; the harmony singing is just what you’d want it to be."

Instrumentation

Jeni Hankins: Vocals, Guitar, Autoharp, Banjo, Mandolin
Billy Kemp: Vocals, Guitar, Harmonica, Banjo

Discography

Jewell Ridge Coal
Sweet & Toxic
Awake My Soul/Help Me to Sing, appearance with Jim Lauderdale on this two CD tribute to Sacred Harp Music

Links

• Jeni and Billy's Website
• Jeni & Billy on YouTube
• Facebook
• MySpace

Audio

• Tazewell Beauty Queen - Merlefest 2010-Walker Center
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• Longing for Heaven
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• Single Girl
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• If I Ever Get Ten Dollars
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• While I Stay at Home and Weep
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• Miner's Reward
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• Tazewell Beauty Queen
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• Oxycodone
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• Chicken Ridge
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• Sweet & Toxic
  Listen  

Lyrics

• Miner's Reward
• Tazewell Beauty Queen
• Local 6167
• Oxycodone
• Jewell Ridge Coal
• Sweetness Keen as Pain
• Middle Creek
• Chicken Ridge
• Land of the Pharaohs
• Ain't Got Time for Trouble Blues
• Back Then
• Sweet & Toxic

Video

Longing for Heaven

Photo Gallery

Press

• Jeni & Billy-Longing For Heaven [+ Show ]
  

  Duet partners Jeni Hankins and Billy Kemp have brought impressive measures of inspiration, artistry,...Duet partners Jeni Hankins and Billy Kemp have brought impressive measures of inspiration, artistry, and austerity in this minimalist collection of old-time ballads, heartsongs, and spirituals.
  
  The focus of Jeni & Billy’s fourth CD, as heard on the lovely Sacred Harp classic title tune, is otherworldly affairs. A standout in this category, along with the title song, is their original, “Father Will You Meet Me In Heaven,” a powerful elegy for Johnny Cash’s older brother, Jack, who was killed in a gruesome childhood accident. The duo’s rendition of “On A Hill Lone And Gray,” inspired by Ralph Stanley, is also heartfelt and moving.
  
  Hankins is the soulful wellspring of this collaboration. Born and raised in Virginia coal country, she brings a writer’s and singer’s finely nuanced ear to the cadences and imagery of her native Appalachia. You can hear this gift on “The Ballad Of Sally Kincaid” and “Cecil Roberts’ Hand.” These originals and others stand proud alongside covers of traditionals such as “Single Girl” and “I Saw A Man At The Close Of The Day.”
  
  Kemp, a gifted multi-instrumentalist with an impressive list of studio and road credentials, also does some of the writing. But his major contribution is framing these songs with austere and subtle acoustic arrangements built on various combinations of guitar, banjo, bass, mandolin, harmonica, and occasional fiddle from Shad Cobb. (Jewell Ridge Records, 2126 Yank Rd., Mt. Gilead, NC 27306) BA
  

• Hazel Davis: "More Joy Than I Can Express" [+ Show ]
  

  Last year at Beverley Folk Festival I fell in love. Sitting in the Saturday afternoon American Pa...Last year at Beverley Folk Festival I fell in love.
  
  Sitting in the Saturday afternoon American Party, whisky in hand, buddy by my side I witnessed the force (though force is a far too aggressive word for it) of Jeni Hankins and Billy Kemp (Jeni and Billy).
  
  Jeni and Billy are a too-good-to-be-true duo from Virginia and Baltimore respectively. Except – squeak – they are true (I know because I followed them around for the rest of the afternoon muttering “pleasebereal, pleasebereal, pleasebereal” under my breath). During an afternoon of tongue-in-cheek old Americana from dear Curtis Eller and the amazing Gandalf Murphy, their authenticity shone through like a holy light.
  
  Modest and funny, the duo had the crowd in the palm of their hand with their simple songs of love, poverty and mountain homes. Jeni Hankins has a voice that nobody would describe as perfect but soaked in Godliness and dripping with emotion and Billy is her perfect, unassuming accompaniment.
  
  Their latest album – Longing For Heaven – plopping on my doormat this morning has given me more joy than I can express and if I seem hyperbolic it’s because That’s What They Do To You.
  
  Featuring a number of traditional songs from the Appalachians, some hymns and a couple of original numbers, the record was made “in the mountains of Western North Carolina in the dead of winter.” It’s exactly what this fan needed after I’d bored my household rigid with their debut Sweet And Toxic.
  
  It doesn’t disappoint, from the gorgeous 50s fabric-and-Americana CD artwork (by Jeni, naturally) to the saccharine essay on heaven at the end which, from anyone else would be unbearable but from her is just fine. “Heaven, I imagine,” she says, “will be full of people I love. Not only are there walls of jasper and streets of gold, as they promise in the old hymns, but everyone you ever loved will be waiting for you there.” Sniff.
  
  The original tracks, such as the deliriously catchy If I Ever Get Ten Dollars and While I Stay At Home And Weep (replete with my new favourite word “prayhaps”) blend effortlessly with the traditional numbers (their arrangement of the hymn Longing For Heaven is just gorgeous), feeling like old favourites within about one listen.
  
  This pair does what nostalgia fetishists try and fail at doing and they manage effortlessly simply because they are the real deal.
  
  I have owned this album for less than a day and already I am willing to throw most of my others out (apart from the Springsteen, obviously).
  
  Hazel Davis

• Richmond Folk: "The Next Generation of Traditional Music" [+ Show ]
  

  Since the Richmond Folk Music Society is primarily dedicated to traditional folk music, we rarely bo...Since the Richmond Folk Music Society is primarily dedicated to traditional folk music, we rarely book singer/songwriters for our concert series. We made a exception for Jeni Hankins and Billy Kemp, and we're glad we did.
  
  Jeni's songs spring from the true vine. Steeped in a sense of place and community, her lyrics reflect the hardships,trials and sorrows of people whose lives have not been easy, yet they also resonate with humor, spirit and a deep and abiding faith and dignity.
  
  Jeni was raised in Tazewell County, Virginia, in the heart of coal mining country, and she draws the audience into the lives of the miners, their families and the little community of Jewel Ridge. She has an old fashioned, old style country voice that perfectly fits the songs she chooses.
  
  Billy is the perfect partner, skillfully accompanying Jeni with guitar, banjo and harmonies.
  
  They chat with the audience, tell stories, and leave the audience feeling like they've just had a visit with old friends. When they perform traditional songs, such as "Pretty Fair Miss" or "Single Girl, Married Girl" they do a cracking job of it.
  
  These two are tradition bearers - the next generation of traditional music.
  
  Mary Smith
  Director, Richmond Folk Music Society
  

• Stuart Mason: Fiddlefreak Recommended! [+ Show ]
  

  Hard on the heels of their previous release Jewell Ridge Coal (reviewed here), Jeni and Billy have j...Hard on the heels of their previous release Jewell Ridge Coal (reviewed here), Jeni and Billy have just released another precious mountain jewel, a new collection of original and traditional music titled Longing for Heaven (Jewell Ridge Records 005).
  
  On Longing for Heaven, Jeni and Billy have hit their stride. With its hand-drawn lettering, family photo album and quilt fabrics, the album packaging suggests what’s inside: ten down-home, honest songs that reflect Jeni’s family history in southwest Virginia. Their intertwining two-part harmonies and impeccable picking on guitar and banjo form the perfect backdrop for stories of love and longing, small-town tragedy and the redemption of Jesus. Walk with them, down a coal-littered railroad grade, with gritty union miners on strike, and into a tiny white chapel with a cross on its steeple. Jeni and Billy will take you on a gentle ride back to the green rolling hills of home.
  
  The CD includes three music videos of songs from the record that add to the down-home mood that permeates Longing for Heaven. Shad Cobb contributes his lonesome fiddle on two tracks. Fiddlefreak recommended!

• Hazel Davis [+ Show ]
  

  "A sweet and surprising high point [of the Beverley Folk Festival] was the Appalachian duo Jeni Hank..."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."

• Jim Lauderdale
  

  Jeni & Billy are the acoustic Buddy & Julie Miller.

• Nicole Levitz [+ Show ]
  

  I found Jeni & Billy's second album Jewell Ridge Coal to be like Billy Elliot meets the Mamas and th...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.

• Peter Fraissinet [+ Show ]
  

  I am very impressed with Jeni & Billy. "Jewell Ridge Coal" is quite the concept piece, beautiful to ...I am very impressed with Jeni & Billy. "Jewell Ridge Coal" is quite the concept piece, beautiful to look at and listen to. I haven't been so swept away by any one CD since Gillian Welch's "Revival" came out.

Setlist

CONCERT:

Original Songs written with an eye on Appalachian musical traditions and traditional songs -- the Carter Family, Woody Guthrie, & Appalachian ballads.

WORKSHOPS:

Writing and Performing The Contemporary Appalachian Ballad (we created this workshop for John Elder's course on Ballads for the Bread Loaf School of English at UNC-Asheville).

His review of the experience is this: "Jeni and Billy's visit to my graduate class on ballads, followed by their wonderful concert later that evening, was a highlight of the summer. Their combination of enormous musical talent with an obvious delight in literary discussion makes them especially effective within such an educational setting. "

Since the early days of British, Scottish, & Irish settlement in the Appalachians, the inherited Ballad singing tradition provided space, particularly for women, to sing about a range of topics which might not otherwise have been aired, especially in polite conversation. These subjects could include disasters, murder, disappearances, love lost and found, and other news of the day. Mainly these ballads would have been performed unaccompanied, but sometimes with a single drone instrument, the fiddle, or rhythm instrument, the banjo. Drawing on these examples from the past as well as pulling inspiration from film, poetry, and the news, Jeni & Billy have created many new ballads on the edge of the tradition. In this workshop they will share their approach to writing and performing original and traditional Appalachian Ballads. In a longer residency, participants will be encouraged to draw on what they have learned in the workshop to write and/or present their own ballads for discussion.

Music of the Coalfields (we presented this workshop at SERFA 2008)
John L. Lewis, labor organizer and former President of the United Mine Workers of America, called the mines “a blood and bones machine that grinds up the miner for the American dream.” In this workshop Jeni & Billy will explore the music that captures this hard work of the miner and that describes life in the coalfields. Mining accidents, layoffs, unionism, feuds, faith, privation, protest, black lung, migration, mechanization, and drug addiction provide the themes of songs of coal. As we move into the 21st Century questions about mountain top removal, conflicts between strip miners and underground miners, and the viability of coal as a source of our nation’s energy are taking the fore in our thinking and music making about coal. Through their own songs about the Southwest Virginia coal mining community of Jewell Ridge, Jeni & Billy illustrate the various song forms and sounds that music of coal can take. They also talk about the work of the great coalfield songwriters and artists including Hazel Dickens, Jean Ritchie, Nimrod Workman, Phyllis Bones and Kathy Matte among others. They will bring Barbara Kopple’s Oscar-winning documentary “Harlan County USA” into the discussion and provide a guide to various coal song recordings as well as web sites and print resources on coalfield music.

Duet Harmony Singing in Traditional, Country and Folk Music Styles
Did you ever wonder how the Carter Family, the Louvin Brothers or Conway & Loretta got that special sound that makes the hair stand up on your head? How do they make those tragic stories like "Wreck on the Highway" feel so sad and lonesome? Well, a big part of that is Harmony! Jeni & Billy are fast becoming known for their rich harmonies – harmonies learned by listening to those great old records, by following their instincts and by giving attention to the fundamentals. Jeni & Billy will illustrate the fundamentals of roots harmony singing – type of harmony, chord/harmony relationship, ornamentation and phrasing – through recorded examples and live performance. This course can be limited to a lecture style presentation or, where more time is available, can include class participation such as singing harmony as a group and in duos, and creating harmony lines to melody lines.

Song Arranging for the Stage & the Studio
Did you ever hear a song where everything just seemed to fit -- it didn’t feel too long or too short, there were nice instrumental breaks that gave you time to reflect between the singing, the music welled up or came down at moments that felt right with what was being sung? If so, then you’ve probably heard a great arrangement! Arranging a song thoughtfully can often give it that “something extra” and make a good song a great one. Through recorded examples and live performance Jeni & Billy will show how form, tempo, rhythm, dynamics, mood, and voice & instrument placement all come into play when arranging a song. This workshop can be done in a lecture style or, with more time, this can be a hands-on workshop where Jeni & Billy will listen to participants’ songs and make suggestions about arranging for performance and/or the studio.

What’s in a Name? A Melody
Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned songwriter looking for a fresh way to find a new melody, this workshop will help you write a melody using a name and a few music fundamentals. Billy created this workshop while working with residents of the Baltimore City Detention Center and discovered that it empowered people of all skill levels. This workshop can be completed in as little as three hours or over the course of several days.

Jeni:

Writing & Performing Poetry

Pulitzer Prize winning Northern Irish poet, Paul Muldoon, likes to say that “everyone has at least one great poem in them.” As a student of Muldoon, Jeni learned how form and structuring a poem line by line can be a path into finding that “great poem.” Starting with one line and moving through two, three, four, and five line stanzas (couplets, villanelles, pantoums, and sestinas, for instance) participants will learn to recognize the beauty in form and how gathering words into “the net” of structure can be freeing. Jeni will also touch on how she and Billy present poetry as part of their concerts. This course is best over a period of days, but can be adapted to a shorter session.

Billy:

Fingerstyle Guitar or Fingerstyle Guitar for Song Accompaniment

Billy can teach basic to advanced fingerstyle guitar techniques as well as accompaniment for song. Techniques would include thumb and first finger, thumb and two finger, pick and two finger, alternating base note, and standard and open tunings. An understanding of tablature and/or standard notation is helpful, though not necessary. Billy can also teach fingerstyle accompaniment for song/vocal music particularly in the folk, country, and Appalachian ballad styles.

Basic Requirements

PDF Rider

Jeni & Billy -- Custom Stage Plot & Rider

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