jennie stearns

Sing Desire... (Blue Corn Music)
This music has an old house around it and Jennie Stearns is sitting on a chair, up late, looking out a window. A longing haunts these songs, faint hum of electrical wires outside. Stearns's lyrics seem intently inhabited one moment, then spill like beads from a broken string the next. A Lucinda weariness in her voice that effectively contradicts the lightness of her singing. Old Crow Medicine Show's Willie Watson joins Jennie for two duets. Chad Crumm co-produced with Stearns, adds touches of atmosphere and surprise. Light on the drums, this is an acoustic record ? guitars, bass, touches of banjo and fiddle, keys, even cornet ? with Crumm's archived sounds widening the landscape. The songs go together well, almost to a fault at times by their seamlessness. Stearns's next record is already finished, produced by Gurf Morlix, and she says it's the one she's highest on. Sing Desire is one to be proud of, too.

Reviewd by Doug Lang, Freight Train Boogie
- Freight train Boogie

"Stearns' voice enters further forward and richer than it has ever been heard before."
-featured in the feb/mar issue of Dirty Linen
...on stands jan 06

For full feature go to
http://www.dirtylinen.com/linen/122/122stearns.html

- Dirty Linen

Although I was vaguely aware of Jennie Stearns (she was a founding member of ‘Donna the Buffalo’), I hadn’t heard any of her material so when a couple of her albums arrived I was really looking forward to hearing them. After my first listen of ‘Sing Desire’ I thought it was good, but not exceptionally so......this just goes to show how wrong first impressions can be, as after the second (and closer) listen through it was obvious that ‘Sing Desire’ is an exceptionally fine album.

The most striking thing is the overall balance; it’s an atmospheric and fairly lyrically downbeat collection, but rather than being the obvious purely acoustic affair, the instrumentation and arrangements are varied and they give the album variety and a spark that makes it stand out from the crowd.

While the songs may be full of strong but fairly bleak imagery, the disc is packed with attractive and memorable melodies that really stick with you – this contrast makes the disc incredible easy to listen to and the balance of ‘dark and light’ is perfect.

Almost every review you could read for Jennie will liken her voice to Lucinda Williams, and it’s a fair comparison as they share some vocal traits, but Jennie has a slightly more delicate approach that really suits the open arrangements on ‘Sing Desire’.

There are many standout tracks here, and it’s an album that works well as a sequenced collection, so picking a couple of tracks to highlight is difficult, but ‘Early Train’ is a great song, strong lyrics and hooks combined with an imaginative arrangement; and the title track is a superbly crafted song with a melody that stays with you long after the song has finished.

‘Sing Desire’ is one of the most creative and thoughtfully constructed singer/songwriter discs to come our way over the past few years, and one that really stands out from the pack. Highly recommended. 
- Neil Pierson

Just before Christmas I received an e-mail by an American singer I had never heard of called Jennie Stearns, asking me if she could send me her new CD Sing Desire. Of course people are always allowed to send me stuff as long as their expectations aren't too high as we only have limited space in Heaven and there is a lot of competition. Still there was something that really made me curious about Jennie's CD, especially when I discovered she was the wife of Rich Stearns, member of one of my favorite American folk bands of all time, The Horseflies, who had seemingly suddenly disappeared after 1994.

When the CD arrived about a week later, I immediately put in into my CD-player Within the first thirty seconds I was won over. What a beautiful atmosphere, what a beautiful song, but above all what a beautiful voice, like a more vulnerable Lucinda Williams with a hint of Emmylou Harris. And all in a perfect setting that at the same time was more rootsy as well as more modern than on Lucinda's latest offering. I was deeply moved, a feeling that remained for the whole album because all the songs on Sing Desire were stunningly beautiful, each one with its own unique elements to support that intensely melancholic voice. A trumpet here, a violin there, a harmonium, banjo or basic salsa-rhythm, every element just as imaginative as tasteful. Elements that also stay interesting, so that I now, twenty-odd spins later, don't hesitate to declare Sing Desire to be more pure, more heartbreaking, more imaginative than either Lucinda William's Essence or Rise by Kim Richey .
4 stars ****
- Pieter Wijnstekers

"Jennie Stearns has a rich sorrowful tone reminiscent of the divine Jane Siberry. And much like Emmylou Harris when she is in her most inspired and haunting mode, Stearns has a powerful, yet reserved, ability to move the soul. Her highly personal and poetic lyrics weave through a sparsely arranged musical bed punctuated with lazy harmonium, playful banjo, muted coronet, and gypsy fiddle. Sing Desire is both earthy and ethereal; you could say it's new folk from the Americana highway to heaven."
- Miles Of Music

"Jennie Stearns was a pleasant surprise, with her material that reminded me of Gillian Welch she managed to keep the attention of the visitors that showed no sign of fatigue, even after 8 hours of music somewhere around midnight you could hear a pin drop during her performance."
- www.altcountry.nl

Jennie Stearns is the name of The Americana discovery of this spring and she is brought to us by the same enthusiastic people where Rod Picott and Mary Gauthier have their fame to thank to . So this means guaranteed success. Although it would be just a little too much to mention her name in the same breath as Emmylou and Lucinda that doesn't mean that Sing Desire is not a dream of a record because it is. You can also call the instrumentation perfect not only because of the diverse variations in acoustic guitars but especially because of the surprising combination with cornet, banjo, harmonium, spinet organ, violin and the programmed drums. This late bloomer (expression for someone who starts something successful after 30) from the Ithaca area in New York has area neighbor Johhny Dowd playing on her record. Jennie Composes like Gillian Welch in the earliest American folk tradition. Compared to the ancient ballads her lyrics are more impressionistic. In her sensitivity for all kinds of sadness she maybe stays a little bit too long in that atmosphere. Now and then a bit more rougher emotionality would have been good if you ask me. But for everyone who likes romanticized sadness Jennie's CD is the one to get.
Geert Hendrickx, OOR Magazine, Holland
- Geert Hendrickx, OOR Magazine, Holland