Jennifer Markey and the Tennessee Snowpants

There are few singer-songwriters quite as blunt and sardonic as Jen Markey. When Ms. Markey played a hootenanny last fall with heavy-hitters Billy Bragg, Tom Morello and Ike Reilly, she had all the men doubling over with laughter at her sarcastic, local landmark-checking country ballad "Minneapolis Or You", showing that she had the chops and the wit to assert herself as one of the boys. Get a load of these lyrics: "I'd rather drink Muddy Waters coffee/then to stick around here with you/ Or do it underneath the Cherry Spoon, or hang out at Deja Vu/ I used to love you baby, even more than the Como Zoo/ But I don't know which I hate more, Minneapolis or you." And on top of her sharp sense of humor, Markey sings with a loud, brash voice that gives her wry lyrics even more bite. Check her out every Monday night at the 331 Club, a no-cover haven for developing local songwriters.
-Andrea Swensson - City Pages Minneapolis

First things first: Jennifer Markey does not hate Minneapolis, despite professing in her new song, “I can’t decide which I hate more -- Minneapolis or you.” It’s a great tune that name checks all sorts of local locales and pokes fun at both the pride and provincialism of the Mill City, written by a true rising star on the local twang scene.

The night after playing to two people at the Terminal Bar, the tough and good-natured 36-year-old Ms. Markey took some time out from her job as a pre-school teacher in Hopkins to talk tunes and the Twin Towns:

Reveille: When did you write “Minneapolis Or You”?

Jennifer Markey: A couple months ago. My fiancée, John, likes the Hold Steady, and one of the reasons he likes the Hold Steady is because of all the Minneapolis references. He was like, “You should really write a song with stuff from Minnesota.” It came out of that.

Reveille: When I saw you do it at Grumpy’s a couple weeks ago, you introed it by saying you don’t really hate Minneapolis.

Markey: I actually really love it. I love living here. I’ve always liked to travel and I’ve always liked to dream about living in other cities like New Orleans or moving out to California, but it’s just like, y’know, I love it here. A couple weekends ago I visited Akron, Ohio, which is where my parents are from. And they have about the same number of people, but it takes you 45 minutes to get anywhere. And one of the things I love about Minneapolis is that I live in Northeast, and I can get anywhere in ten minutes.

One of the reasons I wrote the song (which concludes with the singer contemplating a move to St. Paul) is because people from St. Paul do not go to Minneapolis. I’ve really discovered that from talking to people, and it’s really weird. People from Minneapolis will generally go across the river to Big V’s or the Turf Club and not have any problem with it, but for some reason St. Paul people do not come over here.

It’s like, when you go to Fargo-Moorhead and you talk to somebody that lives in Fargo and you talk to somebody that lives in Moorhead, and if you’re in Moorhead and you go, “Oh, are you from here?” They’ll go, “No, I’m from Fargo.” It’s like, Jesus. It’s five seconds away. They’re really weird about it, and Minneapolis and St. Paul have the same thing.

Reveille: It even exists within the cities. The other night when we were hanging out at Grumpy’s, Pat Dwyer was giving me shit about South Minneapolis, saying there’s a uniform for South Minneapolis just as there’s a uniform for Northeast Minneapolis. And I just wasn’t buying it. I’m sorry, but you walk around this town and it just ain’t that different. But I will say walking the St. Paul skyways is a much different trip than walking the Minneapolis skyways.

Markey: Because people are so sensitive about the whole Minneapolis-St. Paul thing, I was a little worried when I started playing the song. But people seem to know it’s a joke. I had a friend email me and he said it made him tear up. I actually emailed him back and said, “It’s a funny song; it’s not supposed to make you cry.” He said, “Well excuse me for having a soul. It’s a really pretty song.”

Reveille: It’s very classic sounding. You’re a really good songwriter in terms of craft.

Markey: Everything’s really simple for me. I don’t really feel like I know what I’m doing. I’m not a guitar player, so I just plunk out the chords and work with what I know. I’m a huge Buck Owens fan, and I love Johnny Cash and I love all those guys. So I write kind of like that, because it’s a really simple style and it’s easy.

I had a bunch of songs half-written, but everything I wrote sounded like something else, like a country song that had already been written. And (Trailer Trash and local guitar genius) Dan Gaarder helped me think of another weird chord to put in there to make it sound different, or make the melody more original but sticking with that classic style. He’s a great songwriter. He opened up something inside me; after we wrote a song together I wrote six or seven songs within two and a half months.

I started writing in ’06, after my divorce. I’ve always been musical, and I was doing a lot of karaoke before I got married. Then I got married and I didn’t do much with that, and then I started going to the Hexagon Country Jam and started singing there every week. But I didn’t, I don’t… You’d think you’d know, as a musical person, when someone asks you what key your song is in, you think you’d know what key it is? I didn’t.

Reveille: People ask me that at the Hoot all the time, and I go, “I don’t know. This one.” And everyone laughs at me. I’m not proud of it, I don’t think it’s cute, I don’t think ignorance of anything is cute or punk rock or anything, but the beauty of doing music is you’re always learning. The capability for you learning things is infinite in ways that other arts or other venues in life are not. For me, anyway, I always learn something when I play, when I record, when I write a song. I love it.

Markey: So do I. And the other great thing about Minneapolis is that even if you’ve only been doing it for a little while, you can make a name for yourself. A friend of mine said to me the other day, “I’ve heard your name on KFAI more than I’ve seen you lately.” It’s hard. I played for two people at the Terminal last night, but if you’re any good, people will pay attention.

-Jim Walsh
- Reveille Magazine

First off, congratulations are already in order to Jennifer Markey for giving her backing unit the most hilarious name I've encountered in recent memory—The Tennessee Snow Pants. More important to mention, however, should be her new album, "We're All Going to Hell." A big-voiced brash singer with caustic wit to spare, Markey makes for a welcome addition to an already robust alt. country scene here in the Cities. Helping Markey herald the arrival of her new album tonight at the Turf Club are similarly tradition-bound and witty songsmiths Jon Rodine and Dan Israel. - Metromix Press