Jenny Morgan

Revolution?'s regular Tuesday night performers J. Goodin and Jenny Morgan are a study in contrasts.

Goodin sits at a table as his leg bounces up and down as if springs were attached to his heels. He?'s dressed in a flannel shirt, jeans and sneakers and puffs away at a cigarette between sips of beer.

Morgan, on the other hand, gracefully circles the bar?'s outside patio with a glass of wine, plays with her son and chats with some of the regulars.

The two have shared Tuesday nights at the downtown Bryan live music joint for more than a year, and their devoted fans continue to show up and support them.

?"It seems a lot of other places, people go to socialize,?" said Morgan, 27. ?"Here, the people come to listen to music.?"

Goodin, 32, said having an audience that is into the music makes a big difference to the performers, and the ?"eclectic clientele?" at Revolution fits the bill perfectly.

?"These are all the people in College Station you want to find but can?'t find,?" he said through a voice that has become coarse through years of smoking and drinking. ?"If they?'re out on this night, they?'re out to see the music.?"

The pair met six or seven years ago when Morgan saw Goodin playing at The Crooked Path, which is now The Library in Northgate. They started chatting, found they have similar musical tastes and became friends.

Around the same time, Morgan learned to play the guitar and dabbled in songwriting, writing a song for her brother?'s birthday. When her friends and family heard it, they encouraged her to sing during open-mic night at 3rd Floor Cantina.

?"I was really nervous and about to cry,?" she remembered.

Adding to the pressure was the fact that open-mic organizers wanted her to play more songs, even though she was prepared to play only one.

After fighting through her only song, she apologized to the audience and darted off stage.

Goodin didn?'t let that become Morgan?'s last show. He motivated her to keep writing and performing. Thanks to his words of encouragement, Morgan wasn?'t totally disheartened by her rough outing. Her calling to write and perform music was too loud to ignore.

?"I don?ft ever intend to quit [playing music], even if I?'m only playing once a week,?" she said.

Morgan is much more polished on stage these days. During a recent gig, she strummed her guitar while her melodic voice held each note perfectly. Any remnants of her initial stage fright disappeared long ago.

Goodin, a former member of Reckless Panhandlers, doesn?'t venture outside the area too often. He?'s content with his current schedule because of the independence, both musically and socially, it offers.

?"I?'m happy to get paid enough for my bills and my gas to the next gig,?" he said.

Revolution is just one stop on the weekly J. Goodin tour of Bryan and College Station. He also plays regular shows at Time Square, The Hook and The Groove.

Goodin?'s coarse voice transforms when he?'s on stage. There?fs no hint of the raspiness he has during normal conversations.

He said his musical influences range from Tool to Tom Waits.

?"These were the artists I liked when I was young,?" Goodin said. ?"I spent a lot of time on the road as a child, so the stereo was my best friend.?"

As their show last week went deeper into the night, the inside area of Revolution became more crowded.

Goodin and Morgan traded off sets, combining cover songs and originals but always sounding unique.

People in the audience sang along to many of the songs as their heads swayed back and forth to the rhythm of the music.

Just like the pair predicted, the Revolution audience was there to listen.

?"There's a different kind of energy when they?'re listening,?" Goodin said. ?"When they?'re not, it?'s like they?fre sucking the energy out instead of you giving it.?" - The Bryan Eagle

Tender vocal, clear timbre. Lead & harmonies are the highlights here. The references are familiar, lots of folks can relate. The positive spin Jenny puts on this is a plus .. the rare happy song!! Hats off, Jenny! Good Job. The pop/country charts can seem somewhat rigid, yet an accessible, well-performed song can cross over and appeal to a wider audience. So take the genres with a grain of salt .. you can try and compare your work to other artists you feel are somewhat similar (from Allison Krauss, Gilian Welch etc.) and see where they're getting airplay. Road test your songs as much as you can, play on ..

Technical Notes: The song has a good melody, chord motion and phrasing; the verse sets up the tune quite well. The harmonies help to lift the chorus and give this song a sense of tradition. Jenny has a warm vocal timbre and a natural feel to her delivery; her connection to what she's singing about is a good foundation. - TAXI

With her authentic lyrics and smooth voice, Jenny Morgan can’t help but grab your attention. She puts a contemporary swing on folk music, and gives listeners a sense of her home in Texas. The band, using every instrument in the book, including the fiddle and violin bring the sound together into something modern, with a traditional folk influence. The music alone is beautiful, but Jenny’s lyrics make it complete and powerful.

This is what I enjoy about an artist. I was able to get a sense of where she was from, with songs like “Runnin’ With the Brazos.” I love music that I can relate to. I like to pop on my headphones and listen to something that is going to make me feel something real. Jenny accomplishes this superbly because she’s a genuine artist with a love for creating music so if you like rich folk music with a contemporary kick, you will love Jenny Morgan.

By Cailin Schiller
- HotIndieMedia.com

Change is the operative word in Jenny Morgan's life. The 29-year-old College Station musician gave birth to a second son, Rowan, two months ago (her older child, Finnegan, is 5 years old) and is preparing to move to Baton Rouge, La., with her husband. Most of her belongings are packed in boxes.

Jenny Morgan, seen here with her 2-month-old son, Rowan, will perform Saturday night to promote her first studio album, The Songs I've Sung.
Yet she still finds the time to prepare for and perform during her CD release party Saturday night at Revolution.

It's one more show for the community she has called home for 10 years. But don't expect a sad show from Morgan.

"I enjoy change, and I've been ready to move for a long time," she said. "I've never wanted to stay in one place forever."

Morgan's desire to move isn't born out of a dislike for the Bryan-College Station.

She appreciates the friends she made and her time here.

Rather, Morgan said she wants to experience as many different cultures and styles of music as possible.

"I see [J Goodin, a former local musician] come back to visit, and he's excited to come back to visit but he's not sad about it," Morgan said. "I mean, he's moved on and he's in New York City and doing new things. That's how I feel about it. I'm ready to move on.

"It'll help me evolve as a person and a musician."

Morgan's first studio CD, The Songs I've Sung, is a collection of seven folk tunes she has played as a regular performer at Revolution.

She said the recording process took more than a year because of her other commitments to her children and job. Morgan worked at Texas A&M University as an advisor and an editor at an area newspaper.

Between raising a child and work, Morgan said her schedule permitted recording only on weekends. And even then, she didn't have the time to drive to Houston every weekend for sessions.

But she said the process was fun because it was her first time working in a studio with other musicians.

Balancing motherhood with her music career wasn't easy. She said dealing with the two has helped ground her, however.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Jenny Morgan, J Goodin, Chris Puente.

WHEN: 9 p.m. Saturday.

WHERE: Revolution, 211-B S. Main St., Bryan.

COVER: $5.

"Before I was a mother, I was kind of roaming around with my head in the clouds," Morgan said. "It's helped me get my life together where I'm now in an environment where I can flourish and focus."

That includes concentrating on her music career full-time.

In two weeks, the family will move to Baton Rouge for her husband's new job.

Morgan said some of her friends don't share her enthusiasm about her pending move.

"Most people ask, 'You're moving to Louisiana?' and they get this frightened look on their face. But I'm excited about it."

Although she'll be a new face in Baton Rouge, Morgan said she plans on diving right into the city music scene.

Because she supported him while he finished school, now the roles are reversed.

Morgan will stay home to care for her sons and use the nights to write and perform her music.

"It means the world to me," she said of the opportunity to focus on music. "It's what I've always wanted to do. We're going through a lot of changes. We're moving, and our family is getting bigger. But I'm thrilled to be moving to a city like Baton Rouge because there's a lot going on there. It's more of an artistic metropolitan area."

The trick to keeping her momentum going, Morgan said, will be finding the time to write new songs.

Several songs didn't make The Songs I've Sung, so Morgan is already prepared to record a new CD.

"Songwriting for me is kind of a venting process to stay sane," she said. "It's a creative process that helps me get through life. It's just something that happens. I don't think I can consciously describe how it works. Just more than anything, [having children] makes it harder to find the time to write." - The Bryan Eagle

Globe-trotting, award-winning singer-songwriter Jenny Morgan returned home this summer to spend a hot July night with hundreds of friends and fans. Recently relocated to Baton Rouge, it was Jenny’s first return trip to Revolution Café, once home base for her musical efforts. The visit allowed Jenny to catch up with the folks that have been around since the beginning of her career, and to introduce a couple new additions to her life: her newborn son and her newly released album, The Songs I’ve Sung.
Much like the little boy, The Songs I’ve Sung is a beautiful effort, the only limitation of which is that, at seven songs, it leaves the listener longing for more. The seven-track EP includes long-time Morgan standards, as well as a few collaborations with up-and-coming vocalist B. hon.
The album leads off with a great tune, “Scattered Islands,” with its upbeat and light string-plucking showcasing Morgan’s guitar-string dexterity. Considering her unusual approach to the instrument – she plays a right-handed guitar left-handed – this is particularly impressive. Her guitar work is subtle, with an understated focus on the upper register supporting her sweet and succinct vocals, as Morgan sings a lovely song about moving beyond limitations.
The lyrics in “Scattered Islands” start a pattern that persists throughout the record, alternating themes of romantic helplessness and intimate determination. Claiming capture by a man’s smile or eyes so blue, as in a later tune, Morgan consistently claims she cannot be responsible for how the stories turn out in her songs. This notion of amorous determinacy is appealing and maybe a bit tongue-in-cheek.
The second track on The Songs I’ve Sung is “Bring Me Back Around.” On it, a mellowed Morgan croons and purposefully strums above her own dubbed background vocals and light snare tapping. The helplessness theme plays out, with lyrics like “once I thought I found a love, but tears fall hard and walls come crashing down,” but Morgan, never one to stay knocked down for long, ends the song on notes of resilience.
“A Prayer to St. Anthony” gets darker, with an intro perfect for a harpsichord and a string segue to dreary vocals. The song gradually builds steam and, with it, hope, though there are some relapses as verses begin anew. But around the 3 ½ minute mark, when Jenny belts out “run back to that yellow house, kick down my door and push me to the wall,” lethargy is the last thing on the mind, or ears, of the listener. “Runnin’ with the Brazos,” arguably Morgan’s best known song and clearly a crowd favorite, is a stomping ditty of self-doubt, shame, and the type of excitement only attributable to illicit youthful romances. Unsurprisingly, it has received significant accolades, including the honor of being awarded song of the day by garageband.com, the online independent music juggernaut.
“Shadow” features a more insecure, yet chaste, theme, as well as the supporting vocals of B.hon. The track’s pleasant lilt, along with the vocalists’ harmonizing, make the song a competently placed buffer between the adrenaline of “Runnin’ with the Brazos” and the vigor of “Burnin’ with the Flame.” As I have written previously in these pages, “Burnin’ with the Flame” is my favorite song by Jenny Morgan. A tale of an individual’s need for the strength of another, there could not possibly be a soul out there that does not identify with the universal nature of this song.
The album closes with another B. hon feature, “On My Mind.” On it, Morgan moves to the back seat and accompanies the vocalist, giving the young man all the room he needs to prove why he is such an exciting talent. B. hon leaves no doubt, and as the music fades toward the end of the track we are left looking forward to Jenny’s trip home.
To learn a little more about Jenny Morgan, or to stream some of her songs, visit her webpage at www.myspace.com/jennymorgan. Visit her record label’s webpage to purchase the EP for a mere $8 at www.canonrecords.com.

-Justin Vaughn - Maroon Weekly