Jordan Reimer

Sometimes a voice so unique comes along, that it catches you completely by surprise and sucks you in, hook, line and sinker! Such is the case with today’s featured artist, the amazingly-talented, young singer-songwriter, Jordan Reimer. With tunes that run the sonic gamut, Jordan sounds most comfortable and charismatic when singing her fantastic, indie folk-styled songs. Fans of Jenny Lewis and The Watson Twins should definitely be on the lookout for Jordan. With style and grace that are far beyond her years, and a natural talent that hasn’t begun to near its apex— we are truly witnessing the launch of what’s destined to be a storied career! - www.myxertones.com

By: JIM TRAGESER - Staff Writer
At an age when most of us are just starting to figure out who we are, much less what we want to do with our lives, Poway's Jordan Reimer has already embarked on her career.

The 14-year-old home-schooled freshman (who plays Dec. 15 at The Backyard in Escondido, and Dec. 16 at It's a Grind in Poway) has become a regular on the coffeehouse circuit since debuting at Twiggs in San Diego this past March. She said she's distilled a 45-minute set of 10 to 11 of her own songs, with an occasional Green Day cover. She has a CD out that you can buy off her MySpace page, and is working on another.
And unlike some 45-year-olds who shall remain nameless, she knows what she wants to do with the rest of her life.
"This is definitely what I want to do," she said of writing and performing her own music. "I'll probably always do music somehow, even if I don't make a living off it."

But she's aiming to make a living off of it.

In addition to the recordings and the near-constant presence at open-mic nights plus the occasional featured show, she and her parents ("My dad's basically my manager; my parents are awesome and very supportive") are looking to get her songs published, and in February she is organizing a show at the Hot Java Cafe in Carmel Mountain Ranch.

There was little to predict such a passion for music in Reimer's early years. Neither her parents nor a sister nine years her elder is a musician, Reimer said.

But at 7, she began to take piano lessons. After about three years, she switched to flute for a year.

Then about three years ago came a change that helped fashion her current avocation:

"My mom rented me a guitar for a few months, and I messed around with it ---- of course, I didn't know what I was doing," she said.

Apparently in the intervening years of practice she figured out what she was doing, because earlier this year she decided she wanted to play a show.

"I had been taking lessons ... and I'd write songs, and I'd hand out my very first demo to people and they really liked it. And I really like performing and writing and playing," she said.

"We'd been looking on the Internet," Reimer said of her and her parents' search for a place to play. "We found a place called Twiggs. We sent them my two songs I'd recorded ---- I only had three at the time ---- and they said, 'Yeah, come play your three songs.' "

At that show, she met a fellow musician, Aaron Bowen, who has been her guitar teacher for the past half a year.

"He's taught me what everybody's named the 'coffeehouse slap,' how to finger pick, how to give it that extra style," she said of her lessons. The two also play together occasionally ---- "and every once in a while, he'll let me play with his banjo."

Having written more than a dozen songs in under a year, Reimer says there is no method to her songwriting process. She sets aside no set time period for writing, finds no formula for composing.

"When it comes ---- when I feel it ---- I just flow with it then."

She described her approach to her between-song patter as being similar:

"I have a few set things I'll say, but usually it's very improv."

As for influences, it's as disparate a collection as one could hope for: Johnny Cash, My Chemical Romance, Panic! at the Disco, Cat Stevens, Rufus Wainright, The Who.

Reimer explained the list by saying, "I listen to everything except the style I play. I listen to a lot of punk and emo bands, and a lot of local artists ---- there are so many talented people here in San Diego." - North County Times