An Evening with The Wailin’ Jennys

The Wailin’ Jennys. Submitted photo.

On Aug. 9, Door Community Auditorium will welcome to its stage the widely popular Canadian folk trio The Wailin’ Jennys, who have built a long, successful career on blending a variety of influences into their folk-centric music and angelic three-part harmonies.

The trio began the way most musical outfits do – as a happy accident between its founding members (solo singers/songwriters Ruth Moody, Nicky Mehta and Cara Luft). What was intended as a one-time-only performance at a tiny guitar shop in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 2002 has become a 13-year career of bringing their achingly perfect harmonies to hundreds of sold-out shows across the world.

“There was a lot of interest in the beginning and we had a great time and started getting offered shows right off the bat,” recalls Mehta, the group’s mezzo soprano. “We thought, ‘OK, let’s do this for a little bit to see where it goes,’ and it just kind of always had a great energy to it and we just kept getting offers to play so we just went with it. Eventually it became a more solid thing and then Ruth and I kept it going after Cara left and got a new member, and the rest is history.”

Today, The Wailin’ Jennys is built on the harmonies of soprano Ruth Moody, mezzo Mehta, and alto Heather Masse, along with their talents on guitar, accordion, banjo, bodhrán, harmonica, drums, ukulele and upright bass. Their songs, written individually, come to the table for collaborative arrangement and are presented to the audience as thoughtful, inspiring pieces geared toward exploring nature and life.

“The feedback that we get is that it really resonates with people in a way of making sense of their own lives,” Mehta said. “A lot of people say they’ve used songs at weddings, at memorials, that songs have gotten them through really difficult periods of their lives. There’s a very hopeful message in what we sing about.”

That hopeful message has made its way onto four studio albums with Red House Records, the most recent being the critically acclaimed Bright Morning Stars (2011), which earned the group a JUNO Award (Canada’s Music Awards) for Roots & Traditional Album of the Year (Group) in 2012, a “Best Acoustic Ensemble” award from the Indie Acoustic Project in 2012, and “Best Roots Group Recording of the Year” by the Western Canadian Music Awards in 2011.

Having taken sporadic breaks the past six years to concentrate on their solo albums and families, The Wailin’ Jennys are in talks to write and record their highly anticipated fifth studio album with a goal of releasing it in 2016.

In the meantime, they will continue to enjoy the undying support from fans at sold-out shows across the world.

“Thirteen years is a long time for a band,” Mehta said. “I’m constantly amazed and surprised that we have the audience we still do after this long and the fact that we’ve taken two breaks off the road for a year at a time and that people keep coming, we’re still selling out shows in the States and still do well in Canada … it’s very humbling to know that people are just sticking with us.”

The Wailin’ Jennys will perform at the Door Community Auditorium, 3926 Hwy. 42 in Fish Creek, at 8pm on Sunday, Aug. 9. Tickets range from $26 – 46. For more information or to purchase tickets, call 920.868.2728 or visit DCAuditorium.com.