Jennie DeVoe Headlines Second Installment of Henry County Concert Series
By: Kevin Vickery
Muncie native and long time Indianapolis resident, Jennie DeVoe brought her soulful sounds and cool, singer-songwriter vibes along with her extremely talented band to the Arts Park Pavilion on Friday, July 18th for the second of four concerts held there throughout the Summer for The Henry County Concert Series.
Jennie has been playing in and around Indiana for over 30 years and has recorded seven studio and five live albums of her own material, and graced the Arts Park Pavilion stage five times over the years.
She’s been able to work along some great artists like Indiana’s own John Hiatt and has as been praised by artists like Bonnie Raitt and Cindi Lauper.
The weather was sunny and temperatures were warm as you would expect for a late July outdoor concert evening when the show opened with New Castle’s own, keyboardist Marty Weaver and vocalist Trish Crowe from Connersville, collectively known as Something Different. Marty described their sound as a, “A throwback lounge band that features old jazz standards and old pop songs”. Marty is also a 12 year board member of The Henry County Concert Series and has played the event in various capacities over the years.
A slight breeze had made the temperature a little more pleasant for the crowd when headliner, Jennie DeVoetook the stage opening with, “Listen to the Rain” and later played, “My Last Hometown” both from her album, “Radiator: The Bristol Sessions”.
She also graced the crowd with more of her popular original material like, “Map of the World”, “Nobody Loves You”, and “Fool Proof” from her, “Strange Sunshine” album as well as treating them to some well received cover versions of songs like, John Hiatt’s, “Cry Love” and Prince’s, “Purple Rain”.
Her band features a group of well seasoned musicians including, guitarist Brett Lodde, bassist Jeff Stone as well as on Troye Kinnett on keyboards and Jason Stahl sitting in as a substitute drummer for regular band member, John Whitman who was unable to perform at the New Castle show.
A few days prior to the event, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jennie by phone. We discussed everything from us both attending and graduating Ball State at around the same time with the same major but never crossing paths to our mutual love for Led Zeppelin, sweet corn and old dogs. Eventually we did get around to talking about her music and her career.
On moving to Indianapolis and starting a musical career she said, “My husband and I moved here right after we graduated from Ball State and then suddenly I was in a band again. – I had tried to abandon that urge but that urge does not leave you if you have a strong desire to make music, so here I am.” She continued. “It’s actually more than just an urge and it’s almost like a little addiction in and of itself and for me making records is like you kinda always have to keep trying.”
On performing versus writing she said, “I love writing as much as I do singing. – I’ve made a lot of records but I think I could get better at guitar or get better at piano but I always have a really good band around me and really good collaborators so I’m always aiming to make each record better and to top myself each time and I feel like I’ll do that till the end.”
I asked her which of her albums was her favorite and she said, “Fireworks and Karate Supplies is my absolute favorite record. – The last three records were recorded in England with Producer, John Parish who has worked with artists like Tracy Chapman and PJ Harvey. He’s a multi-instrumentalist and just wonderful to work with.”
On career longevity in the music business she said, “I’m really just such a fan of the people who really know how to do it well so I always feel like I haven’t quite done it yet but I’ve never put any kind of clock on what I do which is probably because the people I really admire don’t seem to have an expiration date. – I understand that this is a business of longevity and the only way to be done with it is if you just quit. – As long as I continue to improve and love what I do, I still have a voice.”
I’ve seen a lot of terms thrown around online describing Jennie’s sound so I asked her what if any box she thought she fit best into. She told me, “You know at this point it’s probably good to not try and think towards making myself fit a specific genre. – I would hate to exclude anyone from coming.” She encouraged me to listen to her music and make my own assessment of her style rather than offering her opinion. Since I needed some basic information to use for introducing her band on stage as the emcee of the show, I took her up on that and came up with this bad math explanation. – I would describe her unique sound and style as 50% singer/songwriter, 50% rock & roll, 50% blues, and 50% jazz – 100% Hoosier. And 1000% cool!
Her variety of influences and styles in her music is the defining factor of her unique sound. Whatever you do though, don’t dismiss her as just some hippie-chick folk singer as she is also quite an intellectual. As she said, “I am a free spirit and have been fortunate to live an artist’s life but that doesn’t mean that I’m not an academic.”
I would agree and can easily say from my conversation with her that she’s educated and extremely knowledgeable about a variety of topics beyond music. She’s well read and as she told me, “I never stop reading, I never stop learning, I never stop being a student and when I get opportunities to do so, I’ll be the teacher.”
Jennie and her band have shows coming up on August 16th in Noblesville and on August 30th in Muncie. I would highly recommend checking out her life performances if you get a chance.
The Henry County Concert Series continues with Tad Robinson and Miles Mann on August 15th, as well as Mike Milligan & Steam Shovel with Dave Ellison on September 19th. All shows are at the Arts Park Pavilion with a 6:30 PM show time.
It takes a great deal of work and planning to bring a series of events like this to fruition and part of what makes that possible are the corporate sponsors. The Henry County Concert Series thanks Modern Fold, Henry County Community Foundation, Edward Jones, New Castle – Henry County Chamber of Commerce, and Art Association of Henry County for their support.
For more information about Jennie DeVoe find her on social media or visit her official website at jenniedevoe.com
To find out about events at The Henry County Arts Park Pavilion visit the Art Association of Henry County’s website at henrycountyarts.org
Make Some Noise 