Joe Jencks
Joe Jencks has spent the last eight years touring full time. His music has traveled to every continent. He is widely respected for his unique merging of musical beauty, social consciousness, and spiritual exploration. Jencks weaves a diverse web of stories with brilliant musical skill, ensnaring even the most rigid of hearts, inviting them to open. He has enthralled audiences of all ages with songs that touch the human spirit, lend courage and hope, and invite us to live inside of our passions and our beliefs.
Jencks applies his conservatory training to a contemporary genre, and offers the listener the best of both worlds. Drawing on his Irish heritage in the process, Jencks uses his lush and lyrical voice to enchant, heal, and inspire. Jencks has won numerous songwriting awards and is also highly regarded as a song interpreter.
Joe's latest release, The Candle And The Flame, is his 6th CD and his finest work to date. In this recording Jencks delivers an album that is so personal and so passionate that it shatters any stereotype and places him solidly on the map as one of the finest modern singer songwriters. Joe's vocal performances are unparalleled. A Grammy winning team of engineers and supporting musicians contribute to make the recording an exceptional piece of work from start to finish. Guests include: Jon Carroll (Mary Chapin Carpenter's pianist) on keyboards, Pat Wictor on slide-guitars and Siobhan Quinn on backing vocals. Jim Robeson (recording engineer) and Charlie Pilzer (mixing and mastering engineer) also play bass on the record.
The Candle And The Flame combines many facets of Joe's diverse musical background and weaves them all together into an aural tapestry that is stark and exquisite. Joe has the passion of gospel singer, the knowledge of a classical vocalist, the soul of an Irish tenor, and the conscience of a troubadour. And at the center of Joe's music is an abiding love for humanity that transcends the everyday and borders on the mystical.
2008 finds Joe Jencks sometimes traveling with Helena Nash. From performing arts centers such as Lincoln Center in New York, to premier acoustic clubs like The Ark; from Universities and Schools, to Churches and Union Halls, Jencks & Nash bring harmony, conscience, and a suitcase of soul to the stage.
- 2008 - Kerrville Folk Festival - New Folk Finalist
- 2008 - Dirty Linen Magazine's Best of 2007!
- 2007 - Falcon Ridge Folk Festival - Emerging Artist Showcase, NY
- 2005 - Songwriting Contest Winner - Plowshares Songwriting Competition - Phoenixville, PA
- 2005 - Songwriting Contest Winner - South Florida Folk Festival, Margate, FL
- 2004 - Songwriting Contest Winner In Two Categories - Walnut Valley Music Festival, Winfield, KS
- 2004 & 2003 - Songwriting Contest Winner - Tumbleweed Music Festival, Richland, WA
Quotes:
"In these times, we need the singers who will do the homework and tell the stories! Joe Jencks is among the fine next generation singers who are ready to carry on the tradition as well as look into the future" –Holly Near
"The key to the future is people joining in. The music of Joe Jencks captures this essential spirit. Joe is a fantastic singer who carries on the traditions." -Pete Seeger
"Jencks has an irresistible voice… a substantive, resonant and charismatic tenor. Jencks crafts his songs with a soft touch, looking to move the human condition along despite all odds. He is appealing and intriguing, and certainly worth going out of your way to hear." -Dirty Linen Magazine