Singer-songwriter and folk artist Joe Jencks joins KGNU’s Joanne Cole for a studio session. Joe reflects on his long history with KGNU, where he started performing in the late 90s. He describes his career as a folk artist, dedicated to uplifting historical and cultural narratives through music. Joe plays a few songs, including one he wrote with fifth graders inspired by social justice heroes (Interview date: 9/27/2024)
Joanne Cole: I’m thrilled to be joined in the studio live with Joe Jencks. Welcome to KGNU.
Joe Jencks: Thank you, Joanne.
Joanne Cole: I’m sitting in for Meredith and obviously, you must know Meredith and go back with Meredith.
Joe Jencks: A long way, and back with KGNU a long way. I started playing concerts here when I first started touring in the late nineties. I was living in Seattle at the time, and I’d route through the Denver and Boulder area. It’s one of the earliest hubs of musical community for me once I was reaching outside of a regional audience and headed into a national career.
KGNU has been – I know this isn’t maybe a pledge drive week, but I’ll just say it, because KGNU has been an extraordinary ally to me in my career for more than 25 years. KGNU is an extraordinary ally to community partners of every kind. It really is a one of a kind radio station. There’s nothing like it anywhere else in the country.
Joanne Cole: That’s very kind of you to say. Of course, I’m in 149 percent agreement. Our guest is Joe Jencks. Because I don’t know you very well and I’m not familiar with your music, tell the folks a little bit about how you came to play. The seasoning of your songs, if you will.
Joe Jencks: It’s a lengthy story, but in synopsis, I’m the youngest of seven children in my family of origin. There were musical traditions in my dad’s family, the Quebecois and the Swedish. There were musical traditions in my mom’s family, the Irish. I just grew up believing and knowing that my music was a birthright.
Whether or not it was a thing I chose to do for a living, it was an integral part of being alive. I was privileged to go to conservatory, study music, study theater. I have been privileged to be on the road now for 26 years full time as a touring singer, songwriter, and folk artist. And I distinguish the two because folk artists uplift material that is not necessarily their own.
The goal of a folk singer is to uplift a broader cross section of the zeitgeist of the times that we’re living in and perhaps times past so that we can learn from the culture and the history that’s embedded in the songs and the things that other songwriters decades or centuries ago chose to document through their art.
Joanne Cole: Thank you, and you’re playing tomorrow night at Swallow Hill?
Joe Jencks: Tomorrow night at Swallow Hill, and I have some friends Stephanie Bettman and Luke Halpin. We’re doing a co-bill. I’ve played Swallow Hill as a soloist many times. It’s always good fun to share the evening with friends, and Bettman and Halpin have been playing together as a duo for many years, and they have become genuine friends.
It’s gonna be a great night. We’ll each do two short sets in the first half, and then we’re gonna do a round robin in the second half where we’ll just have a song swap, and we’ll sit in with each other and do some harmonies and make music together. It’s a one of a kind show.
Joanne Cole: That is tomorrow at 8 o’clock at Swallow Hill in the Tuft Theater, and I’m sure there’s tickets available for you. Joe, let’s hear some of your music, and thank you again for coming in. I appreciate it.
Joe Jencks: Thank you. This is a song that I wrote after my friend Jani Beneman sent me a haiku last summer that just cracked my heart wide open. It seemed to be not only the message that I needed, but one that many people I loved needed to hear at the moment. It’s a bit of a musical Rorschach test. I have yet to play this song for anybody who didn’t find something in it that they needed in that moment. It’s called “Let It Breathe”.
Joanne Cole: That is beautiful, Joe. Thank you. I love that line. “Surround yourself in love.” That’s beautiful. Our guest is Joe Jencks. He’s performing tomorrow night at the Swallow Hill Music Hall, and he’s made a special time out of his morning to come visit and play some music with us. Anything else you’d like to add, Joe?
Joe Jencks: For those that are not familiar with me, which is a good portion of the listening audience, I’m quite sure. I just want to say what a pleasure it is to be on KGNU. This is a phenomenal community resource radio of the people, by the people, for the people. It’s a happening thing and a rare thing.
Joanne Cole: 45 years, Joe.
Joe Jencks: Yeah, beautiful thing. I’ll also mention that the concert will be very diverse tomorrow night. Stephanie Bettman and Luke Halpin who are sharing the evening with me are extraordinary musicians and dear friends, and it’s going to be a really great and lively evening in music.
I’ll also mention that I’m a dual U. S. Irish citizen. Although it’s not what I’m playing on the radio today, there will be a little bit of flavors of the Celtic finding their way into the show as well.
Joanne Cole: We don’t have any dancers, but I would love to hear something Irish-y if you’ve got it and that you could share with us.
Joe Jencks: I have something that feels germane to the moment that we should do. It’s been my privilege over the years occasionally to find myself in classrooms working with young people. In 2019 into early 2020, I was invited to do a 10 day residency in an elementary school for three months North of Chicago where I live.
Joanne Cole: I’m from Chicago. Just went back for my high school reunion.
Joe Jencks: So it was Waukegan North Elementary that invited me in. I don’t do a lot of that kind of stuff, but it’s always a privilege when people let me show up. The commission was this, they specifically wanted me to work with fourth and fifth graders to write songs celebrating social justice heroes in U. S. history. At first I thought it was a prank when the guy called me about it. I’m like, what? You found grant funding for what? This is great.
But then it turned out to all be totally legit and I spent 10 days with 4th and 5th graders. The first classroom I walked into was Ms. Hollander’s classroom. I asked the students what they wanted to write about and they all threw their fist in the air and said, Susan B. Anthony and women’s suffrage. And I was like, somebody’s clearly been priming the pump here just a little bit, but it was great. And then I said, access to the vote and voting rights is still a thing. I wonder if we could maybe expand it a little bit and be inclusive of other issues as well as women’s suffrage. They were amenable to that notion. And so we spent some time working on it, but it just delighted me. That group of young people was thinking so deeply about these people. We talked about Frederick Douglass and we talked about George Washington Carver, Dr. Carver. We talked about all kinds of people that were less obvious for a modern audience as noteworthy social justice heroes in U.S. history.
Joanne Cole: In Judaism that’s going to get you into heaven, what you just did there with those children, because it’s what’s called mitzvahs. It’s a good deed. And that sounds like an awesomely good deed where you touched so many people’s lives.
Joe Jencks: They did a good deed for me, too. It was a two way street, for sure. This is a song that the fifth graders and I worked on, inspired by the life of Susan B. Anthony and then going forward from there.
Joanne Cole: Cool. That’s Joe Jencks performing live right here in KGNU. Joe, I have an email from your good friend Elena Klaver. Hey, my friend Joe is coming through town. Is there any way we could get him on the air? So that is the magic of community radio and we want to give a big shout out to Miss Elena for all her work here at KGNU and all her work as an activist. Thank you, Elena.
Joe Jencks: Yeah, I also wanted to mention that we have four seats available for listeners if they’re interested in coming down to Swallow Hill tomorrow night, Saturday. We’ll leave those at will call. So if anybody calls during the show or calls the station, we can give away two pairs of tickets.
Joanne Cole: Be there, be square.
Joe Jencks: With Bettman and Halpin, and delighted to be back in the front range, and thanks so much for having me.
Joanne Cole: Joe, it’s been my pleasure, and people can find you, you have a wonderful website.
Joe Jencks: Yes, JoeJencks.com.
Joanne Cole: you take us out with one more shorty, if you got a shorty for me?
Joe Jencks: Sure.
Joanne Cole: What’s this one gonna be?
Joe Jencks: It’s called “Lady of the Harbor” and it’s a song that I wrote thinking about my own family history and the complexity of our nation, and after a visit to Ellis Island, and seeing the Statue of Liberty out in the harbor there.
Joanne Cole: I’m crying just thinking about it, but okay, good.
Joe Jencks live here on KGNU, Boulder, Denver, and Fort Collins and around the world at KGNU.org. Thank you again, Joe. It’s always magic at Swallow Hill, and it’ll certainly be magic with you and your friends playing tomorrow night at eight o’clock, and then you move on to Grand Junction and Glenwood Springs if anybody’s listening on the ether of the internet, they can catch you in Glenwood as well.
Joe Jencks: Then just for ease of routing to Ann Arbor, Michigan, Rochester, New York.
Joanne Cole: It’s a beautiful time to drive across the country.
Joe Jencks: Oh, it is beautiful. Thanks so much for having me.
