The Pasadena Folk Music Society will present Jeni & Billy and their Big Picnic Band in one week, on Saturday, November 15 at 8:00 p.m. in Beckman Institute Auditorium (Little Beckman).  Jeni & Billy, now living in Nashville, made their debut at Caltech in 2012, impressing the audience tremendously with mostly original compositions and with singing that evokes Jeni’s roots in rural Virginia and North Carolina.  Accompanying themselves on guitar, banjo, mandolin, and harmonica, the duo’s music has a beautiful simplicity, which, combined with their southern folksiness, has gained them many fans.

Next week’s Caltech show will be a bit different.  It is a very special CD release party that brings together most of the musicians that were involved in their newest project, Picnic in the Sky, including Craig Eastman on fiddle, lap steel, and mandolin, Dillon O’Brian on keyboards and harmony vocals, Denny Weston Jr on percussion, David Jackson on upright bass and accordion (if he can resolve a schedule conflict) and Dave Way (who produced the recording) on percussion and guitar.  We’ll have to squeeze them into the performance area of the hall.  You are not likely to get another opportunity to hear this configuration, so make your plans now!

Picnic in the Sky brings together ten original compositions, and while retaining Jeni & Billy’s rural Appalachian sensibilities, there is a full instrumental backing that gives the music, at times, a Grand Ole Opera feel, and some of the vocal duets sound like Country classics from the golden days of country music.  Susie Glaze (who will be bringing her own Highlonesome Band to Caltech next June) wrote in Folkworks about the new recording, “The songs still come from the place that country music (and their previous writing) has always come from: real life stories of country people, elevating their experience into dramatic art works, reflecting love found and lost, tragedies within communities and families, the punishing and demanding lives of the coal miners, and the everlasting strength born from faith and family constancy.” Read her insightful review in its entirety at folkworks.org.

There aren’t any YouTube examples of Jeni & Billy with the full band, but here’s one where you can hear them sing a beautiful straightforward banjo/mandolin version of “The Robin and the Banjo” (which is on the new CD), along with a bit of Jeni’s dancing. The Big Picnic Band’s version will include some great fiddle, bass, and more. This original song has a folktale quality, and you can hear a longer clip of the song, including an introduction from Jeni explaining how she came to write it and a summary of the story at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8KdnHWNFlM.

For a different example, listen to the title song, Picnic in the Sky, accompanied only by Billy’s great  banjo at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdnQXXxtvqU.  Imagine this song with lap steel guitar, and a much fuller sound, and you’ll have an idea of what to expect at the Caltech show.  We love the pure, timeless simplicity of the duo sound, but we’re also very excited about having the opportunity to hear them more elaborate backing.  Come join us!

Tickets for the show are $15 for adults, and $5 for Caltech students and children.  They will be available for cash at the door, or in advance by visiting the Ticket Office (no service charge) or by calling them (for a fee) at (626) 395-4652.  Tickets are also available only; see the link at the bottom of our event page. There is a $6 charge per order and $1.50 charge per ticket in addition to the ticket price for online orders.  (Note that there will be no online ticket sales the day before or the day of the show.)

We’ll finish out the year with a wonderful vocal trio, the T Sisters on December 6, followed by a very special Irish Christmas show with Danú that we are co-sponsoring with Caltech’s Public Events in the big Beckman Auditorium, including price discounts for those who mention the Folk Music Society!