A multi-instrumentalist as well as a poetic and passionate songwriter, Jenny Kerr is known for foot-stomping live shows and powerful, authentic voice. Her self-produced debut release, Itch drew critical acclaim as well as comparisons to Delbert McClinton and Janis Joplin. The album sold out during her first year of touring. Kerr is a skilled player of fingerstyle guitar, clawhammer banjo, harmonica, piano, and dobro. Together with her band of road-tested rogues, she delivers a seasoned yet sp...
A multi-instrumentalist as well as a poetic and passionate songwriter, Jenny Kerr is known for foot-stomping live shows and powerful, authentic voice. Her self-produced debut release, Itch drew critical acclaim as well as comparisons to Delbert McClinton and Janis Joplin. The album sold out during her first year of touring. Kerr is a skilled player of fingerstyle guitar, clawhammer banjo, harmonica, piano, and dobro. Together with her band of road-tested rogues, she delivers a seasoned yet spirited sound with forays into swamp rock, straight-up soul, backwater honky tonk, and old-time blues.
Kerr has toured Europe seven times and has become a regular favorite on the country/blues/roots circuit. She's headlined festivals all over the world including Germany, France, Spain, Norway, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria and Mexico—most recently at the Zihuatanejo International Guitar Festival. Tour highlights included a headline slot at Mirande—Europe's largest country music festival—as well as a 2006 summer tour with legendary guitar player/producer Pete Anderson (Dwight Yoakum) and performances with Peter Rowan. She's shared top billing with legends like Charlie McCoy and Americana greats Guy Clark, Jack Ingram, and Lee Roy Parnell.
Kerr is a San Francisco native who as a kid used to take the bus over to the Haight-Ashbury district to see the blues and folk revival concerts of the late sixties. Attending shows by the likes of Joplin, Hendrix, and Muddy Waters eventually led her to an older roster of musical discoveries such as Mississippi John Hurt, Little Walter and Dock Boggs. (It was sometime around then that she started playing guitar and harmonica.) Today her music is steeped in contemporary production values, but informed by the eclecticism particular to that time, stretching the boundaries of genre, style, and race.
Kerr's discography includes Itch, an independent release voted #1 on the Yahoo Americana chart; reached the top 20 of the Freeform American Roots chart; hit 37 on Folk Airplay Chart; and climbed to the top Americana 13 on Netherlands radio VARA. The single "Itch" also received heavy rotation on the legendary Georges Lang's show on national French radio RTL and received heavy airplay on SomaFM's Bootliquor Radio.
Kerr's subsequent releases include her best-seller Extra Strength as well as Wood and Steel. Her music appears on several compilations including the Rochefort-en-Accords compilation out of Paris, Country News, a Swedish compilation and the Hicks with Sticks compilation, which includes Red Meat, the Mother Truckers, and the Chop Tops.
All releases are available through Okey Doke Records.
show more...
