Joe Jencks is an international touring performer, songwriter, entertainer, and educator. From venues like Lincoln Center in New York, to coffee houses, festivals, spiritual communities, and schools, Joe Jencks via radio, CDs, web casts, and other musicians. He is noted 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. His songs 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 (dual U.S./Irish Citizen), 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, Links In A Chain, highlights this aspect of his work.
Links In A Chain is Jencks’ 7th CD, and his finest work to date. The recording features six new original compositions and six songs written by some of Jencks’ mentors and influences. Included are songs by folk legends Phil Ochs and Bob Gibson, as well as a vivid rendition of the American classic, Joe Hill. In his original compositions, Jencks explores a wide range of topics, including family history, staying in love, and a brand new piece in the Irish tradition called On Eireann’s Shore. This beautifully lilting love song genuinely honors his heritage, and sounds as if it could have been written a century ago. 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, Jim Robeson (Bass & recording engineer) and Charlie Pilzer (mixing and mastering engineer).
Joe’s recent release The Candle And The Flame, gained international acclaim and made it to the top of the Folk charts in the US. Links In A Chain is expected to do the same. This recording combines many facets of Joe’s diverse musical background and weaves them all together in an aural tapestry that is warm and exquisite. Jencks has the passion of Gospel singer, the knowledge of a classical vocalist, and the soul of an Irish Tenor. And at the center of Joe’s music is an abiding love for humanity that transcends the everyday and boarders on the mystical.
Joe Jencks will debut at Carnegie Hall in New York, November 16th through the 20th, in a program for NYC public school students, sponsored by the Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall.
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