That Jenny Owen Youngs Has Sure Got A Mouth On Her, We Admit Respectfully

A few weeks ago, singer/raconteur Jenny Owen Youngs was in town, playing at the High Dive the same time as the Fremont Bridge was being closed evenings, which led to our arriving mid-set in a state of high dudgeon. We decided to skip a half-assed review, and afterwards fired off some impertinent questions via email. We just heard back, and as you'll see, Jenny schools us a bit. Now we adore her even more. If you buy her new album, Batten the Hatches, tell her we sent you.

Your cover of Nelly's "Hot in Herre" -- let's focus on two key concepts the song explores: "ass is bodacious" [Ed: for the record, we're in full accord with this statement] and the right time to shoot one's steez. Compare and contrast. Also, free free to define "steez" for us.

Jenny Owen Youngs:

From Urbandictionary.com:
1. steez
Plain old style with eeeaaaze.
You Know My Steez - Gang Starr

"Hot In Herre" is essentially the story of a young man coming of age in a hard, urban environment. The New York Times compared the song to the Charles Dickens classic Great Expectations, and with good reason: The tales are memorable because both Pip and Nelly undergo adventures and inner turmoil in their growth and development as human beings. They also alternately come to grips with the reality of cruelty in the world -- war, violence, death, racism, and hatred -- and likewise learn to deal with family, friends, or community issues.

The title "Fuck Was I" (as we understand it) is derived from the whole phrase "What the fuck was I thinking?" and belongs to the genre of "relationships in hindsight" songs. Isn't it likely that everyone's relationships are going to be distorted and unhealthy while the Bush Administration is in power? Don't beat yourself up, is what we're saying.

JOY: This realization is actually what pulled me out of my post-breakup drinking binge/anonymous sex fest. Damn, Seattlest, you are one intuitive motherfucker. [Ed: we totally are!]

Did we hear some country twang in your folk? Actually, let's back up: what's up with the folk? Lifelong interest? Raised by folk wolves? If you had to pick a geographical spot (autobiographically or not), where would you say your music comes from?

JOY: Wikipedia has this to say about folk music (in our country):

In American culture, folk music refers to the American folk music revival, music exemplified by such musicians as Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, who popularized and encouraged the lyrical style in the 1950s and 1960s.

Outside of the concept of America as a melting pot (and thus American music as a melting pot... of music... and also possibly fondue but I am still doing research) I feel no real connection to "folk" music which really developed in America as being somewhat synonymous with protest. Yes, I sometimes play an acoustic guitar and, yes, sometimes I do sing somewhat twangily (certainly not by, say, country standards, but by pop standards), but I feel a much stronger connection to early Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis than Dylan or Guthrie.

I mean to say that I was raised by Million Dollar Quartet and Beatles wolves. If pressed to pick a geographical place of musical origin I positively have to say the place I spent my delicate childhood, formative adolescent years, and still live pretty close to today: northern New Jersey, where the state motto has something to do with seeing a million faces and rocking them all.

After the jump, more Jenny on her guitars, her potty mouth, and Seattle public art.