Evento

Jenny Van West: Happiness to Burn Album Release Party

Happiness to Burn will be Jenny Van Wests second full-length album following 2015s Something Real and a 2016 EP, Honey and Hive. Happiness to Burn consists of 10 vocally driven originals that fuse folk, rock, swing and country. Music that Van West describes as Confessional fiction and Buddhist Gospel music or as she explains, Music in the form of songs that sound old, but are new-- music that connects the landscapes of introspection and lived, personal experience.

The album was produced by Los Angeles singer-songwriter and producer Shane Alexander, who also lent vocals and guitar to the mix. He also brought in Jesse Siebenberg (Lukas Nelson Promise of the Real) for steel and dobro, Carl Byron (Jackson Browne) for piano, organ and accordion, Ted Russell Kamp (Shooter Jennings) on bass, Austin Beede (Grateful Shred, Todd Hannigan) on drums and Justine Bennett (Jacob Dylan) on vocals.

With several tours under her belt, Van West has also dug into the musical community of her hometown, founding the Maine Immigrant Musical Instrument Project and the International Open Mic. After meeting a musician who had fled his country she thought about how hard it must be to start a life over in a new country, and as a musician how hard it would be without her guitar. Working with local church leaders she finds instrument-deficient musicians (who are also asylum seekers) and connects them with instruments. She describes her role, I work with recent immigrants finding musical instruments, teaching basic guitar lessons, developing venue access, and generally building community with music at the core.

Its that level of empathy that Van West brings to her music. A soothing yet riveting stage presence and a voice that engenders depth, compassion and love, with the ability to write songs that sound like instant classics. Happiness to Burn will gratify old fans and wow the new fans.