06/08/2007

Joe Jencks plays folk for and about folks

He has two concerts set for this weekend

By Tom Carr

tcarr@record-eagle.com

Special to the Record-Eagle
Joe Jencks will play in Frankfort and Traverse City.

TRAVERSE CITY — The boundaries of folk music are sketchier than ever these days. That makes Joe Jencks a rarity for his songs, which descend directly from the common-man protests of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger in their straightforward lyrics and old-time melodies.

"When I was growing up, a lot of my friends were into '80s pop,” said Jencks, 35. Yet he heard Guthrie and the likes and thought, "This is a deeper well this guy is ladling water from.”

Jencks, who will play guitar and sing his songs at Rhonda's Wharfside in Frankfort on Saturday and at the Unitarian Fellowship Hall in Traverse City on Sunday sings about common people bonding in "Rise as One” and of an actual event in "The Great Fast Food Strike.”

In case you're thinking you might someday sing "I Dreamed I Saw Joe Jencks Last Night,” he said he tries to stay away from politics.

"The undercurrent is not one of politics, it's one of hopefulness,” Jencks said.

He writes and sings love songs, peace songs, whimsical tunes and an occasional cover. Being half-Irish exposed him to music from the Emerald Isle, which is also apparent at times in his performances.

His humorous "Automechanically Declined” has been featured on National Public Radio's "Car Talk” and on a compilation CD of car songs released by the show.

He does a cover of Buffalo Springfield's classic "For What It's Worth” on which his voice musters a soulfulness that makes him sound like a male Tracy Chapman.

"Inspect Your Elders” was inspired by a Native American artist's painting, which told how many millions of years whales, loons and other animals have been on Earth and asked, "Can we not learn something from our elders?”

"I thought, 'What a cool concept,'” he said.

Many of his songs are tributes to working folks. "Song of the Rails” reaches back to a long American tradition of finding art in physical toil, and of strong human narrative.

Through folk music, he "started to understand the movements of the 20th century, like civil rights, labor and peace; and going back to World War I and the Civil War,” he said.

His Saturday show at Rhonda's Wharfside in Frankfort starts at 8 p.m. The Sunday Unitarian Universalist Fellowship performance in Traverse City is at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets are $12 in advance and $15 at the door and are available at Rhonda's Wharfside and Frankfort Bookstore. Tickets for both shows are being sold at Oryana Food Cooperative in Traverse City, where the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship also has tickets for Sunday's performance. For more information, call 352-5300 or 231-941-8667.