Fifteen years later, Nicky Mehta is still amazed that a loose and unassuming gig inside a cramped guitar shop in Winnipeg, Manitoba evolved into a world-known folk act.
The show was supposed to be laid-back, for no more than 40 people, a one-time deal featuring multi-instrumental mezzo Mehta, alto Heather Masse and soprano Ruth Moody, all of whom were known within the local music scene at the time, but had never performed together.
Mehta says they weren’t going to come up with a real band name other than listing their last names, but the shop owner believed that a proper band name was important. Today the band credits him for coming up with The Wailin’ Jennys, following many atrocious attempts along the lines of The Folk Vixens.
“We ended up adding a second show because it sold out so fast,” Mehta says. “We were excited about the response – I don’t think there was any advertising. It was word-of-mouth.
“We had so much fun putting the music together and performing. It just kind of took off from there.”
The Jennys’ 2004 full-length debut 40 Days is a mix of earnest originals (“Beautiful Dawn”) and reimagined covers (Neil Young’s “Old Man”) defined by three-part harmonies that sound like they have healing abilities.
In addition to widespread acclaim in the U.S., they scored a Juno Award (Canadian Grammy) for Roots & Traditional Album of the Year. The record – coupled with frequent appearances on A Prairie Home Companion, before Garrison Keillor retired – has helped the Jennys fill theaters wherever they perform.
“I hear every word that you say, taking it in like an old fairy tale,” Mehta sings on “Last Goodbye,” the bookend of the Jennys’ Bright Morning Stars, which is their most recent album.
That album published nearly seven years ago; solo projects and child-rearing haven’t left much time for a new record. But Mehta confirms that the trio did spend time in the studio last February, and they’re currently in the thick of the mixing and overdub processes, with hopes for a fall release.
The trio is keeping the long-overdue, yet-to-be-titled record wrapped tightly under a veil of secrecy.
However, Mehta does give some insight.
“[The record] continues in the vein of Bright Morning Stars, but it’s a bit more pared down,” she explains. “There’s not quite as much instrumentation.”
There’s also more acapella than previous Jennys’ records, but Mehta won’t divulge whether the songs are originals, covers or a mix of both.
“I can’t say at this point,” she says. “It carries on with a theme that we’ve always had in our music: The investigation of love, and looking at how we make sense of our lives, and how we do that by our relationships with each other and extending ourselves.”
Mehta continues: “It’s an investigation of all the different facets of love that can be a relationship between two people or children, or at the time of disconnection or death; we really mine that area.
“That’s something we’ve always done and will continue to do.”
It’s been a couple years since the Jennys have toured together. While Masse and Moody have been touring their solo music projects, Mehta says most of her time away from the Jennys has been dedicated to her 7-year-old twin boys. Other than mothering, she’s also been writing.
“No big fireworks or anything, just a lot of family stuff,” Mehta says.
The night before The Wailin’ Jennys return for a performance in Monterey, Austin’s Grammy Award-winning “Texican” rockers Los Lonely Boys are set to return to the Peninsula.
The trio of brothers – Jojo, Ringo and Henry Garza – hit major commercial success with their double platinum-selling 2004 self-titled debut, featuring the mega-hit “Heaven.”
But stardom has been a blessing and a curse: Some longtime LLB fans and critics accused the outfit of selling out, veering too far from their original identity into a land of polished, studio-crafted glitter.
LLB found that their 2014 release, Revelation, won a lot of their original fanbase back, but bassist Jojo Garza insists that the music hasn’t ever changed.
“People think there’s some kind of a new formula for Los Lonely Boys but, to be honest, our formula is the same as it ever was,” he says. “It’s all still roots-based music and each song takes you somewhere else. It doesn’t keep you in this realm that’s known as ‘Los Lonely Boys music,’ it stretches boundaries.”
LLB recently appeared on Quiero Creedence, a Latin tribute to Creedence Clearwater Revival, featuring Los Lobos, Ozomatli and others recreating John Fogerty’s best. The Garza brothers’ rough-rider take on “Born on the Bayou” meets somewhere in between swamp and South-of-the-Border desert. Just to show fans they haven’t forgotten where they come from, they change up the final verse a bit: “born in el barrio.”
LOS LONELY BOYS 8pm Friday, June 2. $34-$60.
THE WAILIN’ JENNYS 8pm Saturday, June 3. $32-$60. Golden State Theatre, 417 Alvarado St., Monterey. 649-1070, www.goldenstatetheatre.com