Joy'All Jenny Lewis

• 1 Psychos 03:05
• 2 Joy'All 03:44
• 3 Puppy and a Truck 03:11
• 4 Apples and Oranges 03:46
• 5 Essence of Life 03:36
• 6 Giddy Up 03:01
• 7 Cherry Baby 02:26
• 8 Love Feel 03:14
• 9 Balcony 02:43
• 10 Chain of Tears 03:10
• Total Runtime 31:56

Info for Joy'All

Joy’All, the fifth solo album from Jenny and followup to 2019’s critically acclaimed On The Line (Warner Records), finds the singer-songwriter embarking on a new era, in a new town—and on a new label, as she joins the iconic roster of Blue Note/Capitol Records.

“I started writing some of these songs on the road, pre-pandemic… and then put them aside as the world shut down, and then from my home in Nashville in early 2021, I joined a week-long virtual songwriting workshop with a handful of amazing artists, hosted by Beck. The challenge was to write one song every day for seven days, with guidelines from Beck. The guidelines would be prompts like ‘write a song with 1-4-5 chord progression,’ ‘write a song with only cliches,’ or ‘write in free form style.’ The first song I submitted to the group was ‘Puppy and a Truck.’”

As the days progressed, the assignments kept coming in and Jenny ultimately wrote a good portion of Joy’All.

While Joy’All pulls from a bounty of sonic inspiration–from soul to ‘90s R&B, as well as country and classic singer-songwriter records–the album’s rich and intimate, warm live sound is the hallmark of eight-time GRAMMY-winning producer Dave Cobb (John Prine, Brandi Carlile, Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell), whom Jenny met by chance while visiting the band Lucius at RCA Studio A in Nashville. A natural kinship developed between the two, and having amassed an arsenal of demos on her iPhone, Jenny texted Dave and asked him to produce her new album.

“Dave works fast and we cut the bulk of the record with his incredible house band (Nate Smith, Brian Allen and Cobb on guitar, and myself on acoustic guitar & vocals) live on the floor in a couple of weeks. Jess Wolfe came back to the studio to provide background vocals on the record and then Greg Leisz and Jon Brion added pedal steel, B-Bender guitar and Chamberlin, respectively, back in L.A..”

Putting the pieces of Joy’All together seemed almost serendipitous for Jenny. Along with her fortuitous meeting with Dave Cobb, she was introduced to Greg Koller, who engineered and mixed the record and, coincidentally, works with Jon Brion–who graciously added to the album, much to Jenny’s delight.

While shopping at Black Shag Vintage in Nashville, Bobbi Rich (a frequent creative collaborator of Jenny’s) made an auspicious discovery. She happened to find an outfit that once belonged to Nashville songwriter Skeeter Davis, whose influence pervades Joy’All. The ensemble became an essential centerpiece to the visual component of the record: “I wanted to riff on the classic Nashville album cover, with the song titles on the front. The cover photo is a reference to a Skeeter Davis record and I’m wearing her costume!”

Jenny Lewis

Jenny Lewis
In 1995, she formed the indie rock band Rilo Kiley along with her friends Pierre De Reeder, Blake Sennett and Dave Rock (later replaced by Jason Boesel). Beginning with a country sound, Rilo Kiley gravitated toward a downbeat indie rock sound, and with their 2004 album More Adventurous found widespread success. Critics such as Pitchforkmedia attributed this to the “wise” decision to front Lewis on most of the songs (on earlier albums, Sennett contributed about half the vocals). The song “Portions for Foxes” was a hit, and in 2005 the band was picked up by Warner Bros., putting them on a major label for the first time. They opened for Coldplay on their U.S. tour in 2005.

In 2002, Lewis was asked to contribute some female vocals for The Postal Service, whose album Give Up was an international success. Lewis performed in the video for the hit “We Will Become Silhouettes”, and toured with the band in 2003. Lewis also contributed vocals to several tracks on the 2004 Cursive album The Ugly Organ.

In 2004, Conor Oberst invited Lewis to record a solo record for record label Team Love. Described by Lewis as “a kind of soul record,” Rabbit Fur Coat, released in January 2006, features contributions from musicians Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes, M. Ward, Maroon 5 guitarist James Valentine, and Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie on a cover of Traveling Wilburys song “Handle With Care”. The Watson Twins provide accompaniment and the album is billed as Jenny Lewis with The Watson Twins. Lewis toured with the Watson Twins in support of the album in early 2006.

Lewis was given an “Esky” for Best Temperature Raiser in Esquire’s 2006 Esky Music Awards in the April issue.

This album contains no booklet.