Jenny Dalton

331 Club on Friday May 25

2012-05-20T13:23:00.001-05:00

Patches & Gretchen (rag-tag, folk-punk gal) and I will be playing a free show together at the 331 Club on the 25th. Dan and Deborah will be on drums and cello as I brandish a drumstick and authoharp (and of course my trusty keyboard).

331 Club
Patches & Gretchen, Jenny Dalton, Murzik
Friday, May 25; 10:00pm
Ages: 21+; Free!
Join Event on Facebook

We'll be announcing summer tour dates soon! I have visions of cozy Airstream campers, golden highways, fuzzy dice swaying from the rearview... In reality I'm looking for a rusty minivan that probably won't break down..

Happy springtime!
I'm enjoying my new allergies probem!
Jenny

May 6: 7th St Entry w Alcoholic Faith Mission (Denmark)

2012-04-17T16:11:00.003-05:00

I'm excited for this upcoming show at the Entry on Sunday, May 6 for so many reasons!..including & not limited to..

- I'm debuting new songs & instruments! I cannot wait to bring out my new autoharp, and I will be trying out playing a tom-tom drum and piano at the same time. It's been fun practicing lately :)

- I'll be opening for an amazing band coming all the way from Copenhagen, Denmark called Alcoholic Faith Mission.They play a very lovely style of lo-fi indie folk with the prettiest vocals and the kind of songs that get stuck in your head easily. I love their music videos too. They're touring with You Won't (NYC). It'll be awesome to catch these bands live!

7th St Entry
Sunday, May 6th
Alcoholic Faith Mission (Copenhagen); You Won't (NYC): Jenny Dalton
8:00pm doors
Ages: 18+
$8 adv / $10 door
Tickets & Info

There are more shows posted for this summer as well, become a "person who likes the music" on Facebook to stay in touch

Cheers!
Jenny D

We Heart Music features Blue January single

2012-02-01T19:33:00.005-06:00

"I know it's February, but this 'blue' song fits: "Blue January" was written as a New Year's Day single, released January 1st. The single is described by Jenny Dalton as a "slightly depressing morning-after-party feeling". We've all been there..." - Full article at We Heart Music

"Blood Folk" Review

2012-01-25T11:11:00.002-06:00

"From tracks that induce a pensive mood to those that stimulate activity of the sensory system, Dalton’s songs have the potency to touch people emotionally particularly those emotions that are hidden and buried deep." - Read Full Review (Ultimate Guitar)

Blue January: Single

2012-01-03T10:30:00.023-06:00

Though New Year's Day was cold, cloudy (and slightly hungover), this little song fell into my lap so I recorded it. Happy 2012!

Blue January (Lyrics)
It's so gusty blue
January

Weak light passing through
the window

I wrap a solemn scarf
around my neck
Skin so foreign to
this bitterness

A giant crack on
frozen water

I look down at my
bloodless fingers
to take your ghostly hand
it fell through them

It's so gusty blue
January
It's so gusty blue
January

Blood Folk EP

2011-11-17T15:31:00.002-06:00

Blood Folk comes from the folk art, folk medicine and folk ways I've learned since moving into a 130 year old house in a small town. I've taken up new hobbies like hand-embroidery, growing veggies, canning and preserving food for winter, and making medicinal tinctures from the weeds in my back yard.

Blood Folk also comes from the folklore and folk tales I dug up from the roots of my family tree. I discovered Mohawk tribal connections and a sad Salem Witch Trial story in the ancestral lines. These folksy, rootsy experiences and discoveries came together to help make Blood Folk.

Tracks: (follow links for listening & lyrics)
1. Nightmare
2. Shotgun Wedding
3. Tuesday with Zooey
4. Awake
5. Colorado Song

For more information:
Bio | Press Photos | Contact

Rift Magazine

2011-11-15T09:34:00.001-06:00

"Jenny Dalton’s new CD “Blood Folk” is another great chapter in this Singer-Songwriters musical identity. Dalton just keeps creating beautiful and sometimes haunting piano based songs that stay in your head and pull at your heart." - Rift Magazine

The Current: Song of the Day

2011-11-11T09:36:00.002-06:00

"Shotgun Wedding" will be the song of the day on 89.3 The Current on Friday, November 18! Same day as the release show at the 331 club :) - MPR

Berkeley Place feature

2011-11-09T09:30:00.000-06:00

"I really dig this one. Nice Minneapolis folk rock, mostly on the piano.." Berkeley Place

Song of the Day: Alternative Mix

2011-10-28T09:27:00.002-05:00

"Colorado Song" was song of the day on Alternative Mix 102x fm

EP Review: Parx-e Austrailia

2011-10-09T13:22:00.000-05:00

"The songs are bit different to her early stuff, they have this haunting almost dark edge to the tunes...I loved this ep, there is so much to like here." - Parx-e Magazine

The Current

2011-10-08T09:50:00.002-05:00

The Current will debut the Blood Folk EP on the local show Sunday, October 9! Listen on 89.3 fm in the Twin Cities or stream online

Featured on Indie Music Sampler

2011-10-08T09:47:00.001-05:00

"Nightmare" was featured on the latest edition of the web radio program Indie Music Sample r

Perfect Porridge

2011-10-05T15:01:00.001-05:00

"...if you dig crafts, canning, tales told round the fireplace and pulling your jacket out of storage, you’re in for a treat." - Perfect Porridge

Bday Wishes from Author Martin Powell

2011-10-05T14:58:00.001-05:00

"Musician, songwriter, poet, and mystic. She's one in a million. Experience her for yourself and fall under her spell." - Martin Powell

Oh mi goodess! Thanks for the tribute Martin :)

Jamie Words: Top 10

2011-10-05T14:57:00.001-05:00

"...I find her songwriting talent simply incredibly and very atmospheric. A great deal of her music has a very flowing, beautiful quality to it that creates wonderful ambiance..." - Jamie Words Top 10

Comic Book Fury

2011-10-05T14:54:00.001-05:00

"Tuesday with Zooey" was the featured song in Comic Book Fury's latest podcast episode. Check it out here

That Blue Jeans Guy features "Awake"

2011-10-04T11:31:00.000-05:00

"Awake" is a featured song in "That Blue Jeans Guy" Podcast Episode 370

Nightmare

2011-09-09T12:39:00.014-05:00

Corey took his medicine, he took it from the high shelf
As he was walking to his cell, he wouldn't say nothing at all
'cause he was doing hard time

Corey took her medicine, she took it from the high shelf
As she was talking to herself, she wouldn't say nothing at all
'cause she was doing hard time

GILES COREY to town:
With the stones stones stacked I'm taking hours of this
They're going to pay for this, they're going to pay for this
Well don't tell me to take it easy, you take it easy
and take what's coming
With the stones stones stacked I'm taking hours of this
They're going to pay for this, they're going to pay for this
'cause little Abby's taking over as undertaker
You turn your back on your friends, now take it back to me

(MARTHA COREY to Giles:
If they, honey, take you from me,
I'm with you babe, I'm still with you
And if I'm hanging high, honey
I'm with you babe, I'm still with you)

It went down, it went down
all around it was a nightmare
I made it, my sweat beading
I can't wake up but it's a nightmare
A showdown in my town
with at beaten path to the Gallows Hill
Well misery, she loves company
but oh my god, my demons hate you
(Giles to Martha): Sad eyes, I think you're bleeding too
well don't look now we're in a nightmare
(Giles to town, to future generations): Hold us up in the Good Light
(Giles to martha) Hold on, (Giles to himself): Hold on

This is a sad folk tale that has a special place in my heart via the family tree.

Back in the somber, puritan community of Salem, Mass in the 1690's, an 11yr old girl named Abigale Williams and some of her friends were overwhelmed with boredom, oppression and very few "unsatinic" ways to have fun. But an exotic slave named Tituba secretly captivated the girls with exciting stories and rituals from where she came. Until one day they were caught in a type of ritual that shocked the town to its puritan core. Presumably, instead of having to cope with the responsibility of having participated at will, Abby and the girls acted possessed by demons. They further deflected blame onto others by claiming the possessed ability to see witches...

The rest is history: a small town sent into mass hysteria with hundreds accused of Witchcraft, and 20 souls executed. Among those killed, an elderly married couple: Giles and Martha Corey. Martha was hung, and Giles was pressed to death under the weight of stones. He left in his wake the folklored "Curse of Giles Corey" which inflicts a heart or blood ailment upon every Salem sheriff ever since. Also among those hung at Gallows Hill: two sisters with the maiden name Towne.

Seven generations later in southern Minnesota, the paths of a surviving Corey man and a surviving Towne woman met again. They were my great great grandparents.

Colorado Song

2011-09-08T22:00:00.003-05:00

I am miles away from anything
'cause silence is what I've been craving
in a mountain town whose sky is unveiling
the bluest blood this side of the canyan

There are traces of Shawnee in my blood that begin to sing along
with the frequencies of this mountain's tuning fork
My blood it is spilling over this old dominion
and it dries into rust like the red foot hills
The westerlies rushing through the passes
are messing up my hair like the hands,
like the thirsty hands of a love who has finally found a way
to break free of the restraints, now take me
I feel the power of everything it funnels down into me
and I will breach this, this wisdom

the cries of the falcons
bouncing around the rock faces
fall on my ears, I can almost understand them
with an old language etched into my past

Well I don't know the source this chanting
I can only hear when I'm still and quiet
But I will ride up close to it
Yes I will breach this wisdom

Awake

2011-09-08T21:53:00.002-05:00

"It's time to wake her up," those demons say
they're the restless winds at play when I'm awake
It's time to wake her up under a harvest moon
a burning silo in a prairie field

But never mind this heat we're in
it's already past 4, and we're alone
do I know, is there someone I know well enough to wake
but I'll wait for the day to make it easier to think
and I think that someone's got it in for me
and you walk in

"It's time to wake her up," those demons say
they're the restless winds at play when I'm trying to sleep
And we're two severed friends under a harvest moon
two burning silos in a prairie field

But never mind this heat we're in
it's already past 4, and we're alone
do I know, is there someone I know well enough to wake
and I'll wait for the day to make it easier to think
and I think that someone's got it in for me
and you walk in

But I said move on, it's time to wake him up

"It's time to wake him up," those demons say
they're the restless winds at play when you're trying to sleep

Tuesday with Zooey

2011-09-08T21:45:00.002-05:00

Fall descending on a Tuesday night
resurrecting a world in the shadows
pulled from my shelf all bound in pages
copyright stamped 1955

(On the Upper East Side in a kimono
before her in overly golden rows
the lovely women in furs and coats
but mother, she don't even bother
They came to the world in a radio show
and grew up to shatter the status quo
with an existential chip on his shoulder,
the world is bending on brother)

I am meeting Franny and Zooey
the timely friends of our undoing
St. Seraphim of Serov leading
the plaintive pilgrims to the something

I'll finally toss it aside
with indifferent spit in my eye
The meager mediocrity
is shunned in the shadows

Autumn landing on the tip of my shoe
Kicks are treading the walks in my 'hood
clouds and sweaters must come from heaven
and what awaits on page 55

(On the Upper East Side in a kimono
before her in overly golden rows
the lovely women in furs and coats
but mother, she don't even bother
They came to the world in a radio show
and grew up to shatter the status quo
with an existential chip on his shoulder,
the world is bending on brother)

I'll finally toss it aside
with indifferent spit in my eye
The meager mediocrity
there's a world in the shadows

Shotgun Wedding

2011-09-08T21:37:00.003-05:00

I'm the bride of an easy rider
It's hard to say how it happened
What happened there stay there in Vegas
on a lost scroll in an empty bottle

Something new, something blue
the fuzzy dice hanging on your mirror
they roll like heads in the wake of
heat brought from a pair of snake eyes

My four-inch heels are the skins of
two rattle snakes from your desert
they roll like wheels on the pavement
gambling with the devil's highway

My veil is laced with the drugs of
cactus flowers from your desert
which side of the veil will you stand on-
the magician or of the fool?

Bring it over, bring him over I want to see him
cocked and ready set to go, to fire off in the chapel

I will be in Vegas within three clicks of a ruby slipper
slip into something nice, and stand before the reverend
the shotgun wedding vows are waiting at the end of a dusty line
the end of the isle
I will be in Vegas within three clicks of a shotgun trigger
trigger the first event of the rest of my life
the shotgun wedding vows are sealed behind the sugar and bloody lips
of the sex and violence
Here comes the bride, walking down to Reverend Hill
kiss me on my bloody lips, kiss my on my bloody lips

2011-09-05T14:55:00.001-05:00

I don't wanna go home

2011-09-01T22:14:00.001-05:00

Working on the Blood Folk EP and made a mastering break thru tonight!