Jenny Owen Youngs: 09-13-11

by Carolyn Delvalle

Have you ever watched a television show and hear that one song comes that has you running to Google who does it? This happened to me sometime ago while I was watching an episode of the Showtime series Weeds. During the episode, a catchy tune came on that had me doing what I just described. The song turned out being Fuck Was I by Jenny Owen Youngs & to say it fit the situation to a tee would be a huge understatement. Anyhow, ever since I discovered her music, I could not stop listening to it & knew that I had to see her live.

So when the opportunity presented itself, I knew that it would take something really major to make me miss her set at The Rock Shop in Brooklyn. The show itself consisted of a nice mix of new & old material along with some catchy covers. The opening song was Clean Break off her Transmitter Failure album. In retrospect, this was a great choice of a opener as its upbeat vibe was a sign of things to come. The next song was a song nicknamed Pirates from what I could find about it on the net.

I could not choose just one favorite song that was performed since I had so many which included Fuck Was I, Great Big Plans, Nelly’s Hot In Here, Voice On Tape, Love For Long & a song I will call Take Me Back To Your Apartment. We were also treated to some guest appearances by Dan Romer & Steve Faulk. Dan (a multi-talented producer who has worked with the likes of Ingrid Michaelson, Bess Rogers, He Is We & The Woes) provided background vocals & the tambourine for Hot In Here along with the frame drum for Take Me Back To Your Apartment. Steve whipped out the maracas for Love For Long. The ending saw her play Last Person from Transmitter Failure at the request of many in the audience.

The show which checked in about an hour & 20 minutes will definitely go down as one of my favorites for 2011. Much praise goes out to bassist Mike Tuccillo, drummer Elliot Jacobson, Dan, Steve & of course Jenny who was flat out amazing considering she was under the weather. I can’t wait to see her live again!