YOU COULD SAY THAT JESS KLEIN RIPENED QUICKLY in a warm climate. Hanging around Jamaica with a classical guitar, Klein, aged 20, put her feelings into music (a new place, new culture, and a newly-broken heart), hopped on a bus, and auditioned in a dance hall in Kingston. She got a gig the following week and — maybe even better — the approval of the dance hall host: “She got soul, man.” Klein sang that new song and other originals at the opens mics of Boston later that year. She soon had twelve songs on tape to sell to her delighted audiences.
Performing her original songs was just the thing for this quiet girl. Klein loved the singer-songwriter scene and the people in it; her peers and the critics returned the love. Klein’s first CD, “Wishes Well-Disguised,” earned her several Boston Music awards and made her a finalist for the John Lennon Songwriting Award and the Telluride Songwriting Festival. She kept writing and singing throughout the northeast, then the west coast and midwest. Her momentum landed her at Rykodisc Records and led to her third album, “Draw Them Near,” whose rootsy rock, country, folk and punk flavors launched her national career. People dug the brash assuredness of “I Sure Would,” in which the singer taunts a potential lover with all their possibilities and slams down the chorus: “I sure would, I sure would.” Just as surely, Jess moves from fleshly intimacy to a more soulful, reflective kind and all the sorts of drama that she performs so well in her music.
Between the sessions for these albums, Jess flew to Nashville to record “Twelve-Hour Dream,” a beautifully sparse collection of guitar- and cello-based songs. She toured the U.S., Japan, and Europe to promote “Draw Them Near,” in the company of rock bands that backed her to cheering crowds. They loved her at the Newport Folk Festival, the Sundance Film Festival and the Fuji Rock Fest in Japan. And so did the critics. “When Jess Klein opens her mouth” one wrote in Guitare Mag (France), “she seems to deliver everything that her soul contains in the way of passion.”
Back in the USA, Klein teamed up with fellow up and coming songwriters Erin McKeown, Rose Polenzani, and Beth Amsel to form a temporary group called Voices on the Verge. “Live In Philadelphia” (Rykodisc, 2001) sold 33,000 copies in its first six months and landed the foursome a lengthy segment on NPR’s Morning Edition, as well as a spot on the CBS Saturday show. As we write, she’s working on her second solo album for Rykodisc. Come get a preview at the Me&Thee.
$15
Fast-rising folk-pop songwriter Jess Klein is emerging as one of the most expressive and exciting vocalists in town... a soulful vibrant dynamo. Scott Alarik, The Boston Globe
Jess Klein grabs an emotional subject, wrestles it to the ground, makes it cry or moan with passion, then rises demurely, dusts herself off, and gives the audience a big sweet grin. We've seen the future, and it is Jess. Marilyn Rae Beyer, WUMB 91.9FM BOSTON
The cd highlights Klein"s imperceptible way of crafting songs that alternate melodic passages with cacophonous crashes. In 'I Sure Would', sludgy, sexy bass beats are punctuated by pockets of full-throttle drums and Stevie Nicks-inspired wails. Acoustic Guitar
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