News

Upcoming Concerts

11-21-25 ~ Joe Jencks & Edie Carey in Concert at Swallow Hill - Denver, CO

12-2-25 ~ Joe Jencks LiveStream for The Folk Project (info online)

12-6-25 ~ Joe Jencks at Earth Room Concerts - Lincroft, NJ

12-7-25 ~ Joe Jencks in Concert at Godfrey Daniels -  Bethlehem, PA

12-13-25 ~ Joe Jencks in Concert at Six on The Square - Oxford, NY

12-14-25 ~ Joe Jencks at International Concert Series - Stone Ridge, NY

12-21-25 ~ On A Midwinter’s Night ~ Joe Jencks’ Annual Holiday LiveStream

*More concerts and specific details can be found at: https://joejencks.com

Dear Friends,

As we head toward the Thanksgiving holiday here in the U.S. I want to express my genuine gratitude to you and for you. After touring regionally in the Pacific NW for some years, I set out in early November of 2000 on my first truly national tour. As I start my 27th year of touring and my 26th year squarely on the North American Folk circuit, I am filled with gratitude for the countless of acts of kindness and support from thousands of people that have allowed me to be about music full-time for the last 26 years of my life. And, the adventure continues.

Thank you.

I am delighted to say I am back in Colorado for a performance this Friday, November 21st at the one and only Swallow Hill. My dear friend and very talented colleague Edie Carey and I will share the evening and also make some music together. We shared some concerts back when we both lived in Chicago and always enjoyed singing harmonies together. We got together earlier this week to rehearse, and it was great to feel that sonic magic again. Hope to see some of you at Swallow Hill on Friday night!

Last weekend I was privileged to offer a music-infused keynote address at a conference for the Colorado Education Association (CEA) in Pueblo. On Sunday morning, a couple busloads of us went to the site of the 1914 Ludlow Massacre and brought roses to lay on the beautiful memorial monument there. It honors the innocent who lost their lives when the company thugs started shooting indiscriminately into the miner’s camp, and then set the camp ablaze on purpose, killing almost entirely women and children. Singing with and leading songs for the CEA members and organizers was a powerful remembering, and a gift.

We need to remember our own history. And as the machinery of billionaire corporate culture tries to maximize the consumer experience, we need to remember that we were not born to be consumers. We were born to be humans, in community with each other. We were born to make art and beauty, and to love. We were born to build together, not in subservience to advancing ideas of power-consolidation.

The No Kings rallies and the November elections, combined with recent federal court and Supreme Court decisions give me hope. We are remembering. We are remembering that WE the PEOPLE are the ones who do the work, and our voice, our ideas, our opinions matter. We were not born to be Consumers. We were born to be creators in a million different ways. We were born to be loving people, building a just world. And every act of kindness matters.

The theme of the CEA conference was, No Pasarán! This is an idea that was popular in several contexts of people challenging Fascism in Europe over several decades. And it was a common rallying cry among the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and other freedom fighters during the Spanish Civil War. Translated it means, They Shall Not Pass. I think the tacit invitation for us in 2025 is to consider that as we rise to meet and resist certain ideas and behaviors, we also hold safe space for so much goodness on the inside of our communities. Our young people, our elders, our well-being in body, mind, and spirit need that protection. And when we say, No Pasarán!, we are also holding space for beauty, wonder, and possibility. We hold space for the rallying cry of the Women’s Suffrage Movement and that of the Lawrence, MA millworkers: Bread AND Roses. Sustenance and beauty in a multitude of expressions.

May your Thanksgiving table be adorned with Bread and Roses, too.

In Gratitude & Song,

~ Joe Jencks

1914 Ludlow Massacre Memorial, at the site of the former Miner's Camp in Ludlow, CO. Photo by Joe Jencks.

Sunset over Pueblo Resevoir, Pueblo, CO. Photo by Joe Jencks