Support Joe's New CD ~ The Coming of the Years: https://igg.me/at/JoeJencks2022


Dear Friends in Music,

It is official. After months of hard work, hints, rumors, and creative process I am ready to ask for your help. For those who have been inquiring about how to support this album, thank you! The time has arrived.

The Coming of the Years is an album centered around songs I wrote while on tour in Ireland over a 12-year period. This album emerges as a synergistic blend of my Irish & Celtic heritage with themes of immigration spanning multiple generations. As a dual U.S./Irish citizen, I have been exploring some of these ideas musically and personally for decades. The Coming of the Years is a deep musical exploration of identity and place, carried forward by beautiful melodies and rich lyric narrative.

Primary tracks were recorded in my home studio, my musical “Ark” during the pandemic. My electric bouzouki is making its recording debut as a featured instrument on this project. Several internationally acclaimed musicians from the trad. Irish, American, and English Folk traditions kindly supported the album with their marvelous talents. And now, after a lifetime of singing songs of Ireland and of the Celtic diaspora, I have finally recorded an album that specifically focuses on being inclusive of these overlapping identities personally, historically, and musically. And I need your help to bring it across the finish line.

After recording my core tracks in Illinois, I drove off to Maine to record Hanz Araki playing Irish flute and whistles in various keys. Then it was off to Vermont to record Lissa Schneckenburger on fiddle, and then to upstate New York to record the legendary John Roberts on concertina. Shannon Lambert-Ryan (Runa) and Cheryl Prashker (Runa) were gracious enough to add their respective skills on harmony vocals and percussion. And finally, the music I have been hearing in my head for years came to life in resplendent form. It is a beautiful musical tapestry, evocative of the past and present in equal measure.

Before I came to you my fans and friends and asked for your support, I wanted to make sure I could deliver an extraordinary album of beautiful songs, well recorded and produced. I wanted to guarantee that this album would stand firmly in the traditions, firmly in my discography, and that I would be genuinely proud to share it with you and the world. As such, I chose to borrow a tidy sum from a kind friend to make sure the project was produced in both timely and top-notch fashion.

Grammy-winning audio engineer and dear friend Charlie Pilzer mixed the album beautifully at his studio (Tonal Park) in Takoma Park, MD. Grammy-winning engineer Randy LeRoy mastered the project at Tonal Park, and stitched the quilt together brilliantly. I could not be happier with the result. It is an extraordinary musical portrait, painted with the colors of many cultures and generations, painted by hands deft in those traditions.

But I still need your help. Not only do I need to repay the loan I took out to produce this CD, but I need to raise the funds for duplication and for promoting The Coming of the Years to radio. As a result of increased costs across the board, I am asking for your gracious support in helping me share these songs with the world.

The URL for the official album funding site is: https://igg.me/at/JoeJencks2022
More of the back story can be found on the official Indie GoGo funding site.

I cannot adequately express my level of excitement about how this album is shaping up, or how sincerely needed your support is, to bring it all together.

You have colletively sustained me for more than 2 decades on the road full-time, for which I am grateful. And then you were there through the unimagnieable circumstances of continuing to make a living at music - through the pandemic. Extraordinary. I have no adequate words to express my wonder, joy, and gratitude. But now I do have a new collection of songs (13) and I am eager to share them with you and with the world.

Please support this project at whatever level is manageable for you. Even if you are unable to contribute financially, consider sharing this funding campaign with your friends and fellow music lovers via social media and email. This is a barn raising. It cannot be done alone. I need you - the AMAZING community that supports my art and music - to continue to do so admirably. In return I promise to keep giving you the very best I have to give in live concert, on broadcasts, and in my recorded albums. The Coming of the Years lives up to that commitment in fine form.

Thanks for your ongoing encouragement in every way!

In Gratitude & Song,

~ Joe Jencks

6-16-22