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Eddie Owen Presents: Jennifer Daniels Record Release Celebration w/ special guest Kelley McRae

Regular Reserved Seating: $15 in advance /
$18 at the door



Premium Reserved Seating: $17 in advance / $20 at the door



Three incessantly busy interstate highways
wrap around the foot of Lookout Mountain, a high ridge straddling Georgia,
Tennessee and Alabama. But tucked into the coves, bluffs and hollers above the
freeways are hairpin roads, dirt paths, hidden waterfalls and stunning valley
views. Mountain native JENNIFER DANIELS claims this territory as her own,
despite traversing the interstates to make a living. As she puts it, “I
sometimes think of my songs as vertical.”



For 10 years now, the singer/songwriter has chosen a narrow, winding, mountain
road less traveled than the broad highway frequented by homogenized pop
superstars, cluttering the radio with disposable hooks and disingenuous,
secondhand sentiment. For her, “part of the music is figuring life out. I can’t
help but feel I have some Bohemian blood in me, searching for truth and beauty
and love. You can’t serve the master of fame and fortune and the master of
truth and beauty—no path exists for following both.”



Alongside husband Jeff Neal, who contributes tasteful guitar and mandolin
support, Daniels first caught the attention of music fans in live
settings—beginning in 1999—with her supple, dynamic voice and physical,
absorbing delivery. It began in time-honored, grassroots fashion, with gigs in
Chattanooga, Tennessee—just down the mountain from home—then short forays
around the southeastern U.S. and then regular hauls up and down the East Coast
and, finally, jaunts across the country, with as many as 200 dates each year.



On the road for long stretches, Daniels made Decatur, Ga’s legendary Eddie’s
Attic—an acoustic-music listening room known for launching the careers of
everyone from the Indigo Girls to Shawn Mullins—her home away from home. During
this period Daniels was a regular contestant at the venue’s “Open Mic
Shoot-Out” contests. On one particular night, she made it to the final, but
fell just short of the top prize, edged out by a young upstart named John
Mayer. Daniels won the contest later, topping another notable
singer/songwriter, Zac Brown (whose Zac Brown Band now is blowing the doors off
country radio) to do it.



Her stage reputation established, Daniels began establishing herself as a
recording artist, independently releasing her 2000 debut, Fists of Flood, to
raves in Performing Songwriter, which named it a Top 12 DIY Release for the
year and said, “This is music that seems to have grown slowly from some rich,
dark soil.”



Despite the occasional conversation with label execs, Daniels has chosen to
remain independent, drawing upon her own resources for touring and recording.
For Daniels and Neal, a sustainable, fulfilling life creating meaningful music
and connecting personally with listeners holds far more reward than chart
positions, heavy-rotation singles or SoundScan numbers.



Now, four studio albums and one live album later, Daniels has recorded her most
ambitious effort, Come Undone, a song cycle in three acts. The album’s
recording was fraught with more than just artistic significance, with Daniels
and Neal spending sessions in wonder and anticipation at the pending birth of
twins, their first children (if you don’t count songs and beloved dog Bob
Marley). As Daniels notes, rather than heavy literature, “during tracking I was
obsessively reading What to Expect When You’re Expecting!”



Significantly, for an artist who began her recording career with stripped-down
arrangements—featuring guitars, mandolin, a little bass and not much else—on
Come Undone producer Scott Smith goes for a fuller approach, with strings,
electronics, a choir and a pipe organ at various moments, depending on what
seemed appropriate.



“There was a whole new level of artistry, so we felt the production’s depth
should fit the project,” Smith says. “The orchestration and sonic choices were
a natural fit not only for the songs, but for framing Jennifer's voice in a way
it hasn’t yet been heard. The complexity of her voice—both lyrically and
melodically —works amazingly well stripped down, with two guitars. So the challenge
was to add to this while still retaining the intimacy of her message. There's
plenty of ear candy for anyone who wants to listen for it, yet those in love
with Jen’s voice and the songs won't be distracted.”



Just as ambitious as the sounds—and owing, in no small part, to the significant
life-changes afoot—are the themes, both epic in scope and more personal than
ever. To name one example, few artists this side of Bono would have the guts to
tackle an argument with God in song, but in “You Slay Me,” Daniels pulls it
off. “That song practically wrote itself,” she observes, “during a night when I
was grief stricken, angry and exhausted by months of sorrow, unable to
understand why God would allow such heartache. Honestly, I’m afraid to perform
it—it’s personal, it’s revealing and it leaves me vulnerable to
misinterpretation and judgment.”



At the same time, she says, that song and one other close-to-the-bone
confession, “Every Single Day,” are absolutely indispensable to the story Come
Undone tells, one of hopes and dreams, then disillusion and darkness and,
finally, joy that survives all the more for having been tested and scarred by
life. “The title is an invitation to allow the weight of disappointment to
strip you of things that can be taken away in order to find the stabilizing
force of what cannot,” Daniels concludes.



That said, even Daniels’ most serious album to date doesn’t forsake her
well-known humor, particularly on “You Should Love Me,” a tongue-in-cheek strut
before a would-be beau. It’s a side of her that shows up even more forcefully
onstage. “If the audience laughs at my jokes, I’m liable to try a whole
stand-up routine,” she notes. “Then Jeff will quietly remind me that we’re here
to play music and we all laugh some more.”



With a new album in hand and new twins to raise, Daniels and Neal still will be
making their way down from their home sweet mountain home to hit the roaring
interstates and play to their loyal audience. “Quite honestly, we’re not sure
how it’s going to work,” Daniels admits. “But we’ve never been sure how it
would work, even in the earliest days when it was just the two of us, or when
we got our now-five-year-old puppy.”

Long after the highways need to be rebuilt, and all the fast-food
drive-throughs dotting their exits have been boarded up, ancient Lookout
Mountain will still tower over the landscape. In the same way, Daniels hopes to
keep writing, playing and recording long after today’s chart-toppers have been
relegated to the “where are they now?” file.



http://www.eddieowenpresents.com/?Page=http%3a%2f%2fpublic.ticketbiscuit.com%2fEddieOwenPresents%2fTicketing%2f169994

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