Jess Klein’s optimism draws them near
by Seth Rogovoy

(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., September 20, 2000) - While the headliners for the benefit concert at Ozawa Hall for the Pediatric Development Center on Sept. 30 are better known by far, it’s the lesser-known opening act who has people in the contemporary folk community standing up and listening these days.

Veteran folkies Richie Havens and Aztec Two-Step are the well-established acts that may draw the crowd that the Pittsfield-based non-profit needs to support its work aiding families with developmentally-challenged children. But up-and-coming singer-songwriter Jess Klein represents the future of the music, and she has already collected a pile of awards and critical raves that suggest next time around she could well be the headliner.

Since the release of her debut album in 1998, Klein has garnered three Boston Music Awards nominations, including Best Contemporary Folk Act in 1999. She has been included in two critically-acclaimed new-folk compilations, “This is Boston Not Austin Vol. II” and “Respond,” and recently showcased at the Sundance Film Festival.

This summer saw the release of Klein’s second full-length album, “Draw Them Near” (Ryko), which is doing just that to a host of the party faithful and new listeners alike, drawn near by Klein’s insinuating vocals, catchy melodies and sensual, folk-rock arrangements.

What is all the more ironic is that it was only just a few years ago that Klein, 26, first picked up the guitar and began writing songs. Before that, the idea had never even occurred to her that one day she would be a professional performer.

“I went through a brief period when I was little when I thought I’d be a ballerina, but I never considered performing professionally until I was twenty,” said Klein in a recent phone interview from her home in Boston. While Klein did have extensive experience singing in groups and performing in front of audiences -- partly as a means of overcoming her shyness -- her original, creative work had mostly taken place in the writerly solitude of crafting short stories, a pursuit she began in high school and continued in college.

It wasn’t until the Rochester, N.Y., native removed herself from her natural surroundings that she realized where her natural talents and gifts lie.
“I went to Jamaica on a whim,” said Klein, who tries but still can’t explain exactly what made her choose to study in Kingston, Jamaica, as opposed to more typical junior-year-abroad destinations like London, Rome, or Tokyo. “It wasn’t a lifelong goal or anything,” said Klein. “The opportunity presented itself at a time when I was open to the idea of trying new things and having an adventure.”

“I brought a guitar with me, and once I was down there it turned out to be an inspiring place in terms of feeling encouraged to make my own music and do my own thing,” said Klein. “I fell in with a group of performers and musicians and poets and for whatever reason they really took me in, and that’s the first place I started performing my own songs.
“I don’t know why I was going there, but once I got there I knew why I had come.”

Klein says the experience was life-altering. “I think it really made me see the truth about myself. I always liked being creative, but it definitely blew my mind open and made me realize I did have this potential to do something really unique.”

The results so far are a pile of critical raves - “a soulful, vibrant dynamo,” “one of the most expressive and exciting vocalists in town,” “we’ve seen the future and it is Jess” - and her two full-length albums, boasting carefully-crafted songs which betray her writerly origins.

The songs on her first album, “Wishes Well Disguised,” emphasize narratives. Songs like “Angelina” are fully-realized short stories in song, complete with character development, plot conflicts, and epiphanies. On her new album, “Draw Them Near,” Klein is writing more from within moments of emotional realization, and finding her way out through the songwriting process itself.

“For me, singing is really cathartic,” she said. “It’s physically therapeutic to feel the air moving through you. Usually when I write, the melody of the chorus comes to me first, and from there I figure out what the lyrics will be to go with the emotion of those notes. By the time I get from writing the songs to performing them on stage it clarifies something for me, and hopefully for people listening.”

What is unique about Klein’s newer work in particular is that although, like many songs in the contemporary “confessional” mode, the songs come from places of emotional fog or depression, they ultimately embrace a positive outlook.

“Cloud Song,” for example, borrows its central metaphor from the saying, “Beneath every cloud there is a silver lining.” And titles like “I’ll Be Alright,” “Springtime” and “Love Is Where You Find It” betray their optimism.

Klein laughs at the suggestion that she is an optimist, but in the end she agrees. “For someone who spends a lot of time thinking about pain and the weight people carry around with them, I consider myself an optimist,” she said. “I find that situation fascinating in terms of songwriting. It seems a really meaty source of emotion, and I’m really interested in the difference between how people feel and what they actually do and say.” In the end, the proof is in the vinyl - or rather, in the binary digits of the CD. And what it comes out sounding like is Klein’s unique blend of her influences: the husky twang of Lucinda Williams, the bluesy earthiness of Bonnie Raitt (her self-described role model - “she just seems really dignified and graceful to me”), the chirpy vulnerability of Emmylou Harris, the dreamy sensuality of Stevie Nicks, and the gutsy soulfulness of Aretha Franklin.

The reality of the music scene today, however, makes it less likely than ever for another one of these musical heroes to attain any level of popular success. It’s a Britney Spears world out there, and Jess Klein doesn’t fit the mold.

But she’s not complaining. “I have an audience, apparently, and it seems to me that people enjoy my music,” she said. “And I don’t take myself incredibly seriously, even though my music addresses some serious emotions.” Ever the optimist, Klein says, “I think that people ultimately are drawn to substance, and I also think that I really enjoy making my music, so to me that signifies that other people would enjoy it.”

“But it’s not all serious.”

Tickets for Richie Havens, Aztec Two-Step and Jess Klein at Tanglewood’s Ozawa Hall in Lenox on Saturday at 7 p.m. are $25 and $50 and are available at K-B Toys Headquarters, Wood Brothers and Pasko Frame Gallery in Pittsfield and at Tune Street and the Bookloft in Great Barrington. For more infomration, call the Pediatric Development Center at 443-6813, or visit the website at www.berkshirecommunity.koz.com/community/pdc .

[This article originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on Sept. 28, 2000. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 2000. All rights reserved.]

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