Jennifer Kimball
Encyclopedia
Jennifer Kimball is a vocalist and songwriter
who is notable for being part of the acclaimed folk duo The Story
. She is a critically acclaimed singer-songwriter
and has released two albums Veering from the Wave and Oh Hear Us.
friend Jonatha Brooke
began playing music together in the 1980s. They performed regularly during their college years. Their folk songs were marked by "witty wordplay and sumptuous pop harmonies," according to one music critic. Critics noted a resemblance between their music and earlier artists such as Joni Mitchell
and Paul Simon
in terms of excellent musicianship, singing, and writing. Kimball graduated from Amherst in 1986.
They called themselves The Story. One critic wrote "Jennifer Kimball played the Art Garfunkel
role in The Story" who contributed "high ethereal harmonies." In 1989, the duo played the coffeehouse folk circuit and radio which exemplified the "folk-rock singer-songwriter aesthetic," according to one account. Kimball and Brooke "burst to fame" with this combination. They created a demo called Over Oceans and were promptly signed to the independent label Green Linnet which, in 1991, issued the duo's debut full-length album Grace in Gravity. Later Elektra Records
signed The Story and re-issued their debut.
Their second album, The Angel in the House, was released in 1993. One critic raved about the "exquisite arrangements and tricky, pitch-perfect harmonies by Ms. Brooke and her vocal partner, Jennifer Kimball," and added they "are the last word in elegant folk-pop refinement." The album featured "moody jazz and Brazilian-flavored arrangements" and "the duo's harmonies, which usually begin in a comfortably folkish vein, frequently stray into precise chromatic dissonance
" and had a "sophisticated international flavor." Their song Over Oceans was used as background for dance choreographer Kristen Caputo. The songs contemplate a woman's conflicting desires for love and achievement and the need to shake off the romantic myth of a male rescuer.
Another music critic noticed the contrast between the lighter patter between songs and the heavier songs themselves: there was "levity" between heavy songs about "God, church, death, female oppression, self-suppression, mothers and daughters." Their songs adroitly avoided "heavy-handedness" with a certain "winning buoyancy of tune and/or spirit" with "sophisticated harmonic changes whose intriguing hooks come at you cockeyed and sideways more often than they swoop down from the heavens." The duo were compared with artists such as Suzanne Vega
and Indigo Girls
. Another reviewer gave the duo mixed reviews: "intriguingly distorted harmonies and interesting turns of phrase" but some "attempts at cleverness overreached" and there was "a painfully obvious unrecorded song about dieting and a silly, albeit self-consciously so, stab at voguing a la Madonna." Another wrote their "music can alternate between heart-rending poetry and infectious flights of fancy."
In 1998, Kimball released the album Veering from the Wave. A Washington Post critic applauded the singing as "handsome" and the songwriting as excellent. In 1999, Kimball opened for folk artists such as Tom Rush
. In 2000, she was a featured performer at New Haven's
Eli Whitney Folk Festival. Her tune Meet Me in the Twilight has been played on the radio, including San Francisco station KPFA. She's recorded with such artists as Wayfaring Strangers, Session Americana, and Tony Trischka
. Her music has been described by a critic as "quirky and oh-so-urban suburban" and a "sultry roots singer" with the "aching breath of a mezzo."
Kimball released her CD Oh Hear Us in 2006. One critic wrote "her songs still ripple with eccentric surprise, sudden twists, and "A-ha!" moments."
In 2007 she was a part-time horticulturalist and studied landscape design
at Harvard. She commented about her hobby: "It's a lovely way to keep the head 'free' while working outside and dreaming up songs, designs, novels." She sang and played at Boston's Lizard Lounge with musicians including guitarist Duke Levine, lap steel player Kevin Barry, drummer Bill Beard, bassist Dick Gates, and guest artists including Dennis Brennan, Kris Delmhorst
, Rose Polenzani
, Anne Heaton
, and Rose Cousins
.
In 2008, Kimball performed with Boston
artists such as Rose Polenzani and Rose Cousins. A critic described them as "a veritable supergroup of some of the finest local singer-songwriters."
Kimball has performed to raise money for charitable organizations such as Massachusetts Families in Need. She also supports the cause of helping women's shelters. She is a mother and lives in the Boston, Massachusetts area.
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
who is notable for being part of the acclaimed folk duo The Story
The Story (band)
The Story was an early 1990s folk-rock duo composed of Jonatha Brooke and Jennifer Kimball.-History:The folk-pop duo The Story consisted of Jonatha Brooke and Jennifer Kimball, who first met each other in 1981 while freshmen at Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts...
. She is a critically acclaimed singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
and has released two albums Veering from the Wave and Oh Hear Us.
Beginnings: The story about The Story
Jennifer Kimball and Amherst CollegeAmherst College
Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...
friend Jonatha Brooke
Jonatha Brooke
Jonatha Brooke is an American folk rock singer-songwriter and guitarist from Illinois.Her music merges elements of folk, rock and pop, often with poignant lyrics and complex harmonies...
began playing music together in the 1980s. They performed regularly during their college years. Their folk songs were marked by "witty wordplay and sumptuous pop harmonies," according to one music critic. Critics noted a resemblance between their music and earlier artists such as Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
and Paul Simon
Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.Simon is best known for his success, beginning in 1965, as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached number one on the US singles...
in terms of excellent musicianship, singing, and writing. Kimball graduated from Amherst in 1986.
They called themselves The Story. One critic wrote "Jennifer Kimball played the Art Garfunkel
Art Garfunkel
Arthur Ira "Art" Garfunkel is an American singer-songwriter, poet, and actor, best known as being a member of the folk duo Simon & Garfunkel...
role in The Story" who contributed "high ethereal harmonies." In 1989, the duo played the coffeehouse folk circuit and radio which exemplified the "folk-rock singer-songwriter aesthetic," according to one account. Kimball and Brooke "burst to fame" with this combination. They created a demo called Over Oceans and were promptly signed to the independent label Green Linnet which, in 1991, issued the duo's debut full-length album Grace in Gravity. Later Elektra Records
Elektra Records
Elektra Records is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group. In 2004, it was consolidated into WMG's Atlantic Records Group. After five years of dormancy, the label was revived by Atlantic in 2009....
signed The Story and re-issued their debut.
Their second album, The Angel in the House, was released in 1993. One critic raved about the "exquisite arrangements and tricky, pitch-perfect harmonies by Ms. Brooke and her vocal partner, Jennifer Kimball," and added they "are the last word in elegant folk-pop refinement." The album featured "moody jazz and Brazilian-flavored arrangements" and "the duo's harmonies, which usually begin in a comfortably folkish vein, frequently stray into precise chromatic dissonance
Consonance and dissonance
In music, a consonance is a harmony, chord, or interval considered stable, as opposed to a dissonance , which is considered to be unstable...
" and had a "sophisticated international flavor." Their song Over Oceans was used as background for dance choreographer Kristen Caputo. The songs contemplate a woman's conflicting desires for love and achievement and the need to shake off the romantic myth of a male rescuer.
Another music critic noticed the contrast between the lighter patter between songs and the heavier songs themselves: there was "levity" between heavy songs about "God, church, death, female oppression, self-suppression, mothers and daughters." Their songs adroitly avoided "heavy-handedness" with a certain "winning buoyancy of tune and/or spirit" with "sophisticated harmonic changes whose intriguing hooks come at you cockeyed and sideways more often than they swoop down from the heavens." The duo were compared with artists such as Suzanne Vega
Suzanne Vega
Suzanne Nadine Vega is an American songwriter and singer known for her eclectic folk-inspired music.Two of Vega's songs reached the top 10 of various international chart listings: "Luka" and "Tom's Diner"...
and Indigo Girls
Indigo Girls
The Indigo Girls are an American folk rock music duo, consisting of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers. They met in elementary school and began performing together as high school students in Decatur, Georgia, part of the Atlanta metropolitan area...
. Another reviewer gave the duo mixed reviews: "intriguingly distorted harmonies and interesting turns of phrase" but some "attempts at cleverness overreached" and there was "a painfully obvious unrecorded song about dieting and a silly, albeit self-consciously so, stab at voguing a la Madonna." Another wrote their "music can alternate between heart-rending poetry and infectious flights of fancy."
Flying Solo
In 1994, Kimball and Brooke separated. Kimball performed as a singer-songwriter in various venues and continued to write music.In 1998, Kimball released the album Veering from the Wave. A Washington Post critic applauded the singing as "handsome" and the songwriting as excellent. In 1999, Kimball opened for folk artists such as Tom Rush
Tom Rush
Tom Rush is an American folk and blues singer, songwriter, musician and recording artist.- Life and career :Rush was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. His father was a teacher at St. Paul's School, in Concord, New Hampshire. Tom began performing in 1961 while studying at Harvard University after...
. In 2000, she was a featured performer at New Haven's
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
Eli Whitney Folk Festival. Her tune Meet Me in the Twilight has been played on the radio, including San Francisco station KPFA. She's recorded with such artists as Wayfaring Strangers, Session Americana, and Tony Trischka
Tony Trischka
Tony Trischka is an American five-string banjo player.-Biography:Tony Trischka was born in Syracuse, New York, and graduated from Syracuse University with a B.A in Fine Arts, and was inspired to play the banjo in 1963, listening to the Kingston Trio's "Charlie and The MTA". Trischka was a...
. Her music has been described by a critic as "quirky and oh-so-urban suburban" and a "sultry roots singer" with the "aching breath of a mezzo."
Kimball released her CD Oh Hear Us in 2006. One critic wrote "her songs still ripple with eccentric surprise, sudden twists, and "A-ha!" moments."
In 2007 she was a part-time horticulturalist and studied landscape design
Landscape design
Landscape design is an independent profession and a design and art tradition, practised by landscape designers, combining nature and culture. In contemporary practice landscape design bridges between landscape architecture and garden design.-Design scope:...
at Harvard. She commented about her hobby: "It's a lovely way to keep the head 'free' while working outside and dreaming up songs, designs, novels." She sang and played at Boston's Lizard Lounge with musicians including guitarist Duke Levine, lap steel player Kevin Barry, drummer Bill Beard, bassist Dick Gates, and guest artists including Dennis Brennan, Kris Delmhorst
Kris Delmhorst
Kris Delmhorst is an American singer-songwriter who is part of the Boston folk scene. She was involved in producing 1998's Respond compilation, a fundraiser for domestic violence groups, and it included her song Weatherman. In 1999, she released a live album with The Vinal Avenue String Band,...
, Rose Polenzani
Rose Polenzani
Rose Polenzani is an independent folk musician. She was raised in the Chicago area and attended Knox College before leaving to pursue a singing career. She is currently living in Boston, Massachusetts. Her singing style is distinctive and emotionally charged. At least one free download is always...
, Anne Heaton
Anne Heaton
Anne Heaton is an American pop-influenced folk singer/songwriter and pianist from New York City. She majored in liberal studies at the Notre Dame, and grew up in the Chicago suburb of Wilmette. She regularly toured with "Live from New York" on the eastern coast of the United States...
, and Rose Cousins
Rose Cousins
Rose Cousins is a Canadian folk-pop singer-songwriter. Born and raised in Prince Edward Island, she is currently based in Halifax, Nova Scotia....
.
In 2008, Kimball performed with Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
artists such as Rose Polenzani and Rose Cousins. A critic described them as "a veritable supergroup of some of the finest local singer-songwriters."
Kimball has performed to raise money for charitable organizations such as Massachusetts Families in Need. She also supports the cause of helping women's shelters. She is a mother and lives in the Boston, Massachusetts area.
Discography
| Album | Year | Label | Notes | References |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grace in Gravity | 1991 | part of The Story | ||
| Angel in the House | 1993 | Elektra Elektra Records Elektra Records is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group. In 2004, it was consolidated into WMG's Atlantic Records Group. After five years of dormancy, the label was revived by Atlantic in 2009.... |
part of The Story | |
| Veering from the Wave | 1998 | Philips; Imaginary Road | solo debut album | |
| Oh Hear Us | 2006 | Epoisse Records | ||