Me. vocals, guitar, slide guitar, dobro, banjo, pedal steel, lap steel, mandolin, cello, piano, organ.
and on occasion:
katiejane garside- vocals
Andria Degens- vocals, harmonium, bass
Josie Little- vocals
Sara Zentner- piano
Matt Bauer- banjo, vocals
Jay Foote- bowed bass
Influences
Townes Van Zandt, Cormac McCarthy, Joe Bolton, Raymond Carver, Breece D'J Pancake, William Faulkner, Chris Offut, Steve Earle, Chris Knight, Johnny Cash, Andre Dubus, Jack Gilbert, Charles Frazier, Gram Parsons, Harry Crews, Flannery O' Connor, James Dickey, The King James Bible, Jim Harrison, Emmylou Harris, Leonard Cohen, katiejane garside, Andria Degens, Damien Jurado, Joy Division, Charles Bukowski, Gillian Welch, Nick Cave, Woven Hand, Mark Lanegan, Whiskeytown, Robert Belfour, Blind Willie Johnson, Dock Boggs, Sara Zentner, Hobart Smith, Ryan Adams, Iron and Wine, Jessie Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter, R.L. Burnside, Chris Whitley, Charley Patton, Bukka White, John Lee Hooker, Langston Hughes, Clarence Ashley, Larry Brown, Will Oldham, Dillard Chandler, David Gordon Green, Terrence Malick, Dolan Geiman, Jaclyn Sollars, Jim White, Jason Isbell, Caroline Herring, Roscoe Holcomb, Son Volt, Uncle Tupelo, Songs:Ohia, Otis Taylor, The Black Keys, Junior Kimbrough, Robert Johnson, Son House, Skip James, Richard Buckner, Dax Riggs, the Old 97's, Michael Acree, Kathleen Edwards, 16 Horsepower, Bruce Springsteen, Munly and the Lee Lewis Harlots, The Everybodyfields.
Sounds Like
moonlight. train tracks. calm after thunderstorm. scarecrows. dusty bibles. abandoned houses. fireflies. wire fence. sunlight through dust. creaking porch. fallen leaves. churchyard cemetary. grey autumn sky. river levee. dark holler. gravel road. car overgrown by weeds. dying town. windchimes. humid night. petal crushed underfoot. smoke. dirt on coffin lid. sighs. train whistle on winter night. wooden floor. color of night sky. secret place. iron bridge. blossoms blown by storm. far off radio tower. raindrops running down window. locust. derelict boxcar. dreams. wind in poplar tree. swallow's nest in barn rafters. kudzu on telephone pole. smell of snow. first star of evening. last star of morning. dark canopy of trees. heat that rises from the road. red neon sign. hum of electric line on silent road. map of stars. hymnal falling apart. small white crosses by highway. days of rain. gathering of birds on power line. gas station lights. sound of water. cicada hum. smell of leaves. path through woods. ghosts. bottle on windowsill. midnight prayer. bare branches against darkening sky. rain on road. south wind. raven wing flutter. shadows. blinking yellow light at deserted intersection. red ribbon tied to tree branch. forgotten church. sparrows. rust. dark part of flame. railroad crossing lights through fog. name of town crumbling off water tower. flock of birds at november twilight. wind before rain. weight of memory. lover's whisper. insect song at night. puddle of clouds. rusted silo. slowing song of crickets. dance of leaves blown by wind. green valley. decaying barn. field after harvest. city lights on horizon. clouds covering moon. lonely afternoon. quiet dusk. dying days of summer. shadow of bird flying by streetlamp. words of decline. buzz of insects crescendo and decrescendo in summer afternoon heat. lightning. red dirt. fall sunlight. tall pine. rain on metal roof. things that die. heartbeats.
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i write songs for those who see the face of god in dirt and rust and broken things. for those who love desolation and who make of it ceremony and song. for those who bear memory's weight and who count the days of their youth in the blinking lights of distant radio towers and deserted intersections. who read in the crumbling names of towns on water towers the dispatches of passing seasons and forgotten heartbeats. for those who in dreams find great and unknowable mystery. who love words that sound upon their lips like secrets and sighs.
My album, The Dying Days of Summer, is available for $13, including shipping, in the U.S. and $18, including shipping, overseas. I can accept payment by paypal at jeffzentner@yahoo.com. For alternative payment options, please message me. You can purchase on CDBaby. You may also purchase the album on iTunes and Amazon.
My album, Hymns to the Darkness, is available for $13, including shipping, in the U.S. and $18, including shipping, overseas. I can accept payment by paypal at jeffzentner@yahoo.com. For alternative payment options, please message
me. You can also purchase the album at http://cdbaby.com/cd/zentner; as well as on iTunes.
"...Without fail, the lyrics read well in their own right as poems, and truly shine out when put to Zentner’s hypnotic, whispering vocals and dreamy arrangements.
Beware though, this album does not make for easy listening. Zentner’s tales are tinged with black, and as beautiful as his prose is, there is a real underlying darkness that imparts a deliciously deep sense of unease. Conjuring images of desolate, rusty small towns, and compelling tales of human tragedy, love, and friendship, the listener is transported away into another world entirely."
--Americana-UK
"A disconcerting purveyor of caustic Americana, Jeff Zentner is an introspective young songwriter who conjures images of suburban desolation and despair through his dark lyricism and some stark, whispered vocals. Drawing on the bittersweet melancholy of Iron and Wine and the unsettling fragility of Mark Lanegan, Zentner sets about creating a hugely-affecting sound that echoes with desperation and a heart-breaking sense of youthful resignation.
His debut album Hymns to the Darkness is a difficult, troubling but immensely rewarding listening experience. Alongside barren arrangements consisting of weeping lap steel and precision finger-picking, Zentner talks of forgotten, nameless towns, rusting industries and his frustrations at the dying heart of real world America. This is heart-wrenching, throat-drying melancholy that connects with the raw and primal fears of every intoxicated listener. Zentner is a truly breath-taking talent."
--Fresh Deer Meat
"Lush, haunting, and sparse are just a few of the words I'd use to describe the music of Jeff Zentner. This North Carolina native has the whole Leonard Cohen melancholy thing down to a science. His songs are so beautiful that you won't even mind if they make you a little depressed. Unless you're like me and love depressing music, then you'll be elated at how depressed they'll make you."
--Triumphs and Tragedies
"These are dark, melancholic country ballads here folks - and I can honestly say they hit the mark. While many want diversity in an album in order to get a feel for an artist, it can leave you unaware of the true sound or an identity in general. This is the case with Zentner as you will know from the first listen, that his sound is to provide beautifully bleak soundscapes of Americana goodness. Think of a somber Ryan Adams with less piano mixed with Steve Earle without the anger."
--Slowcoustic
"The wonderfully talented Jeff Zentner is back and better than ever with a new album “The Dying Days of Summer" . . . I’ve listened to the new album and it is definitely a stunner." --You Crazy Dreamers
"Give this haunting, oddly disturbing enigma a listen. You may be a little depressed at first, but as you go along some pretty interesting and beautiful images will surround you." --Laughing Evergreens
"...Reminding me of a more embellished Nick Drake and recent folk-lovey Fionn Regan, these are beautiful songs that also have a hint of Morrissey about their lyrics. They may be dark, but there’s something wonderfully uplifting about them." --The Line of Best Fit
"given my propensity to tagging bands, songs, artists with such lazy and sophomoric labels as 'awesome,' 'killer,' 'lovely,' 'great,' 'most excellent,' etc it may seem that my vocabulary is quite limited, but you would only be half right. sometimes, even i get hung up and such trite phrases just ain't gonna cut it. such is the case with asheville native, jeff zentner and his recently released, the dying days of summer. i have been attempting to come up with something, for the past 4 days, that not only intelligently but emotionally conveys the tone of this record. still the words escape me. as i was alluding to, zentner’s the dying days of summer emits visions and themes, and when words are lacking, resort to a picture. that is exactly how the record sounds to me. stumbling through the darkness and the moss that is seemingly everywhere in places like savannah, ga. this is definitely a very southern record, but not in a southern rock kinda way, but in a you may have to live here to understand kinda way. this is not to say if you don't live or have never lived in the south you won't appreciate or dig this record, in fact quite the contrary. the dying days of summer just sounds like the south. the sounds of the south that aren't really heard but felt." --Captain's Dead
"Somewhere in the broad open spaces between folk and country, Jeff Zentner’s self-released second solo album The Dying Days of Summer echoes the sound of a voice against the rain, observes the mystery in far lights on a hill, sees the threat of a river rising, and remembers the smell of jasmine at night. The minimalist production brings to mind empty fields, abandoned farmhouses, and dirt roads meandering away from southern towns.
Zentner accompanies his poetic vocals with guitar, slide guitar, dobro, banjo, pedal steel, lap steel, mandolin, cello, piano, organ in outrageously beautiful compositions. Fans of J. Tillman should should take a listen." --Speed of Dark
"Absolutely first-class, richly lyrical Nashville gothic from Asheville, North Carolina tunesmith Jeff Zentner. The instrumentation is mostly acoustic, very rustic in places but the lyrical vision is completely in the here and now. The often white-knuckle intensity in the songs and Zentner’s sometimes breathy voice remind a lot of Matt Keating, particularly his Summer Tonight album from a couple of years ago; musically, it’s a lot closer to the nocturnal sound of Ninth House frontman Mark Sinnis’ haunting solo work. Zentner plays pretty much all the instruments here except the piano and harmonium, sparsely and elegantly arranged. The production is particularly smart, the music perfectly matching the brooding feel of the lyrics, an intricate web of stringed instruments awash in eerie, echoey reverb, pedal steel soaring mournfully overhead. . . Darker than Iron & Wine, more deeply steeped in Americana than Nick Cave, this nonetheless ought to appeal to both camps. . . Watch for this on our best 50 albums list of 2009 at the end of the year."
--Lucid Culture
"His dark and rustic Americana sound hits heavy but resonates deeply, with a voice that calls to mind Mark Lanegan and the ominous lyrics to match. The fourteen-track album runs sixty long minutes, demanding your attention and time. Don’t expect bite-sized, hook-heavy anthems with this one – these are songs you need to listen to and not just hear."
--Dust Sleeve
"I remember reading a short story by Ray Bradbury; I can’t remember what it was about. He wrote about leaf mould and mummy dust, cobwebs and old memories. In a couple of paragraphs, he was able to conjure a certain atmosphere. Jeff Zentner could be his musical heir. . . Zentner manages to evoke a bruised, battered and abandoned landscape comfortably sinking into the earth. With your eyes closed and staring at the back of your eyelids, you’ll see broken down machinery, tumbledown buildings and rain that can’t dislodge the soot and despair that covers everything. And that’s just the bright side of things. . .It’s amazing stuff and you have to experience it to really appreciate the craftsmanship that’s gone into each song. Strange and mysterious. Well worth buying."
--bullfrog music
"This, the second solo album by local singer/songwriter Jeff Zentner (also the front man for Tennessee-based Creech Holler), hits its stride at the second line of the opening track. There, backup vocalist Josie Little adds her angelic voice to Zenter's own wispy-hushed singing. The 14-song disc is country — but only in the barest sense. Minor keys, 3/4 time signatures, haunting fiddle strains and the malevolent plucking of a banjo here and there underscore Zentner's poetic lyrics. "I've always loved summer's dying days / I've always been that kind," he sings on the title track. . . The overall effect — a somnolent, Southern Gothic soundscape — casts sweetly tattered imagery against a velvet-dark backdrop of exquisitely minimalist instrumentation."
--Asheville Mountain Xpress
If this is to be Goodbye
The Color of the Clouds at Night
Rusty Town
Nobody's Fault but Mine
i also make music with a band called creech holler
hey- not on here much anymore- but trust me when i say the cd's get me through many days! anyway just wanted you to know that the magic that you do is so very appreciated.
oh thanks! I'm sure that we should be on tour together in france, with nadj or les bandits, could be awesome to share stage, van, french backstage food (not so good as you think;-), jamming and sharing music from town to town for a trip! could be more exciting and funny with you! anyway, you're welcome here when you want with sara and your son! cheeers! nadj
HI dear jeff, here a vid from my band les bandits, "all your lies" the last song of our set at Rocktambule festival in the alps! thanks for sharing... nadj
I've got your album!!!! thanks jeff!!!! It's so good to hear from you, this album is so deep and beautiful! byyyyye! welcome in france, when you want! nadj
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