5 years ago i decided to start playing my own songs for audiences as a "solo artist" . Although i am technically a soloist, i do come draped in musical friends, collaborators, mentors and champions all of which are part of the recipe that results in the music you here on this page. I have been very fortunate to forge bonds with many wonderful and talented people since i set foot on this path. Some of those poeple include Tony Berg who produces with me my records. Shawn everett who engineers them. Blake Mills who is one of the most talented SOB's i know. Patrick Warren who not only is a wonderous musician but also went to med school. Quinn who is one of my favourite drummers in LA. Nicole Eva Emery who not only is a dazzling vocalist..but is a smart and sexy bitch as well (except for the fact that she's going to be a nurse istead of a fulltime rocker ;-). Zberg daughter of Tony Berg who is an absolute one of a kind..also smart sexy bitch....Look out here she comes !! Kaveh Rastagar bassist and darling extraornidare. Stuart Johnson uber talented drummer and darling double. Joe Karnes wonderful Bassist and best kind of company especially when were rapping in the car after a show on the late night drive up the 405. The Ditty Bops who undoubtably the most creative witches i know. I miss our walks !! Sasha smith keys whiz and friend from way back home. Here in the UK i am just starting out but have been fortunate enough to find Jimmy Wallace who is a delight and a wonderon the guitar. Zoe Choitis who is a greek goddess and a sultry sexy singer.
These people are some, and ofcourse not all, the greatest gifts in my life.
To music !! To life !!
Influences
early early folk songs, pop radio, chamber music,gospel music,20's to 40's jazz, ol' counrty, ol' blues, slave songs,dance Hall, murder ballads, rock and roll, blue grass, my back yard, Cat Stevens, Kate Bush, Edith Piaff,Blackbird Stitches, Crosby Stills n Nash, Bjork, Out Cast,The Faun Fables, Beck, Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, The Roots, Tom Waits, Leanord Cohen, Pj Harvey, The Police, my best friends, my phone bill, what i ate for breakfast, what i didnt eat for breakfast. Say no to fast food and junk food music.
Any music that is good...and may the lord help you if you can't tell the difference.
Werkshop.com (high quality digital OR order a physical copy!!)
Download KISMET now!
iTunes
Werkshop.com
Buy Jesca tees, totes, patches and buttons here!
VIDEOS:
Money Video Dir. Richard Borge
Jesca on Morning Becomes Eclectic
Jesca performing live in New Orleans
Big Fish Video Dir. Linda Serbu
MANAGEMENT CONTACT: hoopmgmt@nettwerk.com
Bio
It has been quite a year for Jesca Hoop thus far. Tipped by a diverse range of UK publications from Uncut (“excellent”), Time Out (bewitching”), OMM (Tips for 2009), The Sun (‘Single of the Week’ for ‘Murder of Birds’), Esquire, Music Week and a two page feature in The Times on the back of one limited self-released UK debut EP. Interspersed shows and radio sessions for the likes of Marc Riley have had to maneuver around the recording of the follow up to her US- only debut album from 2007. This arrives in the supremely elegant and unique shape of Hunting My Dress due to be released in the UK on November 16, 2009.
The above are far from being on their own in nailing their allegiance
and trumpeting the emergence of someone very special. She has
received notable endorsements from Tom Waits and the nation’s new
Humphrey Lyttelton-in-waiting, one Guy Garvey. He became so enchanted
by her music that he invited her onto his radio show. They got on
like a house on fire, so he continued his open house policy by
extending an invite to join the Elbow US tour in April 2008, which
led into a UK tour in October 2008 followed by another US tour in
August this year. He also lends his subtle yet inimitable vocal
strength to ‘Murder of Birds’.
These notable artists are not ones to bandy plaudits easily and
neither should they. So what you may ask binds these people together?
Maybe it is the darting melodies and sense of play nestled next to a
capacity for wonder… Or maybe The Times summation gets somewhere
close as “her voice swoops and pierces the high heavens and then the
song soars down low”. Or maybe it is simply her ability to roll up
the sleeve and get on with things and not wait for anyone to open
that elusive door. She has toured relentlessly across the US and
Europe, gaining fans in abundance wherever she goes. She is a force
of nature that plays her intricate tunes for the right reasons. And
what tunes they are. Brave and bold you can assign to her. Shrinking
violet you can’t.
Oh, and did we mention her you-could-not-make-this-up background? If
you have served as nanny to Tom Waits and Kathryn Brennan’s kids,
most things are going to be small in comparison. Add to this her
strict Mormon history in a family of five children in California
where her childhood was highly musical, singing elaborate harmonies
with her siblings of traditional folk songs. As her distinctive voice
and obvious natural gift for inventive song craft will attest, Jesca
has music running through her veins. Pursuing her own path away from
her strict upbringing, fueling the visionary musical worlds in her
head, Jesca traveled in the West – Wyoming, Arizona – where she
became involved with such diverse activities as working in wilderness
rehabilitation programs for troubled youths. When one trek too many
halted this temporary world, she made her way into the aforementioned
nannying position.
By then, Hoop had already been writing songs and performing with a
band, and Waits took an interest in her songs from a caring distance.
Through him, an early version of the swirling ‘Seed of Wonder’ (from
the Kismet debut) made its way to music publisher Lionel Conway, who
in turn gave it to Nic Harcourt, the musically adventurous and
influential host of “Morning Becomes Eclectic” on radio KCRW in Santa
Monica. After playing SXSW last year, things started to move along at
a steady pace and resulted in stints in the UK and the Kismet
Acoustic EP.
The making of Hunting My Dress is informed by sorrow yet ultimately
the new form of love and stasis that can be left in its wake. It is
also a reading of the ‘dream’ state and moments around the witching
hour. It also heaves with sensuality and love. The loose acoustic
framework of the Kismet Acoustic EP has been expanded upon but all
the musical parts coalesce and work around Hoop’s versatile vocal
performance. Her improvisational flair as a singer is one of the most
significant unifying aspects of her work. She delivers her vocals as
if she is making up the melody on the spot, a sure sign of natural
talent.
Co- produced in conjunction with Tony Berg at his Zeitgeist studio in
LA (full of a variety of “instruments, doo da's, wizzles and
machineries”), Hoop sees the process as her “quickfire” record.
Bagging as much energy as quickly as possible so as to not over think
or crowd out the ideas. “My aim was to produce as much energy and
force with as little sonic information as possible. Layers can be a
rather complicated recipe. Less is more was our motto. The narrative
is the centre of this record while percussion/drums and electric
guitar play the primary supports. I applied as little as possible to
each track and was highly protective over the voice and the story it
relays. Anything is worth trying and nothing is too precious to mute”
She also adds that due to the feeling surrounding the strength of the
songs that “This record was relatively effortless and a sheer joy to
create!” This again is quite something when you consider that she was
flat broke during the whole of this recording period and borrowed
studio time only when an opportunity revealed itself, working around
busy schedules at odd hours. This only made for a more emboldened
experience.
Again, as with the Kismet Acoustic EP, it feels as though assembled
on the fly with its sparking energy. It is also warming to hear the
clever intricacies of the harmonies are still intact alongside Hoop
positively attacking the tracks with gusto whilst in no way crushing
them. The confidence in her own vocal performance ushers away any
comparisons with ‘precious’ folker’s. It is ravishing in short.
“One of my favourite tracks on the record, ‘Whispering Light’ has
only my guitar, voice and drums. Another is ‘Feast Of The Heart’
which is made up of just two basses, a totally haphazard drum track
and my voice. The songs were written over a span of like 16 months.
As a body of work they sound like they are from the same
volume...chapter...or season”. Apt that she pinpoints ‘Whispering
Light’ as it opens proceedings. We are immediately into a place where
she teases and goads her own lyrics, playing push me-pull you against
the stark backdrop. It seems perfectly economical as was intended.
This is followed by the swooping ‘The Kingdom’ where Hoop embodies a
“banshee-esque battle goddess who's call it is to deliver a spell
bound death to those dying, yet still attached to this earth” This
story is carried on the back of monstrous percussion, through the
wail of sirens and Hoop's fireside narration. The wobbly playfulness
of ‘Four Dreams’ is next with its stand out dream-like slide blues
interlude from Blake Mills. ‘Angel Mom’ brings forth the album
centerpiece that is pretty self explanatory. Never manipulating
grief, it can only invoke an ironic smile whilst being on the edge of
collapse, as is mirrored within the arrangement. Truly beautiful and
evocative.
‘Feast of the Heart’ drips with passion, as if Marc Ribot joins a
rampant Hoop letting her tresses a go-go, with military drums adding
to the maelstrom. Things are calmed by another highlight in the form
of the marvellously lilting ‘Murder of Birds’. If anyone wants a
lesson on how to accompany on a duet, just listen to this impeccable,
restrained performance from Guy Garvey, weaving around Hoop who more
than proves his equal. ‘Bed across the Sea’ in turn brandishes a new
love found and pulsing heart beating hard and often.
No album would complete without a murder ballad right? Just ask Nick
Cave. ‘Tulip’ delivers in spades and notches up yet another strident
vocal performance. The album is rounded out by the embrace of the
title track ‘Hunting My Dress’. And in the words of Jesca, it was
also a way to narrate herself as a “fire carrying raccoon”! The
layered backing vocals at the tail end of the track are simply stunning.
Artistic ambition and a near obsession with sound and sensual
wordplay are the rule of thumb all over this delightful work. The UK
should be proud that she now resides on that fair isle after a
lifetime living in the US.
Jesca Hoop’s lyric, “Your passion marks you different” could not sum
it up any better really. She has made the album that she most wanted,
and in turn we should dive right in and sample this distinguished
talent and her work.
The Manchester-based Californian, whose remarkable new album, Hunting My Dress, confirms her as one of alternative folk-pop’s most arresting recent arrivals, sings like an outcast angel and writes like a restless explorer. Her songs are both ancient and modern, dark as night and suffused with light.
"Hoop remains her own invention and the appeal of her biographical details doesn't lie so much in the glitzy endorsement of Waits as in the fact they chime so perfectly with her melding of Kate Bush sensuality and Mary Poppins whimsy... On Whispering Light or Four Dreams, a winsome hoe-down line-dancing along a very wobbly line, it sounds as if English is her second - maybe third or fourth - language, her Freudian fables and oddly archaic dream-speak translated from the original palimpsest via carrier pigeon and semaphore. Yet when she shivers "I'm not a bird/I'm a murder of birds" on Murder Of Birds, a hushed, lullabying duet with Guy Garvey of Elbow (the band who encouraged Hoop to move to Manchester), it's clear that there's more substance here than fragile folk-kook feyness.
Murder ballad Tulip is Shirley Collins after a stint in a Californian writer's workshop; the pulsing Bed Across The Sea displays a tough musculature under the layers of lace dresses, while Angel Mom crashes into a red-lipped, kohl-eyed Kate Bush meltdown that sees her rivaling fellow head-dress fan Natasha Khan for cosmic oddity. "When I was a young girl I would sleep in a tall tree," she sings on the title track. It's easy to forget the official biography and believe she's right.
Friends in high places never hurt, but Jesca Hoop hits the heights all by herself.
Q Magazine (December 2009)
Q Magazine's 50 Essential Tracks of the Month
Hunting My Dress Album Review
Word Magazine (November 2009)
"Then there is the fantastically good Californian Jesca Hoop - she was once nanny for Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan's children - who sings like a crazy woman kept sane only by melody. Love & Love Again ("The sailors all drift, and get lost in her hair/Hearts are bare, and the soldiers come home again...") is maddeningly beautiful, while Murder Of Birds ("The shape of home-baked bread, and the girl in a turned down bed/In a wake of twisted thread, from the loving words you said...") is, literally, startling."
Music Week's The Panel (October 31st, 2009)
Music Week (September 2009)
Club Uncut Review (July 2009)
"I think there’s something both theatrical and elemental to Hoop’s songs that remind me, fleetingly, of Kate Bush or Bjork. Her voice shifts into different registers, while the lyrics frequently mention skies, rivers, storms and winds’ or enchanted places where the boundaries shift and the dead might come back to life or animals talk. But, please, there’s nothing twee or precious here. She’s a great between-song raconteur, bantering about the collective nouns for birds with the audience, or how she lost her dress and car keys at Glastonbury, or opening “Intelligentactile 101” with “This is a children’s story. I heard it from my nephew. When my sister was pregnant. Except he turned out to be a girl. So I had some explaining to do.” read more..
LA Weekly (April 2009)-Of all the fine singer-songwriters who've come out of the Hotel Café, Jesca Hoop might be the most wildly inventive. Her 2007 major-label debut, Kismet (Red Ink/Columbia), is more than just the usual assortment of pop-folk songs, because it's layered with wonderfully mesmerizing arrangements and evocatively arty lyrics. Read more...
The SF Examiner (February 5, 2009)-Folk Singer demonstrates her survival skills: Avant-folk songstress Jesca Hoop [is] back with the self-released “Kismet Acoustic” featuring the duet “Murder of Birds” with Elbow’s Guy Garvey. The Examiner recently chatted with Hoop, who’s also known for her survival skills.
Read more...
Guardian UK/The Observer (January 18, 2009)-The 20 Best New Acts of 2009: California-based Hoop used to be Tom Waits’ nanny and Elbow’s Guy Garvey enjoyed her folk-rock enough to take her on tour.
Download: Murder of Birds
Uncut (UK)
(November 18, 2008) I’ve been playing Hoop’s “Kismet Acoustic” EP quite a lot of late... The first track here is the best and, promisingly, the newest one she’s written (the others apparently had fleshed-out treatments on an album, “Kismet”, from 2007, that I’ve never come across). It’s called “Murder Of Birds”, features Guy Garvey on discreet, low-level backing vocals, and melodically moves in the same territory as Kate Bush’s “Army Dreamers”; Joanna Newsom is a plausible comparison, too, though Hoop seems more earthly than transported. There’s something about her guitar playing here that’s oddly reminiscent of Newsom’s harp, as well – a certain gem-like shimmer that sounds like a kora at times. It’s lovely, anyway, and there’s enough else on “Kismet Acoustic” – notably “Seed Of Wonder” (more Newsom allusions here, perhaps) – to make Hoop worth following more intensively next year. - John Mulvey Read more...
Music Week's "Panel" (UK)
(October 25, 2008)-Endorsements from the likes of Tom Waits and Guy Garvey persuaded us to give Jesca Hoop a go, and she definitely didn’t disappoint. Not at all like a lot of other hiccupping folk-pop songtrels around, Hoops’ vaudeville style is fantastical and really engaging.
-Chris Parkin (Time Out)
Sunday Times Online (UK)
(March 13, 2008) - The LA-based British DJ Nic Harcourt, whose Morning Becomes Eclectic show on KCRW has played a pivotal role in breaking acts such as Coldplay and Norah Jones, hosted an evening at Buffalo Billiards, kicking off at 8pm with the Californian singer-songwriter Jesca Hoop. An out-of-the-box writer and performer, Hoop is currently being courted, as they say, by a number of visiting UK label scouts. She's Tom Waits's former nanny, but her album Kismet should, when it's eventually released in Britain, mean that that fact soon ceases to be her chief claim to fame. The highlight of a strong and bracingly eccentric full-band performance was Intelligentactile 101, a Bjork-meets-Edie Brickell tub-thumper that sounds like her first hit.-Dan Cairns
Read more...
Music Week
(March 13, 2008) - Earlier in the evening Steve Lamacq, Martin Mills (Beggars) and Dan Cairns (Times Culture) were among those crammed into Buffallo Billiards for a brilliant performance by new talent Jesca Hoop. The at present unsigned artist has joined Peter Leak's management stable at Nettwerk alongside Martha Wainwright and Dido, and promises to make some serious inroads this year. In an interesting twist to her story, Hoop, who was formerly signed to Columbia, was discovered via Tom Waits with whom she was employed as a nanny for his children. - Stuart Clarke Read more...
Daily Camera.com
(March 14, 2008) My first official music of SXSW is provided by California singer-songwriter Jesca Hoop who has been much hyped by both Tom Waits (Jesca worked as a nanny for Tom) and influential DJ Nic Harcourt. Harcourt's station KCRW (Santa Monica and KCRW.com) has a highly visible presence at SXSW, including presenting this opening showcase with Jesca Hoop. Jesca's performance is theatrical - playful but not overbearing. After mostly a full band set, she closes with just voice and guitar, showcasing her sophisticated melodic leaps and flowing arms (adorned with elbow-length white gloves). Her performance is genuinely musical - a nice start to SXSW 2008. –Brian Eyster Read more...
LAist.com
You might recall that right around Labor Day we celebrated KCRW's 30th anniversary of Morning Becomes Eclectic with a series of interviews with a handful of their on-air personalities. Today we are lucky enough to get the Top 10 list of Nic Harcourt's top albums of 2007. We are very happy to see that he's just as down with local kids Sea Wolf and Great Northern as we are. Not only that, but atop his list is another local girl, Jesca Hoop! Read more...
LA Times
Maybe it's her small-town upbringing in Sonoma County, or maybe it's her singing voice -- which sounds like a cherub caught in a light breeze -- but people want to know whether moving to Los Angeles somehow threatened Jesca Hoop. Read more...
Paste Magazine
(October 2007) – 4 to Watch feature excerpt: Why She’s Worth Watching - Her debut Kismet feels like a feral child emerging from the Top 40 forest, brimming with loopy, acrobatic vocals, ethereal off-kilter melodies and lovably eccentric lyrics. Kickoff single “Summertime” even features a crow cawing along amid the yodelly fluff. - Tom Lanham
Read more...
Prefix Magazine
(September 12, 2007) - The title of Jesca Hoop's debut album, Kismet, could easily refer to the twists of fate that led to its existence. Certainly it seems like destiny that Hoop would land a five-year tenure as nanny to the children of Tom Waits, whose influence is spattered generously across Kismet. Another bit of good fortune came in 2004, when Waits's publisher, Lionel Conway sent a demo version of "Seed of Wonder" to the highly influential radio host Nic Harcourt at Los Angeles station KCRW, who helped make the song one of the most requested in the station's history. Without an official release to her name, Hoop was tapped to open for the Polyphonic Spree during its summer 2007 tour. Read more...
NY Magazine
(September 3-10, 2007) – Precious Tom Waits-approved singer from California delivers inventive, fantastical folk-pop poems.
Liner Notes Magazine
(September 2007) - Kismet, Jesca Hoop’s unpredictable debut album will keep you on your toes. Read more...
Filter Magazine
(Fall 2007) - Hoop's music is that of modern fairytales and skewered folk stories. Raised in a Mormon community, fate landed her as the babysitter to Tom Waits' children, thus further encouraging her to perform. The result of these experiences is a debut album of both otherworldly allusion and modern-day observance. "Money" has dense, bulky rhythms with a melody that trails like stardust whilst laying shame on artists' willingness to sell out for hard, cold cash. What is most enrapturing about this album is Hoop's voice. Although her vocals are glossed with clear, vibrant production, it's her natural ability that brings her stories to life. Reminiscent of Bjork, there are intriguing hints of Scandinavian influence in Hoop's voice, but when employed within her melodies, she unleashes her art to a devastating affect. Kismet is an unusual and endearing collection of songs, and Hoop is unforgettable in her beauty and charisma. Grade: 86%
- Jonathan Falcone
Slant Magazine
Kismet is a fitting title for singer-songwriter Jesca Hoop's debut album. The song "Seed of Wonder," which fell into the hands of an influential L.A. radio tastemaker by way of Hoop's employer and mentor Tom Waits (she worked as his kids' nanny for a spell), is a kaleidoscopic assemblage of bridges and verses that overlap and repeat, recounting Hoop's creative journey from "stagnant well," in which spiders fantastically strummed their webs and called her to join them, to prosperous "tapped spring." The song, however, comes too early in the album; it's the kind of paramount burst that would play more satisfying as a climactic piece rather than a wellspring for what follows (like the equally powerful but more modestly arranged "Enemy" and "Love is All We Have," an ode to New Orleans that coasts on the sounds of a creaking boat and a rousing melody of "Level me now/Love is all we have").
Read more...
Before meeting Waits, Hoop grew up in a strict Mormon home where MTV was banned and singing murder ballads and church hymns in four-part harmony was the norm, the effect of which can be heard in the bundles of vocal overdubs throughout Kismet. Hoop's lyrics unravel like free verse, and her voice shifts from alpine almost-yodeling to a deeper, sultry register (often all in the same song), so it's no surprise to learn that she counts the likes of Kate Bush and Björk as influences. "Silverscreen" finds the singer in a sort of film screening purgatory where home movies are shown ("Gates of Heaven/There is me on the silverscreen/I hope they did good editing"), while "Money" addresses the challenge of maintaining artistic integrity in the face of "cheddar" ("Where go the misfits on the fringe/When the edges are all rounded out?"). Despite signing with a major label, Hoop has still managed to record an offbeat yet accessible album filled with carnivalesque flourishes, and it seems her inner freak has been anything but dulled.
Laist.com
LAist.com interviews KCRW’s Nic Harcourt (September 3, 2007) - LAist: KCRW and MBE in particular are well known for giving new and unsigned artists their first airplay. Of those who you've debuted, which was your favorite (whether or not they were everyone else's fave)?
Harcourt: Damien Rice and Jesca Hoop are two of my favorites. Jesca has her first full length a new album coming out soon and we started playing her years ago after I got her demo via Tom Waits. Read more...
Zink Magazine
(September 2007) – That’s no typo. Her name is Jesca, not Jessica, and her debut album, Kismet, (Sony) is as offbeat as she is. Not only does Kismet sound drastically different from song to song – incorporating elements of folk, pop, jazz, country, blues and rock – there are also frequent and rather surprising tonal shifts within the songs themselves. A delightful mixture of Edie Brickell and Fiona Apple, Hoop turns every track into a prize-filled box of Cracker Jacks with her off-kilter guitar riffs and kooky keyboards. You never know what you’re going to get, but that’s part of the fun. Ease into the ride with sensationally quirky standouts “Silverscreen” and “Seed of Wonder.”
Entertainment Weekly
(August 22, 2007) – About “Intelligentactile 101”: This NorCal newcomer’s debut CD, Kismet (out Sept. 18), comes with an elliptical endorsement from no less a musical legend than Tom Waits, whose children she once nannied: “Jesca’s music,” he offers in a press release, “is like a four-sided coin.” (Sure, Tom, whatever you say.) Hoop shares some intriguing imagery of her own on this standout track, where she crows about “swinging from the stars/On an umbilical cord.” What does it all mean? With a melody this bewitching, you might not care. Read more...
Filter Magazine
(July 25, 2007) - The El Rey Theatre was turned into a recruitment rally of sorts at the sold-out Polyphonic Spree show with special guest Jesca Hoop presented by KCRW July 18.
The troops were rallied in the theater by opener Jesca Hoop who beautifully warmed the stage with her enchanting songs promptly at 9 p.m. Coifed with a fur hat, tousled brunette hair and a simple T-shirt paired with jeans, her gentle vocals filled the room captivating the audience with her delicate tales for just under 30 minutes. Jesca made the most of a cramped stage already set for the 20-something members of the Polyphonic Spree and performed her songs with a modest set up producing a sound that was anything but.
Her performance elicited resemblances to a stripped down Bjork or even Mirah, yet still all completely her own as she effortlessly sang her well-crafted songs that can only be sung so true from experience. Hoop’s own tale is fanciful in itself, discovered by the legendary Tom Wait’s as she was working as his nanny and living out of a van in California, Hoop has just completed her forthcoming debut album, Kismet, to be released by Red Ink Sept. 18 and yet she’s already quickly becoming KCRW’s darling and performing to sold-out audiences on the West coast.
Filter Grade: 95%
Jesca Hoop’s ‘Kismet’ is one of Filter’s Weekly Picks Week of 08.06.07
All Music Guide
Santa Monica fell under Jesca Hoop's spell in autumn 2006, making her "Seed of Wonder" the most requested song in her local radio station's history. Hoop re-recorded it for her debut Kismet album, with assistance from Stewart Copeland, whose complex, ever-shifting rhythms enhance the number's uniqueness, sliding it toward hip-hop here, prodding it into a Native American dance there. Hoop is the master of such musical shifts and slides, and Kismet beautifully highlights her constantly altering perspectives. "Out the Back Door," for instance, swings dramatically from hip-hop to blues before leaping unexpectedly into drum'n'bass, while Hoop twirls her vocal styles in even more directions. The blues edge a clutch more tracks to wonderful effect, yet the singer is equally at home with folk, as she beautifully displays across the dreamy "Enemy" and the sublime "House in Heaven." The latter was lyrically inspired by a dramatic Chinese legend, and musically gives a twist of the East to British folk before sweeping into a '40s-styled jazz revue. The elegant, sophisticated "Love and Love Again" takes that latter style to its logical conclusion with a glamorous Hollywood musical arrangement, as Hoop swells and deepens her vocals in homage to Judy Garland. "Love Is All We Have" is a bit less successful, the mostly acoustic backing haunting, but her lyrics seeming a bit trite when themed to the man-made catastrophe that followed Hurricane Katrina. Much better is "Money," which instantly evokes Liza Minnelli's classic but moves the scene and theme from a Berlin café to the L.A. music industry, albeit musically via a South American tango club. "Summertime," a harmony and harmonics-drenched piece of confectionery, is lovely, but one of the least interesting songs on this enchanting and challenging album. It is, of course, the label's pick for first single. There are so many more fascinating songs within that it almost pales in comparison, for this is a set to leave one breathless with wonder. - by Jo-Ann Greene
Hello Jesca Guy's playing your track that you let him sing along too. I love your song Murder of Birds and will be ordering your cd from amazon tonight.
Spreading the love of your music everywhere I can. Thank you so mutch for restoring my faith in your generation. Thanking God as well for your soul on Earth.
Hello Jesca! I really enjoy listening to your "unique" voice. It's refreshing to hear something so different than what we're used to hearing. Keep writing and giving us great music!
Thank you for sharing your gift of song with me......lovely is almost too simple of a word for it......but that's what it is to me..... just LOVELY! Peace, giNgeR
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