Joe Jencks
You can expect many a gifted artist to move you deeply, but Joe Jencks will change who you are.
Angela Page – WJFF, Radio Catskill, Jefferson, NY
- Joe Jencks — vocals, guitar
Joe Jencks is a 25-year veteran of the international folk circuit, award-winning songwriter, and celebrated vocalist based in Chicago. Merging conservatory training with Irish roots and working-class upbringing, Joe delivers engaged musical narratives filled with heart, soul, groove and grit. Having penned several #1 folksongs including the ever-relevant Lady of The Harbor, Jencks is also co-founder of the harmony trio, Brother Sun. From Festivals like Falcon Ridge, Kerrville, Mariposa, and Old Songs, to venues like Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, Jencks has enthralled diverse audiences with his approachable style. Joe is noted for his unique merging of musical beauty, social consciousness, and spiritual exploration. Blending well-crafted instrumentals and vivid songwriting, Jencks serves it all up with a lyric baritone voice that has the edgy richness of a good sea-salt caramel.
In August of 2022, Jencks released his 17th recording, The Coming of the Years, an album that stands firmly in the modern Celtic traditions and is still quintessentially a Joe Jencks record. Centered around songs Jencks wrote while on tour in Ireland over a 12-year period, this album emerges as a synergistic blend of past and present merging with themes of immigration spanning multiple generations. The album is already being received with critical acclaim.
Gorgeous! Wherever you come from and wherever you’re going, you will find yourself in the songs on Joe Jencks’ The Coming of the Years. It’s a page-turner of a concept album that pulls the listener through generations of the immigrant experience and extends musical hands and hearts across the ocean. Throughout, Jencks’ timeless voice is deep, warm and sweet, but never saccharine. Top-shelf accompaniment and harmonies limn every detail. His new songs align perfectly with the ancient and the familiar to spin a wholly satisfying saga.
Marilyn Rea Beyer, Host, “The Midnight Special” WFMT – Chicago, IL