Photo by Thomas Crone
For a time in 2016, Jenny Roques was a part of these three groups: Arson for Candy, JOANofDARK, and Tortuga. That number was reduced by a third when her songwriting/performance partnership with Austin’s Jackie Oberkrom dissolved; with hundreds of miles separating them, attempts to the keep the duo alive were proving elusive, though tracks had been recorded at Native Sound before things became official.
The producer for those sessions, Chris Baricevic, happens to not only ringlead a label, Big Muddy Records, he spends time with Roques in the group Tortuga. Something about last spring’s recording sessions kept his interest engaged, and it was only in the past month or two that Roques’ three tracks for the projected Arson for Candy EP were culled into a shorter, but compelling EP of its own. Dubbed "Burnin’ Moonlight," the short work features a host of friends and frequent collaborators; they were the folks she had in mind when the songs recently came out in various digital media.
“It was really disheartening,” she says of the project’s dissolution and the album’s brief life in limbo. “So much time and energy went into it, time making this product happen with all of our ideas. It’s not just my personal energy, but that of everyone who played on it. Like Adam Hoskins: he spent, like, 12 hours getting a guitar part down. And for someone to spend all that time and for it to never be heard made me feel so bad. And for Chris, his time as a producer. He didn’t rearrange my songs too much, but he really added a lot to [the EP], with all his time and energy, all the hours and hours that he spent with the songs.”
Those songs—“Quiet Howls,” “Hawks” and the title track, “Burnin’ Moonlight”—feature those mentioned above, plus a variety of associates including drummer Matt Meyer, bassist Joey Glynn, guitarist Justin Brown, and Thomas Heath on pedal steel; Oberkrom’s presence remains on backing vocals. Roques notes that she’s not touring in support of the songs per se, so a digital-only release is the idea for now, as “having the physical product isn’t as important as it was. Chris’ idea was to at least get these up digitally, on iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, just so that people can hear them.” The tracks, she believes, “are definitely reflective of the shift that’s was happening in my songwriting. It’s the beginning of that shift.”
Hearing a lot more than the spare acoustic tracks she was writing (solo and in-tandem with Oberkrom) she was happy that Baricevic agreed to fill out the sound… and then some, bringing in a goodly chunk of the backing bands of Jack Grelle and Pokey LaFarge.
“He’s an amazing producer, musician and person, in general,” she says of Baricevic. “It was my first time working with a producer-producer, in that setting, and it was never offensive when he suggested ‘Let’s do this chord instead of this.' It was very freeing. And I always love to have more players; I love all that sound. I never could’ve imagined how they were going to turn out. I was kinda floored when I heard the recordings; I cried! ‘Holy [smokes], look what all these little acoustic songs turned into.’ I never knew that kind of transformation.”
These days, Roques is a back to, yes, a trio of projects, including a new covers and originals duo with Matt Pace, an act that’ll be playing around town in coming months. Her other bands contain a lot more players, with plenty of demands on their time, so this new, slimmer unit with Pace will allow for more gigs.
Her rock’n’roll band—in which she’s debuted as a bass player—is JOANofDARK, a group that’ll be performing at three festivals this summer. She shares membership in it with: Kristin Dennis, Natalie Huggins, and Ellen Herget.
“That’s been so much fun,” she says. “It’s unlike anything I’ve played in before. It’s such a different style than I’m used to and it’s been a good learning experience.”
Tortuga, meanwhile, will be rolling out a new CD this summer, Black Wolf. She shares vocals and songwriting in that band with Mike Leahy, augmented by Baricevic on keys, his brother Bryce Baricevic on bass, Heath on pedal steel, drummer Dave Jafari and guitarist Mat Wilson.
“Everybody has so much fun when we play live shows,” she says. “We’re actively trying to write and do more. It’s a really good group of players, who work well together. The only hiccup that we have is time; two players tour with Jack Grelle, and everyone’s got so many different projects that booking a show is like herding cats. Like, we’re doing An Undercover Weekend as Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers, and we’ve had to outsource a bassist and pedal steel player. But the core of us are still able to make it work. And Mike’s been very supportive, in that he doesn’t want me in as just a backup singer. He wants to work in my material, too. It’s one of the most fun bands that I’ve been in.”
If it sounds as if Roques is cheered by her musical pursuits of late you’d be… correct.
“This is technically my first solo release on a record label, which I’m really excited about,” she says. “I feel like the music gods have been shining down on me lately, if that’s a way to say it. By playing with JOANofDARK and Tortuga, my music’s been shifting; there’re still the country roots, but I’m tapping into something else. Doing the duet work with Matt Pace will allow me to play out and do more solo songs. I just really love working with other musicians and I feel that all of this—my writing, playing in Joan and Tortuga, and doing a duet—has really accelerated in the past few months. And I feel like more and more is coming from over the horizon.”
Via the miracle of YouTube, here’re Roques’ three new(ish) cuts:
“Quiet Howls”
“Burnin’ Moonlight”
“Hawks”
Tracks recorded by David Beeman and Will Godfred at Native Sound Recording; mastered by STL expat Mario Viele at Cowboy Technical Services Recording Rig.
