Thursday, December 31, 2015

Happy Birthday, Billy



Ten and a half years ago this fella said he liked my songs, he liked how I sang, and if I ever needed anyone to "back me up" on stage, he'd be glad to. I took him up on the offer. To my true love, musical wunderkind, melodic genius, and deep down really great human being, I love you, Happy Birthday Billy Kemp! Here's to another year of terrific adventures together!

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Homeward


Our drive home to Nashville last night. I loved the halo around the street light. It made me think of a dandelion puff on fire.

My ole iphone 4S may be on its way out -- "playing up," as our British friends say. So, I haven't been able to post as readily as I would have liked this last week or so! I've missed being more in touch. Hope to get the phone and the washing machine sorted out over the next few days :) But first I think we will have a nice day off on Billy's birthday tomorrow!

Sunday, December 27, 2015

Solidarity


We send love and strong thoughts to our friends in Britain who have experienced record floods for the last few weeks. So many of the places that have welcomed us including the Lake District, Hebden Bridge, and York are overwhelmed. This photo of York comes from our friend Sarah who lives in York. She lives on a hill, so her home is safe. But so many people are devestated. A small group of volunteers, the Cleveland Mountain Rescue, have been everywhere at once to bring food, clean up in the aftermath, and lend a hand - http://www.clevelandmrt.org.uk They are one of many small groups across the country doing their utmost in a situation that grows more dire every day.

Solidarity and strength to our sisters and brothers of our ancestral island home.

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Friday, December 18, 2015

Siblings



Getting ready to wrap these pillows for two brothers & their sister! Really excited about how they came out. They all include scraps from the same two pieces of fabric sent to me by their Mom who ordered the pillows as Christmas gifts. I'm not tagging her because I don't want to spoil their surprise, but thank you for the order JT! I had a blast making these.

Thursday, December 17, 2015

December Newsletter is here!



Our December newsletter is hot off the virtual press! Highlights are a round-up of 2015, our forecast for 2016, a link to our Rockabilly Jingle Bells, Fan Club news, and an appeal for homestay lodging for the Naples leg of our Florida tour at the end of January. Check it out using this link: http://tinyurl.com/jinglebellsjeniandbilly

Thank you for being part of our adventures in 2015!

This year, we played 70 shows in the USA and Britain. We released two live CDs as well as a travel book about our 2014 tour out west. We made t-shirts, tea towels, and tote bags for our tour in Britain and our fans loved them, so we will have them in the USA for 2016 - and we'll have an all new design in Britain this coming summer! Our Jeep bit the dust in 2015, but our VW Golf, Mr Tomato, took up the slack and carried us everywhere this year - plus he carried 90 pounds of Navajo Bluebird Flour across the USA at the end of our Way Out West tour. Zoom!

Wishing you LIGHT and LOVE! Jeni & Billy too

P.S. If you didn't get the newsletter, your email address may have changed, I couldn't decipher your handwriting, I was tired when I typed in your email address, or you never signed up, egads! Just go to the jeniandbilly.com home page and make it all better by signing up in the white box on the righthand side. You won't get this newsletter, but you can read it by following the link above. You will get the next one and that will be lovely!


Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Rockabilly Jingle Bells



It's that time of year again where you can shake up your holiday mixtape with our Rockabilly Jingle Bells!

If you are a member of our Golden Biscuit Fan Club, you'll be getting a downloadable version of this song later in the week! If you aren't, then we'd be tickled for you to join, and you'll have this song in your pocket for next year. If you join via the fan club website, Patreon, you will have access to all of our past posts including 8 more downloadable songs! That's nearly a whole album of J&B songs! If you join via email, you'll get all of the songs going forward for one year. Jingle away!!!

Here's a link to the fan club: Golden Biscuit Club

Or via email & Paypal: How to Join the Jeni & Billy Fan Club

Friday, December 11, 2015

Meet Marjorie



Found this little storybook girl on adventure with my Mom (Marcella) this week. Billy has decided her name is Marjorie. I think she and the Little Drum Majorette will be great friends! Happy weekend ahead, everyone! We are going to celebrate Thanksgiving and Mom & Dad's birthdays now that Sister is home and we are all together. ❤️

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Bye bye California



Report from I-15 heading east toward New Mexico: Bye Bye California! Thank you to all
of our friends who made our adventure so extraordinary!

Rumor has it we may have topped off our visit with a day at Pepper Peg studios with friends, Craig & Ali! New record is coming along!

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Hand Sewn Patchwork Pillows for sale!











Patchwork Pillow happiness. I sold my first patchwork pillow in person at our Huntington Beach concert on Saturday night and our friend Edie who had seen my pillows on Facebook, came by and picked up two that she had ordered. Thanks Edie!! Mawmaw was really excited to hear about it all. It brightened her day to know that I was making an income from sewing. It's exciting for me, too, since it's a skill I've practiced since I was little and I enjoy it so very much.
If you'd like to order a patchwork pillow, let me know. They are $75 plus postage. Entirely hand sewn by yours truly. I can send you a photo of the middles that I have with me – that's the piece of fabric in the middle (often pictorial) around which I build the the patchwork. The backs are made of recycled shirts, some with pockets (for prayers, wishes, dreams), some without. If you especially want a back with a pocket let me know and that will be no trouble at all smile emoticon The pillows vary in size from about 8 x 12 inches to 15 x 15, some wide, some tall. I just decide where to stop when I feel like the colors have all come together.



Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Silly Folk Summit


Report from Los Osos, California: You know what's great? Having a folk summit of two and being silly with Amber Cross​. One of my favorite tour photos ever. I love you to pieces, Amber!

Saturday, October 17, 2015

Holding fast to what she taught me – in memory of Virginia Lowe





Special Report from Los Angeles, California, in honor of my mentor, Virginia Lowe: I talk a lot about heaven in our shows and listening to the obituaries on the radio with my great-grandmother, and funeral home tote bags. I know that part of the reason I do is because I grew up with a bunch of women – my grandmother and her sisters – who talked a lot about heaven in the course of just any ole thing like lunch or curling their hair. We once played a concert in Northern California to a mostly Chinese audience and I was never so conscious of how many times I say the word "Heaven" in the course of a show. Afterward, nearly every person in our audience came up and said hello, had a picture made with us, and one woman echoed several others when she said, "I like how you talk about heaven. It's very beautiful. I feel happy."

Virginia Lowe was buried on Friday morning. Some of you who have read my posts or our bio, will know that she was my musical mentor. I grew up listening to her sing and preach at the Friendly Chapel Church on Smith Ridge just across the road from Mawmaw's house.

Mawmaw's church is Pentecostal. When I was a child, people spoke in languages I didn’t understand, they believed in a fire that did not burn, they fell down in the floor with the spirit, and they sang. They sang loudly and passionately. Their singing got under my skin because it wasn’t for prettiness or show – they were hollering their story up to God with every ounce of their being. To me this is singing and this is songwriting – to shout the story of life as an urgent message to the beyond.

The person who embodied this entirely was Virginia Lowe. Her body literally shook and quavered as she sang. She was a short lady with narrow shoulders, but her voice sounded like it came straight from Moses' burning bush. Whether she was preaching or singing, and she went from one to the other constantly, she was like an instrument made of bone, flesh, and hair on which God strummed a mighty chord.

She had no artifice about her. She loved cakes. She was cagey about being recorded because she was suspicious of people making money from her singing, not because she thought her singing was wonderful, but because her singing was a record of the spirit being cut into the grooves of every heart in the congregation.

She was blind since childhood and so was her husband, Jim, who died two years ago. They went to school with Ronnie Milsap and you could hear those same country roots when she played the piano. She was very troubled after Jim's death and never seemed comfortable in the world without him.

Her death was not a shock to me. She had been sick more than she had been well since Jim passed over, but I feel a sadness nevertheless. I did switch on my voice recorder in the service once or twice and I can go back and hear her. But I will miss being in her physical presence because to be so was like being in front of the great riddle of life itself.

The songs she sang at the Friendly Chapel were the ones I distilled into the lyric for our song Made As New. When I sing, it is my aim to honor the fiercely honest way of singing that Virginia taught me. I don't sing to be admired, but to relay a message that I think must be delivered. Our songs are not created to glorify us, but to bring joy, warning, empathy, kindness, and respite to fellow travelers. If I fail at this, then I've no business doing this work and I best just stick to sewing. Life is short and it seems best do what matters and bring love to table.

When I was in school and read about the oracles in Greece or Yeats' mediums, I always thought of Virginia Lowe – a woman sitting with a braille Bible at her side, eating a second piece of cake, about to sing out an urgent message brought out of the mouth of God into a little mountain church to the few that would hear. Those that did hear will not soon forget the message or woman that spoke it.

If you would like to hear Virginia's powerful singing, I invite you to click this link.

https://soundcloud.com/jeniandbilly/virginia-lowe-sings-hold-fast-to-the-right

Friday, October 16, 2015

FOUR Jeni & Billy & Craig Concerts in Cali to go!


LAST FOUR Jeni & Billy & Craig Eastman Cali concerts coming up in the next week, one tomorrow in LA, three on the Central Coast:

Sat, 10/17: Shirley Family Concert, Huntington Beach, CA

Fri, 10/23: SLO House Concerts, San Luis Obispo, CA
https://www.facebook.com/events/1560058994214862/

Sat, 10/24: Founder's Day Street Fair, Templeton, CA (a short guest appearance courtesy of our terrific friends Amber Cross and the Old Time Fiddle & Banjo show) – four song set, so come on Sat or Sun for a full show

Sun, 10/25: Brickyard Theater, Atascadero, CA
http://www.brickyardtheatre.com

See you soon!!!

Photo by Debbie Snider from Shirley Family Concert 2014.

Monday, October 12, 2015

Recording in Burbank with The Good Intentions & Rick Shea


Report from Burbank, California: In the studio with The Good Intentions and Rick Shea! Making some country music, Liverpool-style! This is my little patch of studio earth at Paul's which I've already turned into Jeniland with a quilting magazine, sewing projects, postcards, stamps, and cameras. Makes me miss Chris, Ger, Val, Jim, Grateful Fred's, and so many of our friends across the ocean!

Sunday, October 11, 2015

Good Morning, Cinema Bar Tonight


Good morning from sunny Los Angeles, California: Sending love out to all of our friends! We are playing at the Cinema Bar in Culver City tonight! No ticket, but Tips. So, if you missed us on Friday, here's another chance...7: Jeni & Billy, 8: The Good Intentions (Liverpool), 9: Rick Shea & the Losin' End. Going to do some country songs...our kind of country smile emoticon

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Frank's pizza & more sites so far in the newsletter



First of 5 LA Dates tonight! New newsletter says it all! I also tell you about Frank's Pizza & give you the scoop on other bits of our tour so far. Tickled to pieces to be here! 

Tue, 10/6: Aliso Viejo Library, Aliso Viejo, CA
Fri, 10/9: Coffee Gallery Backstage, Altadena, CA*
Sat, 10/10: Sun City Library, Sun City, CA
Sun, 10/11: Cinema Bar, Culver City, CA**
Sat, 10/17: Shirley Family Concert, Huntington Beach, CA*
Fri, 10/23: SLO House Concerts, San Luis Obispo, CA*
Sun, 10/25: Brickyard Theater, Atascadero, CA*
Sat. 11/7: Four Corners House Concerts, Farmington, NM

*with Very Special Guest, Craig Eastman
**with Rick Shea and the Losin’ End plus The Good Intentions

http://tinyurl.com/jeniandbillyCAdates2015

Backward-walking horses



Report from Los Angeles, California: LA is for me a place of firsts, like seeing a man on roller skates in a tiny swimsuit with a cape-wearing dog in his backpack, but there are also crossing buttons for backward-walking horses, way up in the air, just in case. 

Monday, October 5, 2015

Las Vegas in the Rain



Report from I-15, heading to Los Angeles:

Las Vegas in the Rain
by Jeni Hankins

This is the kind of weather 
gamblers love.
Stormy weather doesn't laugh
at them the way the hot desert sun does –
with all of the smiling tourists making pretend 
that this is a kind of Disneyland.

This is getting down to business weather
where gamblers shape-shift into a spoke of
the wheel of fortune – so married to the roulette
table that they become an arm, leg, or head.

Dealers and gamblers hunker down for a
long battle of wills. There's the air of Thanksgiving
Day about the Mirage Hotel – a day where other
people have a heavy dinner on thin china, pray,
watch football, and yell at their kids to stop running 
in the house. But gamblers and dealers give
tacit thanks on Thanksgiving that there are no
distractions, no kids, no strollers, no bachelorette
parties, but only each other, the table, and the cards.

Today is like that. A free day where the tourists are 
watching Jimmy Cagney or Storage Wars on satellite TV
or trying to get last minute tickets to Cirque de Soleil
or Celine Dion or Wayne Newton, to some comedian who
will probably use foul language in front of the kids.
Anything to get out of the hotel room that seemed so
big and where the towels seemed so fluffy, with a lofty pile
that seemed mythical and impossible to replicate at home.
But the towels have turned sour in the endless dripping rain.
And the kids are bored.
For this, they could have stayed in New Jersey.

But the gambler, he has his shoulder against the wheel
and the dealer – a cross between Fortuna and Marilyn 
Monroe in bleach blonde hair and fuchsia lipstick
with a terribly knowing set to her jaw –
she pulls down her visor like a blindfold and spins. 

Friday, October 2, 2015

Great Dane Day



Report from Gunnison, Colorado: Sometimes we get some pretty fantastic guests at our concerts...

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Home is a returning














Report from Loving, New Mexico: Today, we are traveling north on 285 from Fort Stockton, Texas, to Westcliffe, Colorado, where we'll play a concert tomorrow night. We've never taken this road before and I can tell you that the part through Pecos County, Texas, was "flat as a pancake" as Mawmaw Ann would say, and covered in scrub. There is truly nothing but oilfields out here and the men who tend them. There are more white pickups trucks than I ever saw in my whole life, and all manner of temporary worker's housing from cinderblock shacks to trailers to purpose-built tiny houses, dozens of them all the same out in the middle of the sand. 

We've seen Cowboy Churches, pipelines, falling stars, towns with nothing but a few rusted out burnt out buildings, power lines, yuccas, and reservoirs and rivers with no water in them at all. 

Last night we played for our friends in West Texas – librarians, oilfield workers, children, a piano teacher, and a beauty queen who taught at the Agricultural (Ag) school. We talked quilting, grandmothers, armadillos, and brothers. We saw our friend Buddy who gave Billy a Mr Bill doll, we slept soundly at our friend Jody's house, and then we were on our way. 

And through all of this, a single thread keeps winding through my mind about the nature of home. What is home? A place you remember, a place you create, or simply a place to sleep at the end of the workday. When I see the temporary houses of the oilfield workers I think about how they probably live there alone and their families live somewhere else. This is their bunkhouse. Home is another place where their kids play softball. In this way, work and home can be at odds with each other. Where the oilfield workers sleep is a place that they stay because of work, but it's not where they live. 

Because we live mainly on the road, I think of home as a returning - returning to a familiar place, seeing familiar faces, and even remembering small things like how nice and cold the water from the water cooler is at the Fort Stockton Library. My ancestral home in the Appalachian mountains will always be my true north. But as a person who moved many times as a child and is constantly on the move as an adult, I find home in friends, in familiar landscapes, in listening to a favorite film score, and re-reading a beloved book. And home sits right beside me in the car on this 12 hour drive explaining to me what's happening musically in my favorite film score and listening to these tour reports.

Sending love out to all those searching for home.

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Our Neighbor, Ms Armadillo





Report from Orient, Texas: It's a very curious human thing how you can turn a place into home and get settled in so quickly, even if you move your campsite three times. We had such a beautiful time rehearsing under the trees, working on the bootleg CDs, sewing, cooking, and getting used to our neighbor - a very busy armadillo who peeked into our sleeping tent just to make sure we were all tucked in, I suppose. She was very calm and practically walked over my foot once in order to root around in some particularly promising grass. 

But just like that, our little camp is packed up into Mr Tomato and we are off to Fort Stockton, Texas, to play a concert at the library tonight. Ms Armadillo was napping in her burrow this morning and the birds sang her a lullaby. Goodbye til next year!


Sunday, September 27, 2015

Hobo's guide to Marilyn Monroe hair



Report from Buffalo Gap, Texas: The Hobo's guide to Marilyn Monroe hair: Wash your hair in a thunderstorm, toss your do overnight in a tent, wake up to 78% fluffi-fying humidity, and top it all off with a little dancing. Voila!

Saturday, September 26, 2015

Buffalo Gap Thunderstorm



Report from Abilene State Park near Buffalo Gap, Texas: This thunderstorm is so loud and relentless that we can't hear ourselves sing in the tent. So, I am sewing up a patchwork pillow top and Billy is mixing and mastering our concert from the Conway Library on Thursday night. We've decided to bootleg our own concerts...still working on the concept.

Being your own boss can be risky (like your office may be a tent that seems to have a tiny leak all of the sudden), but it also means you get to try a bunch of things and there are no committees shaking their heads. If you fail, no biting your nails wondering if you've just lost a promotion. This is a relief.

We try, we fail, we try again, we succeed, we fail, we try again. It's exciting and we learn.

Our friends, you make it all more fun and beautiful, truly. Thanks for all of your lovely responses about my sewing shop. Makes my stitching even happier. 

Friday, September 25, 2015

Jeni's Whatnots on tour!







Report from I-30 in Dallas/Fort Worth traffic: Jeni's Whatnots, my sewing mercantile shop, is on our cosmic scotch tape tour for the first time! I sew all of these little treasures by hand while we wend our way along the trail. Hand stitching! Old School. Yes, indeedy, every stitch a moment. This time around I have pocket squares/handkerchiefs, dresser scarves (as Mawmaw Margie called them, one small white one and one long patchwork one), an owl pillow with a repurposed men's dress shirt on the reverse with a pocket for stowing wishes and prayers, and a grumpy wool whale who carries his own bit of ocean with him. 

If you've fallen in love with anything here and want me to check the price and/or set it aside for you, let me know, and I'll set it aside for you or send it in the mail.

Looks like we'll be getting to the Abilene State Park near Buffalo Gap, Texas, right at sunset just in time to put up our pup tent and make some soup. 



Thursday, September 24, 2015

First Report, Way Out West Tour 2015






Report from I-40 heading west to Conway, Arkansas -- Reports are Back!: When I was in college, I wrote my thesis on Plato's Gorgias. Just in case you haven't had a chance to read it, the Gorgias poses the question, "What is the best life?" Don't rely on the Wikipedia page about it because the book they describe is nothing like what I read! Plato throws his lasso around a few possibilities of best life vocations: ruler, soldier, philosopher, and poet. That leaves out a lot, I know, like doctors, mechanics, and software developers. But you can kind of squeeze most jobs into one of Plato's categories. I'd put mechanics in with rulers because our mechanic told us that our Jeep was no longer ready for cross country treks, so I am writing from his tinyness Mr Tomato (our non-diesel VW Golf). 

I can't say exactly why I majored in Classical Political Philosophy except that my Dad suggested I major in something more practical than visual art (he doesn't remember making this suggestion and it's ok because I got a second bachelor's in visual art just to cover all the bases), but I have always been deeply interested in what people choose to or have been called to do in their lives. 

I do this weird job where I fight entirely against my nesting nature all of the time. Six or seven times a year, I spin myself (and my true love who was perfectly content tinkering in the music studio) out of our nest to spend a jillion hours in a car to perform music for a few hours (not joking - on this tour out west, we'll drive 5000 miles, about 83 hours, over 49 days, to perform 15 to 20 hours of music). This job is absurd and sublime in its absurdity. We mostly write songs about a tiny community in the Appalachian mountains and sing them to people from Los Angeles to London. In order to do this, I write people or we meet people and ask if we can play a concert for them, and if they say yes (thank you for saying yes), and when enough people who all live near each other say yes, we put six instruments and a bunch of other stuff in our car (or on a plane) and we go. It's all so loose and held together with the cosmic scotch tape of friendship, good will, and a love of music. 

When I was finishing up my thesis (which was good, but flawed because of sleep deprivation and the slipperiness of floppy discs, so I accidentally turned in the the draft before the final draft which still makes my stomach queasy), there were a lot of consulting firms and banks lurking around Davidson College making offers. A tiny person inside of me thought about that life of fabric covered cubicles, business clothes (hosiery every day!), water cooler chats, staff fridges, and mounting tiers of domestic furniture bliss from Ikea to Crate & Barrel to Bloomingdales. I thought about conference calls, meetings, and using words like "actualizing" and "potentialities." I thought about the Gorgias and how this job was the job of the soldier who might one day be a ruler and I gave the banks my answer. And thus, I gave myself a 90% pay cut, took a few illuminating detours through grad school for a few years, and heard the call to my best life at the Old Time tent at Merlefest back in the early 2000's where we'll be playing next spring. 

I still think about the Gorgias quite a lot which suggests that my thesis, though flawed as a scholarly paper, actually served as a culmination of my learning and a pushing forward into my own future thinking about what is the best life. I imagine not everyone feels that way about their thesis, so I feel lucky about that.

I feel lucky to be here at all, lucky to be freely crossing the country in a reliable vehicle with plenty of food and water on a mission to create and share art. What a luxury. What a luxury to consider what is the best life when I turn on the news everyday and hear of people living in fear, fleeing war, homeless, despised, dispersed, and seeking relief, fighting for life.

It is my work as a poet to write and at times, like when I think of refugees and homelessness, my job can feel frivolous. But I also realize that stories are the mighty connectors between people - electrical stardust maps of our search for the best life for us all. That's what I intend my stories to be - cosmic scotch tape between you and me. So, I am going to make reports, long and short, and I look forward to hearing what you say.

Let's travel together and see what we see. 

First concert tonight at the Conway Library, Conway, Arkansas, 7pm!


Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Brown's Diner and we are on our way


Report from Nashville, Tennessee: We're getting everything packed up in Mr Tomato to head out west. Bebe the Jeep is retiring from cross country trips. So, no Airstream this fall, but there will still be lots of reports out there waiting to be whisked from the wind. I'll do my best to have my antenna up and ready. Here's a parting shot from Brown's Diner in Nashville. I am sure the waitress thought I was crazy when I kept trying to snap a photo of her, but I loved the way the little frame in the bar made her into a picture every time she came up to shout, "Pabst Blue Ribbon, Miller Light, and a Coke."

Friday, September 18, 2015

Banjo Billy works on our new song


Billy has made a lovely present for me this week. Not only did he write the new song, "The Warm Morning Stove" (or should we go with "Warm Mornings"? listen and let us know), with me, but he wanted to compare some of our studio gear, so he's gone and put banjo, electric guitar, organ, slide guitar, and brushes on the new song. So, our fan club is in for a real treat this month!

Song goes up in a few hours - will try to get it posted before your bedtime, British friends - so still time for you to mosey over join the club or send $12.75 to jeniandbilly@gmail.com via Paypal for a whole year of new and rare tracks plus a nifty story full of photos and lyrics for each one. You can even just send $1.33 for this particular song and story if you are curious and want to try the whole thing out (the $0.33 covers the Paypal feels, if you wonder about the weird number). OR Fan Club headquarters is here for extra goodies like banjo lessons, quilts, buttons, and tunes: https://www.patreon.com/jeniandbilly

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Snoopy for President and Warm Morning Stoves


Another warm morning stove! Turns out we had one in the house at Davidson College when my Dad was a student there. We had cowboy hats, too, and a "Snoopy for President" sweatshirt. Fun! The stove is that brown shiny thing behind me. This one was gas whereas the one on Smith Ridge was coal burning.

We wrote that song about the warm morning stove and it’s so pretty. I love singing it. Billy said I did some of my best singing ever on this. Just tracked it on his little recording app on the iPad, but you can hear our living room in the sound. This was the second take where we added Billy’s harmony. If you want to hear it, we’re getting it ready for the fan club for tomorrow. No pressure – it may also end up on the new record. You never know with songs, how they’ll all fit together. But you can hear it, if you like, and there’s a no fuss way just to get this one song if you don’t want to fool with sign-ups, etc. http://littleyellowsewingbox.blogspot.com/2015/09/song-of-month-fan-club-scoop-decoding.html

Song of the Month, Fan Club Scoop, Decoding New Art



Here's the scoop on how to get demos of the new songs we are writing and previously unreleased tracks, plus stories, lyrics, and decoder rings. 

There are now TWO ways to join the fan club. You can go here to Mawmaw's Golden Biscuit Club and sign up. Lots of goodies for joining like quilts, buttons, guitar lessons with Billy, plus you'll have access to all of the archives of songs we've posted since April of 2015! OR you can go the simple route and send $14 to jeniandbilly@gmail.com via Paypal ($2 goes to Paypal fees) or $12 by check (write me for the address). 

Some folks found the Fan Club hosting website, Patreon, a bit confusing (and it definitely can be, it's not just you), so I thought I would offer a simpler way as well. $14 will get you a one year membership. The song of the month and the story which includes lyrics and photos will come to your email inbox. At the end of the year, I will write to see if you'd like to continue to get our song of the month and, if you do, you can just send a PayPal for year two! Simple! Be sure to let me know if you would like the song of the month to come to a particular email address rather than the one associated with your PayPal account. I know some folks use a dedicated email address for PayPal which they don't check very often. I don't want your song to get lost in the mail :)

Lots of smiles and thanks for being part of our new art-making happenings!

J&B


Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Way Out West 2015


Announcing our Way Out West Tour 2015 and our most recent Newsletter:

Thurs, 9/24: Conway Public Library, Conway, AR
Tue, 9.29: Fort Stockton Public Library, Ft Stockton, TX
Thurs, 10/1: Hardscrabble House Concert, Westcliffe, CO
Tue, 10/6: Aliso Viejo Library, Aliso Viejo, CA
Fri, 10/9: Coffee Gallery Backstage, Altadena, CA*
Sat, 10/10: Sun City Library, Sun City, CA
Sun, 10/11: Cinema Bar, Culver City, CA**
Sat, 10/17: Shirley House Concert, Huntington Beach, CA*
Fri, 10/23: SLO House Concerts, San Luis Obispo, CA*
Sun, 10/25: Brickyard Theatre, Atascadero, CA*
Sat. 11/7: Billy and Jeni Hankins at the Four Corners House Concert Series, Farmington, NM

*with Very Special Guest Craig Eastman
**with Rick Shea and the Losin’ End plus The Good Intentions