#8 in 12 hours! Yes!

WOW EVERYONE! I said that we’d LOVE to get to #10 on Unkovr Musicand we got to #8. IN 12 HOURS. Not because it’s easy to do that, it’s actually crazy. But YOU MADE THAT HAPPEN. What???!!!!!! WAY to GO! Thank you SO MUCH for VOTING and SHARING smile emoticon None of it would have happened without you! And you signed up and made COMMENTS, too – 28 of them! If you go to anyone else’s page and look, that is an extraordinary number of comments! It was an extraordinary amount of everything.

YOU MADE OUR DAY.

If you’d like to roll up your sleeves and help us MOVE HIGHER on the UNKOVR rankings (should we try for #%5?), then there are a couple of MORE WAYS TO VOTE. You can click on the title of any of our songs to the righthand side on our main page. That will take you to a new screen. There you will see a photo and a player button for that song. Under the photo, there are little square boxes where you can VOTE. Then you can click on the other song titles in that same window and vote for those. If you feel like listening and enjoying, playing the songs is also considered an interaction smile emoticon

You can also JOIN UNKOVR for FREE and make us a FAVORITE and leave a COMMENT. This helps a lot!

THIS UNKOVR thing MATTERS because it’s great way to show support for our music and get the word out about Jeni & Billy. It’s like you are putting up posters all around town about something you love and the town just happens to be cyberspace . . . pretty big town! And it didn’t even involve a staple gun or duct tape. Neat.

LOVE TO YOU ALL and thank you for being part of the story of Jeni & Billy. We are honored to be part of your story through our music. Off to work on the new song we wrote yesterday!

http://unkovr.com/artist/jeni-billy/

Jeni & Billy are Featured Artists on UNKOVR today!

Normally, I would be grumpy about waking up at 4:30 am, but I wrote a new song and there’s a bunny rabbit being irresistibly picturesque in the fresh snow in our yard. Plus, this wonderful thing happened. We woke up to find that we’ve been FEATURED ON Unkovr Music​ as the ARTISTS OF THE DAY! We would be so GLAD and 

GRATEFUL if you would just simply CLICK over there and VOTE for us. You don’t even have to sign up! 

This is actually a big deal for a ROOTS duo . . . So GIVE ROOTS MUSIC a BOOST by VOTING and SHARING. I don’t think we get a prize like a homemade pie on account of the voting, but even if we get 100 votes, we’ll go WAY up on the unkovr site! How can we ever do that? If you SHARE this and VOTE, it just might happen or it will be fun trying. You all did great with sharing that whole Grammy chance that happened, so let’s do it again!

If you LEAVE A COMMENT or you share from the website, that makes our ranking go up up up! And then more people will find out about Jeni & Billy and we’ll be able to take our fans wherever we go, and start a utopian community on Jewell Ridge . . . wait a minute. That may be sleep deprivation talking :) But more people will find out about our music and that is GOOD.

Are you snowbound today and have you eaten all of the coffee cake you baked yesterday? Then make SHARING this post your sitting-around-in-pajamas-watching Silver Linings Playbook on Netflix project today. Am I in my pajamas? Yes, that’s what’s great about being a songwriter home from touring in a snowbound southern city with no plows or salt trucks :)

Also to improve our ranking, you can sign up on unkovr for free, make us a FAVORITE (if you are so inclined), and hear a whole bunch of other curated music. Hmm, I feel like I’m in a museum now that I’ve been curated. I hope it’s one of those fun museums with crocheted alligators and a frying pan collection.

Thanks to Dave Way​ for recommending us for this honor and for saying this nice thing, “Jeni Hankins has been called 'the new queen of Appalachia.' Her voice carries generations of joy and misery from her small town family life in mining country. And with the help of her true love, Billy Kemp, they tell vivid stories of these people, places, and time, always with a fine poetic flair and genuine heart.”

I am going to need a nap today, can you tell? Yep, I’m what Mawmaw Margie called slap happy. That’s what happens when you go to bed at 1:30 and wake up at 4:30. Thanks for humoring me and VOTING :)

Hugs and Love to all of our friends and fans!

http://unkovr.com/artist/jeni-billy/

Freezing Rain & Coffee Cake

Freezing rain seems like a really good excuse to make & eat vegan coffee cake.

Flower Cocoon

Last night, I dreamed that a single flower was trying to bud on a very tiny tree in our yard and I went up and talked to it. I said not to worry and that I would sew it a little quilted cocoon to get it through tonight. It was anxious, but grateful. Getting ready for an ice storm here in Nashville. Billy is getting groceries and I am writing about it. He's a good fella.

We'd be so glad if you would leave a comment on YouTube

Hey everyone! I have great news. Youtube now allows moderated COMMENTS on videos, so I have opened up all of our Youtube videos to comments (now that I can weed out the nutty stuff). Now, we just need some comments, so it would be WONDERFUL of you, if you would consider choosing a video or two you like on our channel and making a comment. Even if it's just one word like "Lovely" or something short like "You guys can pack my car anytime" or "Jeni, I like that dress," that would be wonderful. And I will try to answer back. Lots of thanks for giving this a try! SMILES AND HUGS!

Jeni & Billy's YouTube Channel

Poem for a mustachioed woodpeckker

Our friend, Susan Hankin​, is an animal lover and a brilliant teacher of animal law, but she also happens to take photos worthy of National Geographic. She has a plethora of birds just around her neighborhood in Southeastern Pennsylvania. Sometimes, I can't help myself and I have to write a poem to go with her photos. This one is about a male pileated woodpecker. Brilliant photo by Susan Hankin.

The Bird with the Red Mustache

I saw a bird with a red mustache.

He was dapper and dressed in grey.

Never a bird with such panache

has knocked on a stump, I say.

He is the pinnacle of the wood-pecking set

and I’m honored he graced our yard.

No there never was a gentle bird yet,

who pileated with as much charm.

by Jeni Hankins​

Thank you!

Thanks for all of the happy wishes, yesterday, everyone! Hugs to all!