MP3 Jen Hajj - I of the Storm
An eclectic romp through the life and times of an emerging singer/songwriter.
12 MP3 Songs in this album (37:38) !
Related styles: Folk: Modern Folk, World: World Fusion, Solo Female Artist
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Details:
Sometimes sweet. Sometimes sexy. Always engaging. Jen Hajj has a voice you will not forget, and a smile warm enough to heat a two bedroom home. You might know her from local bluegrass jams, open mics, or from a folk music camp. Or you might know her as "Lil'' Ginny," the host of KRCL 90.9 fm''s Bluegrass Express. Maybe you have seen her as the "singing hawk lady" from HawkWatch International. She wears many faces. But that''s just Jen.
Jen spent her childhood in Tempe, Arizona, taking piano lessons, chasing lizards, and singing in church and school choirs. She made an early connection with composition as a child, noticing that music notation wasn''t just for interpreting what other people created, but it could be used to express her own musical ideas. She moved to Utah in the mid-1980''s where her musical career began to take shape, singing with various choirs (school, professional and semi-professional groups) and moving her way into the church music scene.
While working with various churches, she rediscovered her desire to write her own music. She entered music school and studied vocal performance and composition. Jen was excited to gain theoretical knowledge and improved with the required daily keyboarding practice, but the daily choral and vocal practice left her hoarse and breathless. She visited a doctor who diagnosed her with asthma. She stayed in music school for two miserable years. It took some soul searching to realize that she did not want to be an opera singer, a performing pianist, or a church choir conductor. She made the difficult decision to quit choral conducting and dropped out of opera school. Her health improved immediately, and the asthma has not returned since. To pay the bills, she took a job at a local zoo and learned to handle animals. This "day job" has developed alongside her musical career, and now she manages education programs at HawkWatch International, an organization dedicated to preserving birds of prey and their habitats.
Strangely enough, the birds helped her find music again. On one of her many bird program tours, she composed a silly ditty to help children remember the adaptations of birds of prey, and then another, and then another. Pretty soon, she had a suite of 10 songs about raptor ecology, but no ability to perform them. She decided to purchase a ukulele and learn to play. For practice, she attended a bluegrass jam. Though the bluegrass boys teased her about the uke, they embraced her and invited her to come back. After a couple of weeks, she knew she needed to play guitar. While she was at a local music shop to buy one, Jen met Tony Polychronis, the host of the local bluegrass radio show. Not knowing her at all, he invited her to assist with his show and later with his summer folk music festival. Later, she inherited the radio show and still spins bluegrass from 2-5 every Sunday afternoon, except when she is touring, of course.
For Jen, being a part of the folk music scene is like coming home. She hopes that when you hear her sing, that you feel it, too.