Jenny Lewis Follows Her Bliss on “Austin City Limits”
With news of Jenny Lewis reuniting with her former band, Rilo Kiley for a North American tour, after a 17-year break, this got me to thinking about Lewis’ most-recent solo album, Joy’All, and her 2023 appearance on PBS’ “Austin City Limits” (ACL). Lewis was on the iconic music program to promote the album, which reflects her life during, and after, the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. For the 30-minute airing, she and her band (Megan Coleman, Drums; Nicole Lawrence, Guitar; Jess Nolan, Keyboards and Vocals; Ryan Madora, Bass and Vocals) performed six songs. They opened with the title track, which despite the unsettling picture the opening verse paints confirms in the chorus Lewis’ shift to find the silver lining in an otherwise dark cloud. (Yes, that was a Rilo Kiley reference in there.)
The poetic, picturesque, “Heads Gonna Roll,” from her 2019 album, On the Line, was next on the set list, followed by a pair of songs, “Cherry Baby” and “Psychos,” with a theme that fits right into Lewis’ lyrical wheelhouse: relationship disconnect. The last two performances, the empowering ode to singlehood, canine companionship, and life’s simple pleasures, “Puppy and a Truck” (“I ain’t got no kids/I ain’t got no roots/I’m an orphan/Catch me if you can/I’m lacing up my boots”) and the stream-of-consciousness, “Love Feel,” serve as the antidotes to the aforementioned angst.
As is customary after an artist’s televised performance, ACL includes interview footage, where Lewis summarized her perspective: “The older you get, you realize that with the good stuff you have to take all the other stuff as well, and it’s just the balance of the joy and the suffering… I just write through all of the things, the good times and the difficult times. You just write to all of it.”
Check out the performance of “Psychos,” where Lewis makes additional references to balance (“Jesus Christ and the devil/Yin and Yang”; “When you are up and down”; “Is it the ego, the id? Hello, goodbye”), as well as the cyclical nature of life (“It’s a merry-go-round”), that lyric now even more profound as Lewis embarks on that 24-date Rilo Kiley reunion tour. She’s taking her own advice: “Follow your joy’all.”
A New Voyage for Jenny Lewis
Indie-rock/alt-country singer/songwriter, Jenny Lewis recently appeared on Austin City Limits, where she performed tracks from The Voyager, such as its first single, “Just One of the Guys.” She sported shall we say, a colorful suit, as if it galloped out of a “My Little Pony” cartoon, yet Lewis—and her lyrics—are anything but juvenile or imaginary. The melody line in the verses takes on a smooth Sheryl Crow aura (think “If It Makes You Happy”), and as those verses transition to the choruses, the melody changes to an even sunnier sound.
Yet behind that bright rainbow lies darker lyrics of the struggle to stay true to self, as well as the emotional—and physical—ramifications of wanting to treat relationships like “one of the guys” and the results that come from not doing so, because “that’s not what ladies do.” As listener, the head might be bopping along with a smile on the face, but by the end of the bridge, the smile retracts, as the song conveys the sense of lack that can oddly come from doing what one feels and knows is right… for you (“There’s only one difference between you and me/When I look at myself/all I can see/I’m just another lady without…”). “Just One of the Guys” captures the 39-year-old commenting on gender roles, as she reflects back over a voyage that has found her “…locked in this bathroom/full of tears.” Yet Lewis knows that one’s inner voice, or as she puts it, her “cop,” can always serve as a trustworthy guide.