The Wailin' Jennys are a Canadian music group. They have released several albums and received two

Juno Awards The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall of ...

. The group has been featured several times on the

American Public Media American Public Media (APM) is an American company that produces and distributes public radio programs in the United States, the second largest company of its type after NPR. Its non-profit parent, American Public Media Group, also owns and o ...

program ''

A Prairie Home Companion ''A Prairie Home Companion'' is a weekly radio variety show created and hosted by Garrison Keillor that aired live from 1974 to 2016. In 2016, musician Chris Thile took over as host, and the successor show was eventually renamed '' Live from ...

'' and their album '' Firecracker'' peaked at number two on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large adverti ...

'' Bluegrass charts, in 2006. Their album ''

Bright Morning Stars ''Bright Morning Stars'' is the fourth full-length album from Canadian folk trio The Wailin' Jennys The Wailin' Jennys are a Canadian music group. They have released several albums and received two Juno Awards. The group has been featured ...

'' peaked at number one on the ''

'' Bluegrass charts, in 2011, and '' Fifteen'' peaked at number one on the ''

'' Bluegrass charts, in 2017.

History

The group was founded in 2002, when a

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749 ...

guitar shop called Sled Dog Music brought

Ruth Moody Ruth Moody is an Australian-born soprano singer-songwriter and member of the Canadian folk trio The Wailin' Jennys. Biography Moody grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, with her parents, Charles and Marcelline, and three siblings, older broth ...

, Nicky Mehta and Cara Luft together for a joint performance. The show was well received and the owner, John Sharples, scheduled a follow-up performance and suggested they "go on tour and call themselves the Wailin' Jennys."Notes the 2005-05-21 episode
of ''A Prairie Home Companion'', viewed 2006-10-10 The group's name is a

pun A pun, also known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophoni ...

on the name of country singer

Waylon Jennings Waylon Jennings (June 15, 1937 – February 13, 2002) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. He pioneered the Outlaw Movement in country music. Jennings started playing guitar at the age of eight and performed at age f ...

. The band released a self-titled EP and an album, ''40 Days'', in 2004; The group now consists of soprano

, mezzo Nicky Mehta and alto Heather Masse. In previous years, the Jennys have also toured with fiddler and mandolinist Jeremy Penner, who is from Ruth's former band,

Scruj MacDuhk Scruj MacDuhk was a Juno-nominated Canadian folk music group based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The band included singer-songwriter Ruth Moody, current member of the Wailin' Jennys, and also Clawhammer banjo player/vocalist Leonard Podolak, who went ...

. Other band members have included

Annabelle Chvostek Annabelle Chvostek (born October 5, 1973) is a Canadian singer-songwriter based in Toronto, Ontario. Life and career Born in Toronto, she is the daughter of Canadian television producer Milan Chvostek ('' The Nature of Things'') and journalist ...

, a singer/songwriter from

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

, and Ruth Moody's brother Richard on viola and mandolin. Both Penner and Moody have appeared on The Wailin' Jennys' albums. In 2007, Chvostek left the group and was replaced by Heather Masse, a

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and nor ...

-born singer and member of the band Heather & the Barbarians. The Wailin' Jennys have won two

Juno Award The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall o ...

s for Roots and Traditional Album of the Year (Group): in

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; " Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discover ...

for ''

40 Days ''40 Days'' is the debut full-length album from Canadian folk trio The Wailin' Jennys. The lineup of the group at the time was Ruth Moody, Nicky Mehta, and Cara Luft. This was the last recording to feature Luft, who left the group the followin ...

'' and in

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...

for ''Bright Morning Stars''. They were also nominated for the same award for '' Firecracker'' in

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple Inc., Apple's first iPhone (1st generation), iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakis ...

Discography

Albums

Extended plays

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wailin Jennys, The Musical groups established in 2002 Musical groups from Winnipeg Canadian alternative country groups Juno Award for Roots & Traditional Album of the Year – Group winners 2002 establishments in Manitoba Canadian indie folk groups Red House Records artists