A young singer with broad horizons
Jey Witten tests folk boundaries
Every once in a while you run across a fresh musical voice who makes you rethink what a particular genre of music is all about.
This week it was Jey Witten, a 20-year-old local talent to watch who approaches the music scene with modest aspirations despite his broad vision of folk music. You can hear that vision on his recent self-titled debut disc or live in concert Saturday at Wunderbar, 8120 101st St.
Among his own rhyme schemes, the singer-guitar slinger even manages to find a match for “Edmontonian” (“the forecast is draconian”). But the album offers an intriguing mix of reworked cover tunes and original songs that work together to explain just where he’s coming from.
“I’ve always looked for the context behind the musicians I liked listening to, what city they were from, their label and that sort of stuff,” Witten explains. “So I wanted to pick some favourite songs from albums I grew up listening to, to give people an idea of the tradition I’m coming from.”
Those covers include some lesserknown numbers from the likes of Paul Simon and Joni Mitchell but you’ll also find numbers from blues, jazz and soul artists like Dr. John, Allen Toussaint, Curtis Mayfield and Gil Scott Heron. Using the spare, acoustic sound of his guitar and Thom Golub’s bass on most tracks, Witten makes them his own, altering the harmonic arrangements and pacing in ways that make you want to listen.
“It’s folk music in the broadest sense, music of the people. I’m just reinterpreting it and maybe, hopefully, introducing it to new audiences who might not know it. I like the simple concept of a singer-songwriter sharing music with an audience, but next time I’ll be using more instruments. I’m interested in pushing the boundaries of what folk can be.”
Witten didn’t entirely drop the grooves either. Given his recent fascination with the roots of rap and hiphop, he brings a subtle rap element to some tracks, like his own I’d Be In New Orleans, working the vocals against the rhythm of his fingerpicking.
When I spoke with Witten earlier this week, he was working on a term paper about Bollywood music for his ethnomusicology class at the University of Alberta. He also works parttime as a research assistant at the U of A’s Centre for Ethnomusicology. Before hitting university, Witten took a year off to travel around Canada and the United States. Among other rambles he got to Memphis and then spent two weeks in New Orleans. He’s drawn much from those experiences in his own songs.
After returning from his trip, Witten learned that Alberta’s Milk River flows down to New Orleans (via the Missouri and Mississippi rivers) and he knew he had to write a song about that. But I’d Be In New Orleans is also about his own place as an outsider in the famous music city, where he was then too young to get into bars. Earlier this year, the tune got him into the finals of the Calgary Folk Festival’s Songwriting Competition, history division (he’s finishing a video for the tune, which should be on YouTube by late June).
Thanks to his music-loving parents, Witten has been going to the Folk Fest since he was a year old. He learned to play guitar by ear, started performing at open mike dates more than a year ago, played his first live set last fall and recorded his album last November.
For a debut album, it has had considerable attention on folk-friendly radio stations like CKUA. That enthusiastic reception is sending Witten back to the studio later this month, armed with many new songs to record.
NEK Trio and Big Ben open when Witten plays Wunderbar on Saturday. The $7 cover kicks in at 8:30 p.m. with music to start at 9 p.m. In the meantime, you can find his album at Blackbyrd Myoozik on Whyte Avenue.