Dirty Linen

John Jennings has played in a rock band, produced Grammy award winning albums for Mary Chapin Carpenter, written advertising jingles, played on recording sessions for George Jones, the Indigo Girls, and Kathy Mattea, worked on recordings by John Gorka, Janis Ian, Robin and Linda Williams, Tony Rice, the Rankin Family, and performed on stage with Carpenter, Beausoleil, and Beth Nielsen Chapman. Right now he's also building a career as a songwriter and solo performer.

Though Jennings first began writing songs as a teenager ("I don't remember the first one," he said, "but I can guarantee you that it was really bad!"), he admitted that years went by when he didn't write. Now he's putting attention on that part of his musicianship. "A lot of pursuit of art of any kind is absorbing stuff, listening to things to make sure you're not really stealing stuff and also learning to decipher your own internal code. I really think I'm just beginning to learn how to do that," he said.

As for the path the led to his many involvements in the music business, "It's not really like I chose it, it's that it chose me. So much of this stuff," he continued, "I just fell into. Ever since I was a little kid I wanted to be musician and that was pretty much it for me." Starting out, he played in bands around the Washington, D.C. area. "And I was making a living as a musician. It wasn't a great living, but certainly enough to be going on with." He started out playing bass in the bands, but added other instruments. "I studied piano for a while as a kid and I remember my mother asking me what else would you like to play? I said I'd really like to learn drums... and so she bought me a trumpet! Then I moved on to upright bass a few years after that." That versatility would stand him in good stead later as a producer, "...when I'd be sitting in a room by myself listening to something and saying, 'Gee, it'd be really nice to have a bass part on that, or a keyboard part' -- and I'd be the only bass player or piano player in the room."

He told the story of how he first became a producer: "Mary Chapin Carpenter and I used to date, years ago, and we broke up. I was driving down the road one day, and I saw her and she saw me, and we pulled over to this little side street. We had just broken up within three or four weeks of that day and she said, 'Well I just feel terrible,' and I said, 'I don't feel so good myself. What can I do to help you get better?' She said, 'Well, help me make a record.' That's how I became a producer. We started out to sell the thing off the stage at places where she played and then she got signed to Columbia -- go figure." That first tape became Carpenter's national debut album, Hometown Girl. "She's such a vast talent that I think it's hard to deny," he added. "I've been surprised by the level of her success -- but I'm not surprised that she succeeded." In addition to being what Jennings calls his "perennial partner in crime," Carpenter adds duet vocals to the title track of I Belong to You, and Jennings remains her producer of choice. Together, they have created four #1 singles, received 13 Grammy nominations (and won five), and received 19 Country Music Association nods, as well as winning five top CMA awards.

This is an excerpt from Dirty Linen #83 (August/September '99)
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