—David Menconi, Down on Copperline
Even a decade later, singer/songwriter Jess Klein has difficulty believing the sequence of events that brought her to Orange County. She had been looking to move on from Austin, Texas, and felt like North Carolina would be a good fit. So Klein and her partner, singer/songwriter Mike June, rented a house in Hillsborough sight unseen and moved here.
“Yeah, we put everything we could fit into our two Priuses and went halfway across the country with no plan,” Klein says with a laugh. “I still can’t believe it. But every time I drive around Hillsborough, I love this town more. It did take some time to adjust from Austin, where it felt like everything was right there, to meet people and find community. Now that I have, there’s a warmth I’m so happy to have access to.”
In the 10 years since, Klein has become one of this area’s most visible personalities in Americana music, earning plaudits in far-away publications including the New York Times (which called her “a songwriter with a voice of unblinking tenacity”). Along with playing shows and releasing records, she does an interview podcast, “Jess Klein’s Big Table.” And since January, Klein has hosted the Eno House Artist’s Den, a monthly song swap and potluck pairing her with like-minded artists. The next edition features Mark Gabriel Little and A Different Thread on Aug. 23.
“The potluck element is important to me, because I wanted to use the series to build community around music,” says Klein. “It’s amazing to see what people bring, too. Everyone mingles and it’s got a lovely vibe. There’s something about performing in your own neighborhood every month that feels like welcoming people onto your turf, so I appreciate being able to invite people in. The best shows happen when everyone is relaxed and well-fed.”
There might be a few months this fall when a replacement host will need to fill in for Klein while she is out touring for her very fine current album “Dreaming Aloud.” But she should be back to hosting the series herself by the beginning of 2027. In the meantime, she’ll also play a hometown show on Nov. 7 at Sonark Farms’ The Bar(n) with her band, an all-star ensemble featuring Ben Folds 5 bassist Robert Sledge, 6 String Drag guitarist Luis Rodriguez, Rosewood Bluff steel guitarist Nathan Golub and drummer for everybody from Pressure Boys to Red Clay Ramblers, Rob Ladd.
“Dreaming Aloud” is Klein’s 10th LP in a career going back more than a quarter-century. Six of those albums including this one have been produced by her longtime Austin-based associate Mark Addison, and “Dreaming Aloud” has plenty to dig into.
There’s “Delay the Sunrise,” a torch-song piano ballad inspired by the Great American Songbook tradition, and the ambient sonics of “Charm of Finches” – with an arrangement Klein likens to the Grateful Dead. Klein sings throughout the album in a raw, emotional quaver, especially while confessing to a weakness for bad, sad guys on “Old Rock ’n Roller.”
“The world of music is riddled with wonderfully dysfunctional people, myself included,” Klein says. “Without getting too specific, I spent a lot of my past living through someone else. Through men, although ‘boys’ would probably be more accurate. I was never into any kind of substance, always just the drama of relationships. But that can be its own addictive vice.”
Not coincidentally, rising above adversity is a recurrent theme for Klein. Her 2023 album “When We Rise” had a song called “Never Gonna Break Me,” inspired by a long-ago romantic encounter gone wrong. It would have fit right in on “Dreaming Aloud.”
“Empowerment is a theme I return to a lot because it’s always on my mind,” Klein says. “Most of us have a lot more power than we realize. That’s what gives me hope, the eternal fire I feel inside. Even if I can’t control anything around me, I have my own agency. I still get to decide what attitude I’ll have, which is a source of faith and encouragement I want to give to others whenever I can. I had a vocal teacher once tell me I was at my strongest when feeling the most vulnerable. There’s some truth to that. At some point you have to put it all on the table: ‘This is what’s going on in my emotional world, how do I make sense of it?’ That works better than trying to avoid what you’re feeling.”
At a time like our current era, holding onto that agency seems more important than ever, especially for artists.
“There’s so much to fear out there, and rightfully so,” says Klein. “Cynicism is completely understandable, but also no way to live your life. If people walk away with anything from this record, I hope it’s a feeling of permission to dream and act on it. If you don’t do it now, while everything is falling apart, what are you waiting for? We have this moment and we still have a choice.”
Jess Klein’s next Eno House’s Artist Den show in Hillsborough will be Sunday, Aug. 23, with Mark Gabriel Little and A Different Thread. She also plays a full-band show Nov. 7 at Sonark Farms’ The Bar(n) in Hillsborough.
