Stream: Jenny O, ‘God Knows Why’

Kevin Bronson on April 9th, 2020

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Meet the new Jenny O., not the same as the old Jenny O. But still, to colloquialize, boss.

The folk singer, born Jennifer Ognibene, has released two albums, 2013’s “Automechanic” and 2017’s “Peace & Information,” notable for their songcraft, a warm ’60s vibe and her cherubic vocals, which turned her couplets into thin tendrils of smoke — ideas and vignettes curling upward.

She sounds different on the new single “God Knows Why,” and there’s a good reason. She’s gone deaf in her right ear. “I’m in mono now forever / it was there and now it’s gone / and God knows why,” she sings.

The song is the first from her album “New Truth,” arriving June 19 as her first for Mama Bird Recording Co. (home to Damien Jurado, Vetiver, Haley Heynderickx, Courtney Marie Andrews and KERA, among others).

“I wrote ‘God Knows Why’ after going deaf in one ear and asking why perplexing things happen — fate, cause and effect,” Jenny O. says. “When I lost my hearing, a doctor said, ‘God took it.’ Something happened to me neurologically, but here we are. Why do people behave against their own interests? Why do some people survive and others don’t? ‘New Truth’ has to do with coming to terms with a new reality, what is and what will be now that things have changed or information has come to light. Feels accurate in this period of adjustment and great sadness.”

“God Knows Why,” a mid-tempo psych-rocker with rumbling guitar and layered vocals, was made with Kevin Ratterman, who has produced for the likes Strand of Oaks, Jim James, White Reaper and Emma Ruth Rundle and worked as an engineer on a slew of other albums you’ve heard. He proved “so fast, so patient, willing to try anything and so much fun,” Jenny O. says. “It was important to me to have a good time while making it, and we did.” Rachel Goodrich contributes bass on two of the tracks.

“‘New Truth’ is coming to terms with my deaf ear. It’s any new accepted reality. It’s the hilarious way I wore my hair for a week before cutting it away from my face,” Jenny O. says. “The songs are as personal as ever — continued misadventures of an introvert in Hollywood. I think it’s relatable — heartache and epiphany. … I’m singing lower sometimes, I always assumed I’d move back into my lower register, I finally have. Hard to get power that way, but I don’t sound like a little kid.”

||| Stream: “God Knows Why”