Hey ya’ll. It’s been a hectic last couple of weeks for me…between my responsibilities at work ramping up, school starting and it quite possibly being the hardest class of my graduate career, having a lot of extraneous responsibilities pop up seemingly out of nowhere, and being a harsh critic of myself, it’s been a LONG fourteen days. Apparently I have ESP or something, and subconsciously knew that especially this last past seven days was going to be trying, because last weekend I took a seemingly impromptu trip to Charlotte to see The Foreign Exchange in concert. In reality, it wasn’t impromptu at all, I just didn’t feel like broadcasting it all over the internet for people to know where I was going. Needed some time off the grid, if you will.

I have this thing after live shows where I listen to all of the music I have by a particular artist. With FE, it’s no different, because I can’t really remember a day in the last 2 years where I haven’t listened to something by them or someone on their label. It dawned on me yesterday, however, that I have absolutely no music on my iPod by Jeanne Jolly. NONE! Ok, that’s not totally true, because she is featured on Zo’s “Just Visiting Three” and on FE’s latest release “Dear Friends: An Evening With The Foreign Exchange,” but it’s not the same! So, after seeing her live for now the third time, I knew I had to do something about that…

While I was at work yesterday, I decided to do a YouTube search for Jeanne Jolly to see what I could find. And let me just say that I felt like I struck gold when I came across this video:

Jeanne Jolly – Round and Round Again

Now…I’ve never been a country music fan, but damn if she’s not going to force me to be one. First of all, she can SANG. Not just sing, but SANG. My God. Do ya’ll hear her voice? I imagine this is what angels in Heaven sound like, for real. I felt like I should have been sitting on the porch of somebody’s grandmother’s house with a glass of lemonade watching the rain fall on the front yard. Seriously. Her voice is so powerful that I felt every single note of every single word that she sang. I have a special affinity for acoustic music, so this was right up my alley, and I have seriously listened to this at least 20 times since I first came across it yesterday. If you go listen to her features on the projects I’ve linked above, you can hear the distinct versatility in her voice, and the sheer talent that she possesses. I’m kicking myself right now for not discovering her sooner.

Since today was payday for me, I went on over to iTunes and got her latest EP, “Falling in Carolina,” which I am sure is going to knock my socks and shoes off when I take it for a spin during my lunchtime walk. She seriously has a talent, so please do yourself a favor and support good music. I know for certain that I will.

Until next time, folks…