Nashville, TN—She’s drawn comparisons to some of today’s premiere songstresses, but while Jenn Franklin shares some similarities with the likes of Sarah McLachlan, Aimee Mann and Sara Bareilles, she has a voice — and a style — all her own. With the release of her first full-length album, Girl Invisible (Vol. 1), scheduled for June 22, Franklin is primed to build on the critical success of her debut EP, Errors & Admissions.
Franklin’s talent was evident early on, when she wowed crowds as a 12-year-old singer covering artists like Heart, Janis Joplin and Aretha Franklin. After graduating from Wichita State University, Franklin collaborated with Berklee Music graduate Peter Overton on Errors & Admissions, a six-song EP that earned national airtime on more than 170 college and independent radio stations, with two of the songs also showing up on MTV’s “Real World Hollywood.” As BMA Magazine noted, Errors & Admissions marked “a great start for a musician that is starting to attract attention around the world.” Indeed, Franklin has been featured as a showcased artist for the SXSW Music Conference, and she’s also earned headlines at events like the Midpoint Music Festival, Midwest Music Summit, Diversafest, International Folk Festival and NY Songwriters Showcase.
Girl Invisible represents the next step in Franklin’s burgeoning career as a singer/songwriter. “I tend to find inspiration in some pretty dark places,” Franklin says, “but more often than not, I stumble onto hope at the bottom. Even though the songs aren’t all autobiographical, I feel they have a way of finding me out. I can start off writing about someone I know or something that comes to me, and I end up discovering what the song is trying to teach me about my own life. So it feels a bit like being both the tour guide and the tourist.”
Co-producer Jim Reilley, also a founding member of The New Dylans and a staff writer at Curb Music Publishing, saw Franklin perform live and later approached her about recording a full-length album together. “Jenn Franklin is my favorite kind of artist,” Reilley says. “Her songs evoke a warmth and intelligence that most of her peers could only dream of. The music contained herein is at times powerful, delicate, poignant, beautiful, haunting and, most of all, important.” With the help of top-notch musicians like Ken Coomer (formerly of Wilco), Charlie Chadwick (Shelby Lynne, Steve Earl) and Bryn Davies (Patty Griffin), Franklin wrote and recorded Girl Invisible (Vol. 1), an intimate collection of four songs that showcases Franklin’s incredible voice. “I’m really proud of the record and the fact that it doesn’t sound like a lot of what is out there right now,” Franklin says. “Forget auto-tune! Give me music that breathes, strips down, and isn’t afraid to show you its morning-after hair.”
For more information, please visit www.jennfranklin.com.
