Jeni Fleming
A Voice As Clean As A Raindrop
If she decides she wants it, the big time is hers for the taking.

Big Sky Journal
Arts Issue 2003
by Scott McMillion

One night early in June, some close friends and I had a rare treat: a Jeni Fleming concert all to ourselves.

It was a muggy Friday after a long week and thunder boomed in the west, spider-webbing the Gallatin Range with lightening. But it was inside the tiny Pine Creek Lodge in Paradise Valley that Jeni Fleming and her band made the real smoke.

It had been a busy night, with diners scarfing blackened salmon and trout tacos, but by the time we got there at nine, the joint had emptied of almost everybody but a couple harried waiters and the band.

I guess the crowd wanted to get home before the storm hit, but that was just fine with me.

I don't think I'll have too many more chances for a night like that. If Jeni Fleming decides she wants it, the big time is hers for the taking.

She's got the looks, the poise, and most importantly, the voice, an instrument as pure and clean as a raindrop, a thing that will pick up and carry you all around the room.

Listen to her sing about the joy in your heart. Listen to her sing "The Waters of March" and if you don't feel the joy you're beyond help. You've got weak meat pumping thin blood to your tin ear.

Or listen to "Amazing Grace," a song sorrowful enough to make a dead man cry at his own funeral. Fleming somehow makes it gleeful.

A song about a hardware store in Bozeman is just a lark, really, but Fleming can make you cry for the loss of something that isn't even gone yet.

An evening of this and you're both whipped and exhilarated. You've wiped your eyes, yet your cheeks hurt from all the grinning.

The trio consists of Jeni, her husband, Jake, on guitar and their good friend, Chad Langford on stand-up bass.

All three graduated from Montana State University music school. They're all 30 years old and they're all packed with talent.

But it's Jeni who stands out front and shines.

The group plays all kinds of music, from spiritual to Broadway hits to Cindy Lauper pop songs. They do it all in a unique way. While a tradition of jazz provides their bedrock, they fit no defined style.

"I think we're headed for the classification of 'mystery folk," Jake quips.

Based in Bozeman, they've been performing sporadically for a few years, in churches and coffeehouses and small concert halls.

They've got a CD out, entitled "The Trinity Tour," and I listen to it about four times a week. There's another one in production, scheduled for a November release.

That's good news for fans like me. For the band, the big news is a career shift. Though they still take some students, they've all quit their day jobs and they're pushing the music standards and rehearsing constantly, jammed into a living room barely big enough for the mikes and equipment. They're getting serious about this stuff.

"Before, we were trying to figure out a direction," Jake said. "Now we're hiking down the trail."

I'm betting it leads them someplace really cool.

I hope they'll still play the small venues, like the Pine Creek Lodge. But I don't think I'm going to have them to myself much longer.

Check the Web site www.jenifleming.com for concert dates, booking information and compact disc sales.