Last year, country singer-songwriter Kendi Jean took her first trip to Nashville’s Americana Fest to support friends and fellow artists as a fan. Watching performances by Patty Griffin, S.G. Goodman, Margo Price, and so many others, Jean vowed to herself to return the next year with a finished second album.
She did all that and more. Not only did Jean finish the album, Smoke & Stardust, which came out in July, but she won the Folk/Americana Female Artist of the Year at the 10th Annual Josie Music Awards. Awarded to the best independent artists across all genres, the JMAs are given out every October. This year’s event was in Nashville at The Grand Ole Opry House, where Jean also performed.
“It was really exciting,” Jean said. “I wasn’t expecting to win, and I didn’t have a speech ready, and it was really amazing. You can’t really have any complaints.”
Jean’s JMA is not her first award. She was recently nominated for Female Artist of the Year in the Texas Internet Radio Awards, a competition for which she took home the Emerging Female Artist of the Year Award in 2021. Along with her backing band, the Velvet Smokeshow, Jean is a little Bonnie Raitt, Carrie Underwood, and Janis Joplin, perfect to disrupt a mostly male-dominated Texas Music scene.
Performing at the Grand Ole Opry and nabbing a JMA have charged Jean’s career. And right on time. She just released a new single, “Broken Stars,” and she plans on putting out her third album early next year and touring Texas and the region.
Jean: “I wasn’t expecting to win, and I didn’t have a speech ready, and it was really amazing.” Mariposa Entertainment/Paula Courtney
Jean said she does pretty much everything herself and that a recent grant from Hear Fort Worth’s Amplify 817 has been a boon.
“I have great support in my life,” she said, “but I’m pretty independent … . I feel like I’ve tapped into the city more, and it makes me so excited for next year.”
Jean moved to Fort Worth from Detroit when she was 4 years old, and she said she can’t hide her Motown side. Smoke & Stardust, she said, represents that dichotomy well. The album “has two personalities.”
Side A, recorded in Louisiana, is her “funkytonk, bluesy side,” while Side B, recorded in Fort Worth, represents her “hippie chick, head-in-the-clouds side.”
The local site was Twelve Tone Studios with producer Randy Gray (Cory Wooldridge, Justin Slinkard, Shane Hamilton Band), while in Louisiana, she worked with producer Kyle Roop (Leif Shively Band, Arlen K. Banks, Bryan Martin) at Steel Records.
“Recording was strategic,” Jean said, “because several friends had recorded with Steel and the studio sponsors lots of Fort Worth artists and the Texas Country Music Association. They had a good name and a lot of good music coming out at the time, and it was very worth it.”
Since Jean’s first singles in 2020, she and her Velvet Smokeshow (bassist Brad Poulsen, lead guitarist Kyle Ross, and drummer Ryan Watson) have placed 14 songs on the Texas charts, and “Broken Stars” — a Christmas song that’s an old-school country waltz — may do just as well.
For Kendi Jean, the future looks as bright as a northern star.
“I’m still mom,” she said, “and have to switch my hat for music, but we’re excited about touring out more. We’re writing more as a band, and we have some surprises up our sleeves. Music has always been therapy for me. If I can get someone to feel something or relate to my music, it makes me feel so excited.”
Kendi Jean
11am-2pm Sat, Jan 6, at the Gardens of Gemelle, 4400 White Settlement Rd, Fort Worth. Free. 817-732-9535.
Jean: “If I can get someone to feel something or relate to my music, it makes me feel so excited.” Mariposa Entertainment/Paula Courtney
