“This is either the most sophisticated simple music or the simplest sophisticated music I’ve ever heard.”

That comment, heard after a Jeni & Billy performance, sums up the appeal of the duo’s “New Old Music.” With exquisitely spare accompaniment and performances that are never rushed, Jeni & Billy’s harmonies harken to a lost time and reverberate with a rare honesty, as they inhabit the lives of miners, preachers, ramblers, lovers, and plain-living folks. Their music is quiet enough to be heard and just loud enough to be unforgettable.

Sharing the duties of songwriting, arranging, and performing, Jeni & Billy bring to the work very distinct musical backgrounds that both draw from the deep well of Appalachian roots music.

Jeni learned to sing in church choirs, school musicals, glee clubs, and family sing-a-longs, but traces her vocal style to Virginia Lowe, the blind music minister of the Friendly Chapel Church on Smith Ridge, VA. Watching her lead hymns, Jeni learned to bear witness through song by feeling music bodily and inhabiting the lyric emotionally. A natural storyteller and prolific writer since childhood, Jeni trained formally with Pulitzer Prize winning Northern Irish poet, Paul Muldoon, and earned a Masters in English Literature. While her singing has been compared to the lonesome voices of Maybelle Carter and Iris Dement, her writing has been likened to that of Southerners Carson McCullers, Flannery O’Connor, and Lee Smith.

Billy grew up with the sounds of Tin Pan Alley and his mother’s piano at home in Baltimore, but spent his weekend nights high atop a hill in the nearby community of Oella — the home of Appalachian migrants who came to the city looking for work in the mills. There, among people much like Jeni’s grandparents, Billy fell in love with country music. Fired on by dreams of the Grand Old Opry and his passion for the sound of Flatt & Scruggs, Billy headed to Nashville and toured with country bands all over the US, Canada, Germany, and right onto the stage of the Opry. He honed and shared his skills as both student and instructor at the University of Maryland, and built a producing career working with roots artists. Billy’s uncanny sense of song, spaces, and timing were gleaned from sources as diverse as Willie Nelson and John Cage. His innate and masterful musicianship lends itself to any instrument he choses to play and any line he sings.

Jeni & Billy met in the spring of 2005 when Jeni recorded at Billy’s Maryland studio. Within months they began writing and performing together. In 2006, they pressed a six-song EP, Sweet & Toxic, which was praised for its pure vocals, excellent instrumental work, and heartbreaking tales of tragic love.

In the fall of 2008, Jeni & Billy released their first full-length recording project, Jewell Ridge Coal -- a love letter to the forgotten coal mining community in Southwest Virginia where Jeni grew up. Debuting at Number 5 on the International Folk & Bluegrass DJ Chart, Jewell Ridge Coal appeared on top ten lists from LA to New York to Belfast. Ralph McLean of BBC Northern Ireland writes, “These guys understand the magic of understatement and the pure, unadulterated simplicity that flows through all great American roots music” -- a sentiment echoed by fans, colleagues, and fellow musicians, from folk icon John McCutcheon to United Mine Workers of America President Cecil Roberts, who asked Jeni & Billy to perform at his inauguration.

With positive reviews in every major folk publication, as well as niche magazines including the United Mine Worker’s Journal and the Journal of Appalachian Culture, Jeni & Billy took their songs and stories of the coalfields on the road, finding devoted fans from Florida to New Mexico, Vermont to England. Of their performance at the Beverley Folk Festival in the UK, Maverick Magazine’s Hazel Davis wrote, “A sweet and surprising high point was the Appalachian duo Jeni & Billy. Singing songs from the Southwest Virginia coal mines, the pair melted hearts.”

Jeni & Billy continue the tradition of the sweetheart duo, winning hearts with their genuine presence on stage and their true to life recordings, while bearing witness to the simple grace of plain folks. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.