Jenny & Tyler are an acoustic folk-pop duo whose live performances strike a rare balance of intimacy and intensity. They share their songs, their stories and their lives with a candor that captivates, inspires and transcends age and cultural divides.
Acoustic guitar, mandolin and the kick-drum of an old suitcase drive catchy melodies to support thoughtful lyrics as Jenny & Tyler chronicle lives marked daily by love, joy, loss, doubt and redemption. Their blend of driving, percussive folk-pop rings of Mumford & Sons and Nickel Creek, and at times echoes popular male-female duos such as She & Him and fellow Nashville darlings The Civil Wars.
Their first major release, Faint Not (2010), found a captive audience in the likes of Mac Powell of Third Day (who lends background vocals on the song “Carry Me”) and Sara Groves, who brought the duo out on her 2011 Reason to Gather tour, alongside Dove Award nominated artist Audrey Assad. The record’s title track is an anthemic tune, bolstered by words from the famous prayer of St. Francis, “Where there is hatred let me sow love, where there is injury let me pardon…”
The success of Faint Not catapulted Jenny & Tyler into a new season of busyness, but the opportunities brought by success led to a point of physical, emotional and spiritual exhaustion. The season of recuperation and reflection that followed inspired their latest full-length album, Open Your Doors (2012), produced by Mitch Dane (Jars of Clay, JJ Heller, Caedmon’s Call). The narrative arc of the album invites listeners to a place of rest—a space to voice their wonderings, lay down their burdens, and drink-in beauty, comfort and peace.
“Skyline Hill” revels in moments of beauty too rich for words; “You Keep On Loving Me” addresses the struggle to let oneself be loved; and “When Darkness Falls” sketches the tenuous line between desperation and hope. In contrast, “Fear Thou Not” arrives with driving, percussive force in both music and lyric. It’s a song that rattles the bones and bolsters the spirit, war and joy set to music, a solid rock rising out of a tempestuous sea. Their fresh arrangement of an old hymn, “See the Conqueror,” has an unstudied air evocative of leaders in the new-old-hymn movement, such as Sandra McCracken and Indelible Grace. The album comes to a close in lullaby form with the piano instrumental piano “Selah” echoing the album’s theme of discovering and entering into a place of appointed rest.
Jenny & Tyler met in college at the University of Delaware where they first took the stage leading songs at a campus ministry. Much like their contemporaries The Weepies, the story of their eventual marriage is palpable and disarming in the best way, a resounding testimony of selfless love and faithfulness.
But Jenny & Tyler don’t merely want to tell a good story, they want to live one. Instead of glossing over personal and global problems, they wrestle with issues like poverty, injustice, and apathy, starting with their own hearts. They are committed compassion, charity and justice, evidenced, in part, through their ongoing support of International Justice Mission, a non-profit organization dedicated to ending human-trafficking throughout the world.
In a crowded industry glutted by banality, Jenny & Tyler stand out as true psalmists—modern day contemplatives and troubadours, rooted in age-old wisdom set to new melodies.
Jenny & Tyler continue to write and tour. Catch them in person this fall as they rejoin Sara Groves and Bebo Norman on tour in support of Open Your Doors.
Visit jennyandtyler.com/tour for a schedule of appearances.
Great song! Please play often!
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