Singer-songwriter Jenny Lewis on why she moved to Nashville and her upcoming Ryman show
Upon arriving at Jenny Lewis' East Nashville home, a truck is parked in the driveway and a puppy runs to the door.
The "Puppy and a Truck" singer's lyrics go: "Get a puppy and a truck / If you see us rolling up / Say what's up."
Perhaps I missed a cosmic chance by not greeting her and her glossy black cockapoo, Bobby Rhubarb, with the appropriate "What's up?"
The rock singer-songwriter broke out as part of the duo Rilo Kiley in 1999, and since then, she's been a staple in the indie-alternative scene. She's recorded with the Watson Twins, toured with the Postal Service and released five studio albums.
Last summer, Lewis released her most recent album, "Joy'All," a record interlaced with Nashville influence after her move to Music City from California in 2017. On March 13, she'll be stopping by one of Nashville's most iconic stages on her tour: the Ryman Auditorium.
I spent an afternoon with Lewis at her home, sitting at her antique kitchen table with a candle lit in the center. Lewis was all gratitude and joy for her city, people, music and tour.
She said this will be her fourth time hitting the stage at the Ryman Auditorium, calling it "a true honor and a privilege." The last time she performed at the Ryman was March 2019. In 2016, she took to the Ryman stage to celebrate the 10th anniversary of "Rabbit Fur Coat," a record she created alongside Nashville duo the Watson Twins.
During the 2016 show, Jimmy Buffett came out for "Handle With Care," a song by the Traveling Wilburys, to duet with Lewis.
"And he had a weed, bedazzled Nudie jacket to match my rainbow marijuana fringe suit that I had made for that tour," she said.
"He came out and the whole Ryman stood up and started cheering and stamping their feet and it was like a five minute standing ovation for Jimmy. It was the first and only time he played the Ryman. Wow."
Lewis said Buffett was a good friend and one of the greatest songwriters. His death in September was "a great loss on many levels," she said.
Her musical connection to Buffett isn't surprising; his sonic influence is felt throughout "Joy'All," especially in the reflective but beachy, feel-good "Puppy and a Truck."
The song "is definitely a nod to Jimmy," she said.
"Jimmy really knew how to enjoy life and work hard, and then truly hang with the family. I think in the spirit of that, you know, if you feel like giving up, get a puppy and a truck."
Jenny Lewis always 'felt like an outsider,' but not in music
Like Buffett, Lewis found herself drawn to Music City. She moved to Nashville about seven years ago, though she said she'd "fantasized about living here" long before. After living in the San Fernando Valley most of her life, it was time for a new chapter.
"Nashville was an amazing place to land. (My) whole body just relaxes (here)," Lewis said. She followed her friends the Watson Twins here, moving for the friendship and the people — not necessarily, or exclusively, for the music scene.
"I didn't come here to make music," she said. "That was not my intention. I didn't come to Nashville to make it in music, or even record here. I didn't know that was gonna happen. I came here for the friendship, 'the hang' and the ease in which you can get around this town."
But, Lewis admitted, she's "always felt like an outsider."
"Always. In school, in work ... not in music or in the song or in the band. That's where I found some unity and community and camaraderie."
As a touring musician, Lewis finds life on the road isolating.
"It's hard to feel at home when you're everywhere," she said. "Nashville, you know, I have friends here."
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When Lewis first moved here, the roads taught her the city instead of uprooting her.
"I turned off my GPS on my phone and I just got lost driving around for like a year," she said. "I would wind around the back streets of East Nashville. Gallatin just goes and goes and goes. But that's the way you learn a town."
And now, Lewis has found her people in Nashville.
"When I started really hanging out in Nashville, none of my friends were playing country music. I mean, they're amazing indie bands and punk bands," she said.
"There's a crazy hip-hop scene in Nashville. And my friends are artists and sculptors and potters and painters, and it wasn't what you think of when you think of Nashville. I don't know anyone that's in a famous country music band."
Other transitions brought Lewis to Nashville, too, events she said are pivotal in the "seasons of life." She lost her mother, went through breakups and needed to move on from her hometown. "Those are just all the things that happen at some point."
Those moments are felt in Lewis' latest record, which grapples with themes like aging, dating, goodbyes and healing. "Joy'All" lasts a brief 32 minutes, with 10 intentional and deliberately ordered tracks.
The record was created in Nashville's historic RCA Studio A, with Grammy award-winning producer Dave Cobb (John Prine, Brandi Carlile, Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell) and a house band comprised of Nate Smith, Brian Allen and Cobb on guitar.
The album is a nod to Bob Dylan's "Nashville Skyline," a record from 1969.
"Joy'All," too, is about "being an outsider, in a new place, and embracing a phrase like 'y'all,'" Lewis said. "But also coming up with a new word. I coined the word Joy'All."
Appropriately, joy remains a tangible thread throughout the album.
With guidance from Beck, 'Joy'All' came to be
Lewis' songwriting process for "Joy'All" was not typical of her practice. In January 2021, she attended a virtual songwriting workshop with her friend Beck, a singer-songwriter and record producer.
The virtual workshop, which Lewis says she normally would've been "too shy" for, fell in the middle of the pandemic. So she took the time to hone her craft alongside 10 other artists.
Daily, for a week, Beck would give out specific prompts for the artists to write songs. The goal? A song a day for a week. At the end of the workshop, Lewis had written most of "Joy'All."
"Write a song in freeform" and "write a song with 1-4-5 changes" were two of the asks. One of Beck's prompts was to write a song with all cliches.
"So I found lists of popular phrases and words in the top-40 country music songs," Lewis said. The result was a Nashville rock 'n' roll tune, "Love Feel."
Lewis sings, "Thunder and pouring rain / Sugar in the gas tank / Fire and lightning / PCP and Mary Jane / Marvin Gaye, Timberlake / Hank Williams, Johnny Cash / John Prine / Waylon and Willie / Ice cold Modelo / Tennessee whiskey."
"('Joy'All') was written here. It was recorded here. I wrote a lot of the songs just driving around, and then listened to the mixes driving around," Lewis said of the music's Nashville roots.
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Her traditional songwriting process, though, is far more enigmatic than the regimented, prompt-driven "Joy'All."
"It's very mysterious — it's almost like channeling," she said. "It's way more feely."
Lewis hasn't participated in any co-writing in Nashville just yet either; her process is often singular.
"I'll be on an airplane and I'll write a poem on a barf bag. And then like, I have to find a guitar, and then I'll put it to music," Lewis said — giving an example of how a song may come to life. Many of her songs are products of these random bursts of inspiration.
Even after the lyrics pour out, there's still plenty of homework to be done, Lewis said.
"I work on songs for months, sometimes years."
It's a constant process up until recording, even if she is just tweaking one little phrase or melody until it's just right. Each album typically takes around four years to create.
Lewis' favorite song on the album is "Giddy Up," a moody, almost smoky tune about extricating oneself from negative feelings. That sentiment is at the center of the record.
Other songs, like "Apples and Oranges" and "Psychos," meditate on romantic love.
"I had some challenging times out in the dating world, which is again, nothing special," she said, adding that she's dated a couple of "psychopaths."
"The thing about writing a song called 'Psychos' ... sometimes you look in the mirror and you're like, 'Wait a minute, am I the psycho?' But the psychos don't wonder if they're the psycho. So I'm not the psycho!"
The album, too, meditates on womanhood.
"There's that societal pressure, I think regionally, (that) kind of dictates how people react to a single woman without kids in her 40s," she said.
It is only fitting that Lewis has stocked her 2024 tour, the Joy'All Ball, with an entirely female band for the first time in her touring career.
"We love playing music with dudes," Lewis said. "We love them. But, you know, their guitars are pretty loud sometimes."
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With this 13-stop tour, Lewis looks forward to blooms of feminine energy and prioritizing joy.
"This feels like the daffodil tour. You know how the daffodils are the first flowers to bloom every year? See that little row like green?" Lewis said, pointing through the window into her backyard.
"We're ready for spring, (for a) new start," Lewis said with a smile as she sipped on a Modelo and Bobby Rhubarb zoomed around the kitchen. "What is going to happen? We have no idea."
Lewis and her band will be at the Ryman Auditorium on March 13. For more information, visit jennylewis.com.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Jenny Lewis: Nashville singer-songwriter returns to Ryman Auditorium
