Jan Bell: Awards/Bio
Awards
Independent Music Awards
WINNER Alt. Country Album of the year. People's Choice Award
Brooklyn Country Music Hall of Fame (Inductee) Award
International Bluegrass Music Awards, IBMA Nashville - Official Artist with the Maybelles
Village Voice TOP 10 Folk Albums
1st place WINNER New Orleans City Life Singer/Songwriter
WINNER New Jersey Folk Festival Singer Songwriter
Brooklyn Arts Council September 11th 'Memorial Sing',
NYC Top 3 Albums of the year CMR Nashville, UK
Mayor Bloomberg Award for Women in Business, NYC
Superfine cites Jan Bell and Little Red Hen Music in receipt of the Award.
Audience Award Title Track in Malibu Film Festival 'Between the Bridges'
'The Real Deal' Songwriter's Masters Stage Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, NY with Claire Lynch, and The Gibson Brothers
MacDowell Colony 100 year celebration in Central Park, NYC
Emerging Leadership Institute at APAP (Arts Presenters and Performers, NYC Annual Convention 2011)
Coal Miner's Grand Daughter - A Biography
The Maybelles.
At barely twenty years old, Jan Bell came to America from northern England to teach theater and story telling. As far as music, she first set out playing in her newly adopted neighborhood - d.u.m.b.o. (down under the manhattan bridge overpass) by the Brooklyn Bridge. Jan landed in a burgeoning artist neighborhood, where the only bar was an iron workers tavern that had stood there for a century. As soon as she figured out that a lot of the bridge workers were Johnny Cash and Hank Williams fans - she launched The Urban Cowgirl Cabaret!
Pedal Steel, violin, banjo and upright bass would squeeze onto a pick up truck stage singing original country blues, and songs by their honky tonk heroes. Three part harmony sailed up toward the Brooklyn Bridge, and roof top water towers.
Jan was born into a coal mining family in Yorkshire, England. In her song 'Yorkshire Water', she sings her Grand father's words about a life spent down the mine. Her song 'Aunt Molly Jackson' chronicles the life of the outspoken union woman from Harlan County Kentucky, who went on to make a mark on the Greenwich Village Folk revival, inspiring a very young Pete Seeger. Jan also loves to sing songs by American folk singers such as Jean Ritchie, Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard. Although Loretta Lynn was the first one she knew.
Jan's current shows trace the path of Anglo-American folk song, Celtic tunes and stories - and their journey to the Appalachian region.
When she first heard the way people talked and related in places like Kentucky and Virginia - she felt right at home.
2010 sees a new Maybelles trio including long time special guest violinist Rima Fand; Megan Palmer on fiddle and piano; Tim Luntzel on bass; Hilary Hawke on banjo; Philippa Thompson on mandolin and fiddle.
A typical set traces the Trans-Atlantic journey of song, and the common ground that links both sides of the pond.
Winter 2011 sees the release of the new Maybelles album - 'Hello Stranger' recorded LIVE at Jalopy theater, NYC, and named after a well known tune they learned from The Carter Family.
Winter 2011 Jan Bell goes back into the studio to make 'Dream of The Miner's Child' - rare traditional songs from both sides of The Atlantic, alongside originals from her roots as a Coal miner's Grand daughter. Special guests include The Strung Out String Band, Jolie Holland, Samantha Parton, and fellow founding member of The Maybelles Melissa Carper. Jan and Melissa met at the Ozark Folk Festival and went on to sing and play across country with stints in the Ozarks, New Orleans and NYC. They decided to name themselves after the motor home they named after Mother Maybelle Carter. In Summer 2009, The Maybelles traveled back to Jan's homeland to play Folk Festivals across the British Isles, including one in the Yorkshire Dales, not far from where Jan was born.
Wherever she goes, people always ask how come an English girl is singing so many american folk songs? Jan reckons the root of many of the songs she loves, are back in the coal mining country side where she was born and raised.
"Sometimes the main difference is in the name of a river, a town, a girl or a boy - but the melodies, and the stories are often a lot alike. When folks from Yorkshire sailed across the Atlantic- especially if all they knew was mining - they often made their way to the Appalachian mountains in search of work.
For generations, they stayed there, and the music was not only kept alive - but thrived. The songs now stand as a people's history, passed down through an oral tradition.
When i first went to Virginia and Kentucky, I could hear broad Yorkshire in the way people spoke.
When i hear the songs I can hear the courage and the strength it took to even just survive. Industrialization and Privatization hit hard in Appalachia, just like it did where I come from. All those families - they had to be true dreamers, to get on the boat back then, and you can hear all that sheer hope and faith in their voices, and the songs."
Every Summer, Jan returns to the UK with singer songwriter Will Scott, whose Southern Indiana roots,and original songs team up with Jan's Anglo-Americana set to play a string of shows across England and Wales, culminating in the Glastonbury Festival.
Little Red Hen Publicity
In 2009, Jan was inducted into the Brooklyn Country Music Hall of Fame for 'Unending Support of Country Music in New York City'. Her reputation precedes her as a presenter, booker, publicist, venue manager and festival curator. In 1999 Jan founded Little Red Hen Music as a member organization of the Folk Alliance. Since then she has spearheaded hundreds of live music events in DUMBO, Brooklyn - now an internationally renowned arts neighborhood. Pioneer venue 'Superfine' cited Jan and Little Red Hen Music when they won NYC Mayor Bloomberg Award for 'Women in Business'. A multi-award winning songwriter, Jan stays true to her Yorkshire roots working hard to support international touring artists, presenting them at independently owned and operated venues in NYC. Following the Emerging Leadership Institute sessions at APAP (Association of Performing Arts Presenters) 2011, Jan saw a need for affordable experienced publicity in the Americana and Folk music realm. Little Red Hen Publicity follows the proverbial tale, and works in tandem with her post as an artist/agent at Charisma Artist Agency.
NYC Highlights
*Songs for Love Drunk Sinners Produced by Samantha Parton (of The Be Good Tanyas) wins the People's Choice Award - Independent Music Awards 2008.
*Woody Guthrie Archives : invitation as Guest Composer for Found Lyricsin the Archives.
*Playing and Producing Little Red Hen Music Stage at the dumbo Arts Festival (8yrs running).
"Jan's stage was the highlight of the festival!" Alison Tocci (President) Time Out NY.
* Manhattan Women's prison Christmas Party, where everyone started dancing - on the chorus of 'Cowgirl Blues'
"...can't see the stars a-shiniin' - feel like bustin' loose!".
"The inmates truly loved Jan's music. Wonderful!" Carolyn Demerest, President NY State Women Judges Association.
Support/Split Bills
Support/Opening for: *Emmylou Harris (AR) *Ferron (NYC) *Steve Earle (NYC) *Jolie Holland (NYC) *The Be Good Tanyas (NYC) *Wanda Jackson(NYC) with The Maybelles. *Rosalie Sorrels (NYC) *Ray Charles & his Orchestra w/ Mary Fly (AR)
Founder : Little Red Hen Music 1999