The Jen Chapin Trio brings urban folk to Atomic Tom’s for June First Friday

(photo by Merri Cyr)

Atomic Tom’s has established itself of late as a pulsating venue for music and art in the Triple Cities, as well as a stop for musicians on tour. On First Friday June 2nd, the Jen Chapin Trio kicks off a U.S.-Canada tour with its urban folk soul and “story-songs that search for community and shared meaning, powered by the funk and improvisation of the city,” as described on their website. Carousel checked in with Chapin ahead of the show to ask about her music, life, and expectations for the tour.

TRIPLE CITIES CAROUSEL: Who is Jen Chapin, and how do you self-identify or describe yourself as a musician and in other roles?

JEN CHAPIN: Well, like a lot of people these days, I have many identities and more than one career. Mother is definitely a big part of my identity. Wife is always there, but that sounds antiquated! Musician-artist is major. I also think of our community of musicians as my tribe: a community of people with whom I share history, values, camaraderie, lifestyle. But in the past few years, I've also been making official another part of my identity that has been alternately more and less present over the course of my music career - that of educator. I've recently finished a Master’s degree in education and am certified as a high school social studies teacher, with additional courses in health education. I was just tweaking my resume today, and the headline there is: Social Studies & Health Educator/Musician/Activist.

TCC: Can you describe your band: how you got together, how your sounds and styles mesh together, and what your process is in terms of putting songs together - whether composing or performing?

JC: I've been so spoiled in always working with the most amazing musicians, who also happen to be kind and smart people. My bassist Stephan Crump is, of course, my husband of 17-plus years, so he's pretty cool! And Jamie Fox on guitar is a longtime dear friend and just a wonderfully skilled, sensitive, and intuitive musician. I can always trust their instincts. So, usually I bring in the bare skeleton of a song: chords, melody, lyrics - with maybe some idea of specific parts for specific instruments, along with my own basic guitar part. But usually they come up with their own ideas. I liken it to me making a black-and-white sketch and them adding the colors and textures.

TCC: Where do you live now? Describe a typical daily/weekly schedule.

JC: I live in the Prospect Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn with Stephan and our two boys: Maceo (age 11) and Van (age 7). My schedule is very varied these days. I might be sitting with friends at our kids’ baseball game, on the subway to a grad school class, volunteering at a community farm serving the ridiculously high number of New Yorkers who are hungry, interviewing for a teaching job, folding laundry, or streaming a show with my husband when the kids are in bed. I do try to start the day with practicing music when I can, but sometimes it happens later in the day. Last fall, I was teaching full time and waking up at 3 or 4am to make lesson plans before work; mixed in afternoon family time with evening rehearsals, weekend tours to Virginia and California, and little bar gigs in Brooklyn. But now I'm looking for a new school, so doing a lot of running around the city and dealing with administrative stuff. Teaching or not, most afternoons I'm home with our boys helping with homework and music practice. I always love to cook nutritious and tasty dinners, as does Stephan.

TCC: I know that you are quite involved and politically engaged in socio-political issues, but your songs (aside from “Feed Your Baby” and “Gospel” on your most recent album Reckoning) seem to mostly focus on tensions within the human experience. At the same time, your music does inevitably and discretely touch upon and highlight socio-political issues. Is this a conscious decision?

JC: Yes. I guess this is part of where the activist part of my identity comes in, aside from my volunteer activities with WhyHunger. I do feel the need to address social-political-economic justice issues in my songs, but I don't like when songs are too much, too easily pointing the finger at the bad guy or girl of the moment and failing to look past that moment. I try to take a step back and reflect on the us part of the equation: who are we as a society, as a culture, as individuals, that get us into these messes? Where/who is the community and what does it mean? Sometimes I feel like I write songs - personal or political - as a process to figure out what I really believe about something.

TCC: I noticed that time is an underlying theme in some of your songs - as a marker, a thief, and an element - which amplifies human experiences. Is this a conscious decision for your music, and how do you think of time?

JC: I suspect that if you looked at any songwriter who writes about more than broken romance - well, even those too - you'd find a fair amount of lyrics considering time. Joni Mitchell and Neil Young come to mind right away. They wrote about time and mortality even when they were ridiculously young. And if you think about it, time is the medium with which musicians work. All we are doing is carving up time into shapes for dancing, contemplation, self-pity, unity, and so on…

TCC: The Binghamton show kicks off a summer and fall tour. What are your hopes for the tour, both for yourself and your audience, and what can your audience look forward to?

JC: I'm really excited for the Binghamton show, as well as the other show in eastern PA that weekend, as it's been too long since we've played together as a trio. The energy and inspiration I get from the musical moments Jamie and Stephan create is a luxury. I hope the audience feels how much fun we have.

Oh yeah, Jen Chapin is also daughter of the late Harry Chapin, but we thought we’d save that information for last, because Jen’s work more than stands up on its own. The First Friday show opens with John Kanazawich and guests performing from 6-9pm on the veranda, followed inside by The Jen Chapin Trio. Admission is free, but there is a suggested donation of $20. Atomic Tom’s is located at 196 State Street in Binghamton. For more information about the show, visit BinghamtonLive on Facebook. For more information about Jen, the Trio, and their music, visit jenchapin.com.