Jenny From Thebes

Description

The Mountain Goats are releasing the album Jenny from Thebes, a sequel to their 2002 album All Hail West Texas. The album is a series of showtunes, pushing John Darnielle as a singer and The Mountain Goats as a band, once again expanding their sonic palette by drawing on influences such as Godspell, Jim Steinman, and The Cars. Jenny from Thebes is a broad musical, a melodrama with richly detailed characters and deep emotions. The Mountain Goats’ catalog is full of recurring characters – Jenny, who appears in the song bearing her name on All Hail West Texas, as well as in “Straight Six” on Jam Eater Blues and in “Light Night” on Transcendental Youth, is one such character who enters a song unexpectedly, piquing the ears of curious fans, before disappearing into the mist. Jenny from Thebes tells her story, but also of the individual and society, of security and of those who choose to provide help when no one else does. But in 2001, John Darnielle wrote and recorded All Hail West Texas alone on his Panasonic RX-FT500 boombox. Today, with his band consisting of Peter Hughes, Matt Douglas, and Jon Wurster, he has opted for the opposite approach to make it as big as possible.