The Americana group Wailin Jennys have been together for 22 years, and it showed on stage at District Music Hall in downtown Norwalk, Connecticut. “This is our first time here [the club], but not our first time in Connecticut,” said Nicky Mehta, who plays drums.

From left, Masse, Mehta and Moody–the three Ms. (Jim Motavalli photo)

In two sets (punctuated by an intermission) the Jennys performed songs from their six albums with the confidence of pros. Heather Masse (the jazzer in the band; she’s made duet albums singing standards with trombone player Roswell Rudd and pianist Dick Hyman) plays bass. And Ruth Moody is a guitarist. In Norwalk they had two men helping them out, on lead guitar, mandolin and fiddle.

The Jennys’ put lovely, soaring harmonies at the center of their sound, and at the service of their strong songs, from the pens of all three. It’s a very democratic group. For Paul Simon’s “Love You Like a Rock,” they put their instruments down for unison singing and syncopated handclaps. They came forward to do it again for traditional Irish song “The Parting Glass” at the end, but kept dissolving in laughter, eventually singing something else.

The Jennys just before they cracked up. From left, Mehta, Moody, Masse. (Jim Motavalli photo)

After 20 years, if bands don’t drift apart—and break up—they drift apart geographically and stay together. Masse grew up in Maine and now lives in Taos, New Mexico. Moody is one of the band’s two Canadians. Canada is integral to their story: The band got started at a performance in a little guitar shop in Winnipeg, Manitoba. (Without Masse; she arrived a few years later.)

Today, Moody splits her time between Nashville and Vancouver Island, BC. Mehta is the last band member in Winnipeg, where she mentors young musicians through Manitoba Music. Masse, who grew up in Maine, is now in Taos, New Mexico.

Warren Zevon’s last song ever was “Keep Me in Your Heart,” and the Jennys wrang every ounce of pathos out of it. It’s what we want, isn’t it? That we be remembered, at least for a little while. There seems to be a Tom Petty revival underway—including a new country tribute to him—and in Norwalk it was turned into an aching bluegrass ballad. The man could write.

One of my favorite Jennys songs, performed in Norwalk, is “The Bird Song,” a Mehta/Masse co-write. “I smell the flowers blooming, opening for spring/I’d like to be those flowers, open to everything.” It’s the title song of a Masse album, too.

Mehta made a pitch for the National Alliance on Mental Illness that works with disadvantaged populations. It’s a band cause. The names of contributors at the concert went into a hat, and the winner got a pile of Jennys merch. Innovative.

Ruth Moody on stage with the Jennys. (Jim Motavalli photo)

A few days after the show I spoke briefly with Ruth Moody for my WPKN radio show. Her solo album Wanderer is just out, and well worth investigating. If it sounds quieter to these ears it’s because, as Moody puts it, “The three-part harmony in the Jennys makes it a bigger sound.” The album was recorded in Nashville at Sound Emporium, which Moody says is “a great studio.”

Barely home, she was already packing for a solo tour that will take her to Joe’s Pub in New York May 25. “I just got home from the Jenny’s tour, and I have just enough time to do the laundry and have a couple of rehearsals with my band,” she said.

Moody said that Canadian radio’s local content laws don’t help her get much airplay in the Great White North. “Maybe it helps Bryan Adams,” she said. And as to breaking up on stage, she said, “We come forward and sing that song off-mike, and that means hearing each other differently. Sometimes one of us will get the giggles because someone else’s voice sounds a little funny. It triggers something and it can be hard to recover.” The full WPKN interview with Ruth Moody is here.