U.S. Army veteran and UT Tyler graduate Jenn Ford is now pursuing music full time. After playing country music for a decade, she’s honoring her rock musical influences ranging from Bonnie Raitt to Jimi Hendrix with a new album, Americana Radio. Jenn shares how music helped her manage PTSD after her military service.
Mike Landess: For UT Tyler Radio, I’m Mike Landess. Charles Wesley is credited with writing: “For the heights and depths no words can reach, God gave men music, the soul’s own speech.” East Texas musical artist Jenn Ford can attest to the power of music in her life personally and professionally, and it’s come to fruition in her recently released album, “Americana Radio,” and she’s our guest today.
Jenn Ford: Hey, nice to meet you. I’m Jenn Ford.
Mike Landess: You’ve been a part of the East Texas music scene now for years and years, primarily identified as a country artist. This album is quite a departure in genre, isn’t it?
Jenn Ford: Yes, well, I think it’s probably the most true album I’ve put out so far. It’s a good representation of what I really am and that’s all.
Mike Landess: Explain.
Jenn Ford: Well, I love country music. Rock music, blues music. Jazz music, classical music. I’ve been exposed to it my whole life. I sang in college before I went into the military. I served in the military for 11 years, and then I was part of the U.S. Army Bands for about six years, and even in the Army Soldier Show. So I was exposed to all types of music and all types of audiences, and so I’ve done everything. I love everything as long as it’s good. But being from East Texas, I think you kind of are expected to do country. And fortunately, I had a big break in 2017 and was signed to a Texas country label. So I came out with an EP and several other selections after that. But with this album, I felt like that I had more of an audience and had developed relationships with all kinds of musicians and decided to take a risk and create this concept album, which is Americana Radio. And it focuses on 20th century artists.
Mike Landess: Talk about the range that you reach here. I mean just looking at the titles of the songs, you’re going from John Prine “Angel from Montgomery,” which kind of fits in with the country genre to some extent, but then goes all the way to “Little Wing” by Jimi Hendrix.
Jenn Ford: Yes. So all of all of the artists who I selected have been instrumental in my love for music for different reasons. John Prine was an absolutely amazing songwriter, and Bonnie Raitt made Angel from Montgomery really famous. But I always enjoyed how he took that song from a perspective of a middle-aged woman and was able to put himself there in at the point where, someone realizes like, I’m not young anymore. I’ve only got a limited amount of time. I’ve got so much I wanna do. I’ve listened to that song for 20 years, and now I feel like at 45 years old, I truly understand what that means. My children are almost grown. I’ve already served in the military. I have my education. I’ve traveled all over the place. And I’m looking at: what do I wanna do for the rest of my life now that my kids are about to be gone? That part, young motherhood, is over with. I’ll still be a mother, but I need to be Jenn Ford, and Jenn Ford wants to do music and Jenn Ford wants to create and leave a legacy of amazing music for my family to remember me because this is my true passion and love. So that’s why I think I chose that song.
My favorite is “Little Wing.” There are so many different amazing versions of it from Jimi’s original version to Eric Clapton with Derrick and The Dominoes, and even Stevie Ray Vaughn. But I haven’t heard a feminine spin on it. And to me that song can be very delicate. The words are delicate. It’s talking about an angelic ideation of women or of a woman.
And specifically, when we recorded it, my grandmother was going through the last stages of her life, and I lost my other grandmother during COVID. I’ve been performing that song, but it started to take on a different meaning for me, and I wanted to put a very beautiful spin on it to pay tribute to my female influences in my life [because they both were very instrumental in turning me into the person who I am. I’m a strong Texas woman and both of them were strong, but I also have a softer side. And they had a good work ethic and good family values, and now they’re at peace. But I just chose that song to put a different feeling to it and to make people think about things differently with that song.]
Mike Landess: [Let’s go back to influences] Serving in the U.S. Army as a staff sergeant for 11 years. Teenage children, a graduate of UT Tyler. How has all of that formed your musical journey, do you think?
Jenn Ford: I think I have a lot of material to talk about. OK, I’m not a 20-year-old woman trying to break into the music industry. I don’t have the advantage of youth. I have the intensity and the ambition of a woman who knows who she is, and also the urgency to leave a mark. And so I feel like I have a lot of experiences that I can draw from and convey through music to tell stories that will reach people because I have the experience to back it up as a mom, as a soldier, as an educated person who went to school and actually finished stuff. And I’ve traveled a lot all over the world, and so I feel like that I can speak from experience. No offense to the younger artists because there are very talented artists. I feel like that it comes more honestly across.
Mike Landess: More authentic.
Jenn Ford: Yes. Yeah.
Mike Landess: Now, you’ve talked openly in the past about struggling with PTSD. How has music helped you deal with those issues?
Jenn Ford: Music has always been a part of my life. And I think when PTSD started to rear its head, music was my solace, and music was the constant thing that I felt like, that I knew for certain that music was part of me no matter what else was going on. I was transitioning out of the military, newly divorced with two small children coming back to East Texas, trying to make friends and connect in the community, and I was trying to find my place as soldier or as a veteran, I’m sorry. And how I would relate to the community. After my experience in the military, and it was hard for two years, I struggled, especially with insomnia and anxiety, and it’s still something that I have to deal with every day. But when I dove into the creative outlet of music, then I was able to have a release. To have a sense of community and developed friendships with people in the musical community in East Texas and now in Texas and across the U.S. That reinforced my confidence in myself and also just gave me peace and gave me a way to express myself that was in a healthy way and relieve a lot of stress.
Mike Landess: Music is the soul’s own speech, isn’t it?
Jenn Ford: For sure. And music is our first language, I believe. Our mothers sing to us when we’re babies, and we understand music, everyone understands music. It crosses every boundary, it reaches every demographic, and I think it truly heals the heart as well.
Mike Landess: Our guest has been the pride of Kilgore, Texas, musical artist and perpetual student, Jenn Ford. For more information about her new album and her appearances, you’ll find a link on our website, KVUT.org. For UT Tyler Radio, I’m Mike Landess.
(Transcripts are automatically generated and may contain phonetic spellings and other spelling and punctuation errors. Grammar errors contained in the original recording are not typically corrected.)
