Jodie Manross is Not to be Missed (Los Angeles Entertainment Today)
Entertainment Today
Thursday, February 26 2004

For such a headstrong bunch, Los Angelenos can be distressingly
unmotivated when it comes to seeking out burgeoning musical talent,preferring instead the weeknight comfort and safety of shows from buzz-minted bands with an appendage of “the” tacked onto their moniker.
Since I can’t physically poke each of you, I urge you to take the goading upon yourselves and seek out Jodie Manross, a singer-songwriter whose crisp voice and illuminative songcraft belie her diminutive stature. The
comparisons run fast, deep and varied—Shelby Lynne, Aimee Mann, Sarah McLachlan—but take your pick only after giving the North Carolina-bred,
Tennessee-based Manross a half hour of your time. Equal parts wistful and urgent, it’s atmospheric music that will touch your heart and mind. Her special 8:30 L.A. set at the Room 5 Lounge (www.room5lounge.com), with a
few surprise sit-in guests, promises to be luminous. And if it makes you
feel better, you can call her “the” Jodie Manross. (Brent Simon)

Jodie Manross finds strength in standing alone (Maryville Daily Times,
Nov. 12, 2004) By Steve Wildsmith

Jodie Manross offsets her diminuitive stature with a voice of resounding
power, but even its angelic qualities couldn't erase the fear of striking
out on her own.

When the Jodie Manross Band called it quits last year, Manross -- who
stands 5-foot-2 and could melt ice with her sunny smile -- had established
a reputation as one of the best vocalists in East Tennessee. (She was
voted Best Female Vocalist in the 2000 Metro Pulse Reader's Poll.) And her
songwriting isn't too shabby, either. (LA's Entertainment Weekly said that
``her crisp voice and illuminative songcraft [are] equal parts wistful and
urgent; it's atmospheric music that will touch your heart and mind.'')

But standing on her own, without friends she'd played with for years
(although oud player and sideman Laith Keilany still collaborates with her
on occasion) brought a new sort of trepidation, she said this week.

``It's been a real growing experience playing separate -- it's been scary
but exciting, and very fulfilling knowing I can go out there and don't
have to rely on anyone,'' she said. ``It's an exciting experience to stand
on your own, and it's really helped in terms of communicating, to have
that rapport with the audience. It's essentially not relying on anyone but
yourself to come up with a sound that's engaging and that people will
hopefully enjoy.

``I've played some private parties, and the other night, this little
4-and-a-half-year-old girl asked if I knew any Avril Lavigne. First of
all, I couldn't believe she knew who Avril Lavigne was, but I had to tell
her, `No, I'm sorry; I'm not really a cover band.' I play some '60s and
'70s covers by people like Bob Dylan and Janis Joplin, but I try to do
original music.

``Sometimes I feel like I need to prove myself, but it's meant the world
to me to lug in all of my equipment and set up and play, even if it's just
to a handful of people,'' she added.

If she's proving anything, it's to herself, she acknowledged. After all,
she's opened shows for John Mayer, Scott Miller, Keb' Mo', Rusted Root,
Ingram Hill, Me'shell Ndegeocello, Norman Blake, Olu Dara and Jonatha
Brooke. Her guitar work drifts through an enraptured crowd like fairy
dust, and her voice demands immediate attention for both its beauty and
soulful intensity.

Add Leilany, who plays everything from the 11-stringed Middle Eastern oud
to acoustic to slide guitar, and the result is nothing short of magic.
It's no wonder, then, that even after the end of the Jodie Manross band,
the two hope to start another group down the road.

``We're eventually going to put a band together, and we've been touring,''
she said. ``We're going to get to play New York City again, and we're
playing Virginia this weekend. We're just trying to get out of the
Southeast and just play, and it's been a lot of fun.''

New York and Los Angeles, where she's also performed, are cities where her
music and voice attract a lot of attention. And although she's thought, in
the past, of moving to one of those cities, her East Tennessee success and
the allure of the mountains keep her rooted in this area.

``When I came here, I planned to be here six months, but it's been seven
and a half years,'' she said with a laugh. ``There's a great community of
musicians playing here, and there are people I want to collaborate with
here. If you're playing in New York, you're one of 50 to 100 folks who are
playing around the city on a single night.

``I actually had plans in progress to move to L.A., but I've reconsidered
since then. The more Laith and I talk about new things, the more we're
waiting to see of a new band comes up and to see what the future holds.
It's great to have Knoxville as a homebase, because it's central to all of
these other cities and the cost of living is cheaper.''

That's not to say she'll stay in East Tennessee forever. For now, however,
she's content -- and her fans will be, as well, when her new EP, ``Don't
Save the Kisses,'' is released later this month.

``It sort of just shows what I've been working on for the past year, just
doing a lot of solo writing and playing guitar,'' she said. ``It's a
combination of studio-recorded songs I've done with the guy who produced
our first CD, `Still,' and just live longs I recorded in Atlanta in
Eddie's Attic.

``It's just sort of showcasing what I'm hoping will be the future in terms
of a band. It's just a little mit more of what I call intrspective folk
songs.''

Making a Solo Effort (Knoxville's Metropulse in Eye on the Scene 12/16/04)

Jodie Manross has spent the past year and a half establishing herself as a
solo artist. As the singer and co-songwriter of the Jodie Manross Band,
she led with her voice, the jewel inside the band's funky sonic setting.
So the group's dissolution didn't stop her from creating music. She picked
up the guitar, started writing songs, and performing as a one-woman show.
  Released last week to record stores - and officially via a Dec. 16
concert at Barley's - her seven song EP titled "Don't Save the Kisses"
is the result of post-breakup - band and otherwise - time alone, time
that Manross made into music.
  "I wrote something like 20 songs in the course of three months. I
haven't done that again, and now I'm like, where'd it go?"
  The disc's three songs from this period are "It's My Way," "Marie," and
"Beautifully," tunes she describes as "very emotional, very
heart-on-my-sleeve."
  In her self-deprecating manner that contrasts her strong, confident
voice, Manross says she's nervous about how these songs will be received
by listeners. Chances are they'll be glad to hear her voice, and more
likely than not, relate to the songs' sentiments; she wrote "It's My
Way" after a guy stood her up at a Jay Farrar concert. The disc's first
track hangs on a Wurlitzer keyboard strain and lands a solid emotional
break at the line "Hindsight's a glorious thing, but it's not making it
any easier, and if this is a choice, well I've got to learn to choose
better."
   Three tracks recorded live June 4, 2004, at Eddie's Attic, a Decatur,
GA listening room. Another version of "Marie," plus an acapella
rendition of Buffy Sainte-Marie's Tall Trees in Georgia" and "No One Is
To Blame." Yes, the Howard Jones song.
  "It's a song that I've put on every one of my mix tapes," she says.
Hearing it on a local radio station renewed Manross' affection for the
song. "The lyrics are so clever. They've always hit me. It's a fun,
poppy '80s song, but it has really heartfelt lyrics."
   The EP's title track was written by Greg Horne, who produced, recorded
and mixed the studio songs, and played a grab-bag of instruments that
give additional depth and resonance to Manross' songs.
   The EP will give fans a sense of what musical direction Manross is
heading. Keeping to a folk singer-songwriter core, she's starting to
experiment with bluesy and country strains - whatever sounds her
environment inspires. Documenting her solo material on the EP marks the
next step of an ever-developing artistic vision.
  "It's something that I needed to prove to myself that I could do," she
says.
  The CD Release show will feature guitarist Laith Keilany, with whom
Manross has recently resumed some writing projects, as well as
accompaniment and a 30-minute opening set by Horne and perhaps other
special guests.

www.knoxbands.com (Knoxbands Featured Artist), January 2005

To tide the masses over until her next project, singer-songwriter Jodie
Manross has come up with an EP that demonstrates her voice is just as
powerful as ever.

The spritely singer-songwriter has been a fixture around the Knoxville
music scene for seven years now, when she came to Knoxville intending to
stay for six months and instead never left. With two albums credited to
the Jodie Manross Band - “Still” and “Going Somewhere Soon” - Manross
struck out on her own last year and has spent the time honing her chops in
coffeehouses and clubs around K-town.

“I realized two years have gone by, and folks have been asking me, ‘When
are you going to put out some new music?’” Manross told Knox Bands during
a recent interview. “I wanted to put something out in the world that
people could enjoy until I get a new studio album out. The result [“Don’t
Save the Kisses,” an EP] is just sort of a labor of love that shows what
I’ve been doing on my own for the past year or so.

“It shows what I’ve been working on for the past year, which is doing a
lot of solo writing and playing guitar. It’s a combination of
studio-recorded songs I’ve done with Greg Horne, who produced our first
CD, ‘Still,’ and just live songs I recorded in Atlanta at Eddie’s Attic,
which is one of my favorite venues.

“It’s just sort of a showcase of what I’m hoping will be in the future in
terms of a band. I’m not sure what to call it,” she added. “They’re a
little bit more introspective folk songs. I call it country.”

Another band? Yep. The 5-foot-2-inch Manross has decided to put together
another project, one that will undoubtedly feature her omnipresent sideman
and instrumentalist, Laith Keilany. A former member of the Jodie Manross
Band, he’s continued to collaborate with Manross in addition to pursuing
his own projects over the past year.

“We’re eventually going to put a band together, but in the meantime, we’ve
been touring,” she said. “We’re going to get to play New York City again,
and mostly we’re just trying to get out of the Southeast.”

Unless you’ve been cowering under a rock or thumbing your nose at anything
that doesn’t have enough down-tuned bass to shatter glass, Manross’s name,
at least, is instantly recognizable.

She was voted best female vocalist and her work named the best new local
CD of Knoxville during the Metro Pulse’s 2000 Best of Knoxville poll, and
was runner-up for best vocalist in the same poll in 2001, 2002 and 2003.
She’s performed with John Mayer, Rusted Root, Leon Russell, Keb' Mo',
Scott Miller, Me'shell Ndegeocello, Norman Blake, Jump (Little Children),
the Pat McGhee Band, Jonatha Brooke and Olu Dara. Five songs off her
sophomore effort, “Going Somewhere Soon,” are currently being used in a
short indie film in Los Angeles, a student film at Florida State
University Film School and in a documentary on homelessness recently shot
in Nashville and Knoxville.

As a cultural anthropology major at North Carolina’s Appalachian State
University, she did historical preservation work and was published in the
Appalachian Studies Journal. Since then, she’s interned for Student Action
for Farmworkers (based in Raleigh, NC) and worked with migrant farmworkers
in Appalachia. Since moving to Knoxville, she has been an emergency crisis
social worker, a GED teacher and a children’s librarian.

Her songwriting has been lauded by publications from right here in East
Tennessee to Los Angeles, where LA’s Entertainment Weekly said that “her
crisp voice and illuminative songcraft [are] equal parts wistful and
urgent; it’s atmospheric music that will touch your heart and mind.”

Her new songs are even more poignant, at least to her. “It’s sort of
somewhere in between alt-country and folk and blues,” she said. “From
where I started playing guitar, my sound is different than what I was
expecting. It sounds new and exciting. Last summer, I ended up writing
about 20 songs, which was an exciting time in terms of being very
prolific. Normally for me, songs take a while.

“And a lot of the songs tend to be very personal, about relationships and
my family. I wrote one about my experience growing up in Pennsylvania, and
also on this new EP, I put some cover songs by Eva Cassidy and Howard
Jones, and those were just fun.”


The Jodie Manross Effect (Knoxville, TN)
University of Tennessee's The Daily Beacon

Are you stuck in the moment? Classes come and go like a re-run, and you're yearning for a deep conversation or emotional connection with anything real. We have the answer.
Go listen to Jodie Manross at Barley's in the Old City. She is one of Knoxville's most talented musicians on the local scene. However, we're pretty sure Knoxville will have to share her with the world soon.
The one thing that sets Manross aprt from the many of the local artists is her ability to craft subtle lyrics that pull at the heart strings of nearly every person who listens to her.
We call it the Jodie Manross effect.
The tiny musician's big voice seems to come out of nowhere, and she shouldn't be blown off as another lame song bird of the Jewel persuasion.
 Manross said she cannot confine her group's music to a single genre. She summed it up as a fusion of folk and rock with a blues influence.
But we think it's those lyrics that make the difference. So, if you're
in need of connecting with those deep emotional thoughts you've been suppressing, go hit Barleys tonight.

The Music Man: Talking Tunes with Ashley Capps, Co-Creator of Bonnaroo Music Festival
CityView Magazine

...a lot of people tend to view Knoxville as a place that likes the tried
and true, but it also has rather adventurous tastes -and a really strong local scene... RB Morris should be considered a national treasure, and Scott Miller and Hector Quirko are both amazing. Jodie Manross- what a great singer she is...And Donald Brown of course. Knoxville has a slew of
great jazz musicians.

Homegrown Musicians: 15 of Knoxville's best-known performers exhibit star
power, staying power
Cityview Magazine (June 2004)
Jodie Manross: An Americana Chanteuse by Steve Row

When she's not singing, Jodie Manross can be found working in the children's book department of the Knox County Library, but talk to her a little while and you realize music makes up and takes up most of her life.
Manross say she finally has settled on a description of the kind of music she sings: "acoustic Americana, folk-rock and blues." Her "Big Three" influences were Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon and Peter Gabriel. but she acknowledges that she has loved a wide range of popular musicians, from
Aretha Franklin and Sweet Honey in the Rock to Linda Ronstadt and Tuck and Patti. She started playing and singing while a student at Appalachian State University, and some of her songs reflect time spent as a social activist and community volunteer. Manross followed a trail of "really good
musicians" to Knoxville after graduating in 1996. "I had planned to be here a year, but it's been seven years now, " she says.
She sings with several back-up musicians - long-time mates were bassist
Andre Hayter and drummer Nathan Barrett: she has resumed collaborating with guitarist Laith Keilany and also brings on jazz pianist Ben Maney.
Two CDs are out on her own independent label, and she has started work on a third that should be out by the end of 2005. Manross says she has written about 50 songs but in some shows will play half original and half
material by others, such as Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, and Etta James. She says her creative output increased sharply "when I found a left-handed guitar. I went on a spree and wrote about 20 songs at once. It was exciting!"

*The other Knoxville musicians featured were: Donald Brown, Copper, Disciple, Drops of Brandy, Dynamo, Jag Star, Knoxville Jazz Orchestra, Scott Miller, RB Morris, Natti Love Joys, Hector Quirko Band, Robinella
and the CC Stringband, St. Somewhere and Todd Steed.

Music Snapshot: Jodie Manross (Cary/Raleigh, NC News)
Casr News (Cary/Chapel Hill/Raleigh, NC) July 8, 2004

Acoustic singer and songwriter Jodie Manross appears at Cary's Six String Cafe tonight. With her acoustic-based Americana and soul-influenced folk rock, Manross has become one of East Tennessee's top singer-songwriters.
Known as "the little woman with the big voice," this 29-year old
possessess a powerful voice -and surprises audiences with her soulful
delivery of songs. In one of her first appearances in this area, Manross
will open for Jennifer Daniels. When: Saturday, July 10, 8pm
Where: Six String Cafe in the MacGregor Village Shopping Center Tickets:
$7 at the door

Songwriter rises from ashes of burned-out bands (Knoxville News-Sentinel)
Knoxville News-Sentinel

The past few months have been depressing for Knoxville music fans. Heavy hitting local acts like Skinny Little White Girl, Left Foot Down and Gran Torino called it quits, leaving music fans with empty ears, wet handkerchiefs and smeared mascara. So when the Jodie Manross Band announced last month that it would be following suit, it was at once shocking and expected.

Even with the band going its separate ways though, Manross and crew aren't finished with music. Not even close.

"The biggest reason (for the breakup) is just having different goals and seeing the music going in different directions," says Manross. "The stuff I've been writing more and more is more singer/songwriter Americana rock.
And just pretty much everyone had different side projects they're wanting to pursue as well, and so it just seemed like there were more and more challenges presented to keep the band continuing the way it was."

That, coupled with musical burnout, has caused Manross to step back and look at music from a different perspective. "It took us such a long time to do 'Going Somewhere Soon.' It took us about a year and a half. Overall we enjoyed the process but it also, I can just speak for myself, I started getting really stressed out, burned out. Trying to put together a CD, work and try to tour almost every weekend really took a toll on me, to where I
started getting stage fright, and just a lot of doubting, 'Is this any
good? Is anyone going to listen to this?' "

For Manross, the split gives her a chance to do something she's never
done: write music on her own.

"This is also something that I've always wanted to do my whole life and felt like I never could do, just be able to write solely by myself," she
says. "I've written 10 or 11 new songs, and it's just me and my guitar .Even if it's just sitting in my house playing to my cat, I'm really happy because it's a creative vision and a creative piece that I'm just doing myself for a change."

And though she admits it's been a rough summer for local music, she sees light ahead, especially for the band.

"I think this is a hard time for independent music in some ways. Like the economy has really affected us this year. We would go to venues and a lot of times we heard from club owners, 'Don't be offended if nobody shows up.
We've had the worst year we've ever had.' Different things like that made
it harder to stay positive. We were really ourselves growing, so we just
felt like it was kind of time to move in different directions. We're all
really good friends and will probably continue to work in one way, shape
or form with one another."

Knoxville's Jodie Manross Band Makes a Big Sound at the Grey Eagle
(Asheville, NC)
Asheville Citizen-Times

The Jodie Manross Band from Knoxville plays Thursday night at the Grey
Eagle, 185 Clingman Ave.

Jodie Manross was still studying anthropology in college when Edwin
McCain, the platinum-selling singer/songwriter from South Carolina, requested her presence onstage for a few songs during one of his concerts.

"I said, `I have too much homework. I can't do it,' " Manross recalls,
laughing at the memory. "Part of me now asks, `What was I thinking?'"

Manross, 28, spent much of her high school and college years believing she wasn't ready to become a professional musician. A self-described perfectionist, Manross kept telling herself she was too young, too inexperienced, too naive, or too something.

Since surrendering in the late 1990s to her life's dream of making music, the Greensboro native has quickly made up for the opportunities she passed
up in her youth. She and her band have released two CDs. Her hometown of Knoxville, Tenn., has named her among the town's best female vocalists each of the past three years. And the band has opened for nationally known
artists like John Mayer, Leon Russell, Me'Shell N'Degecello and Keb' Mo'. The group plays Thursday at the Grey Eagle.

"Their music fits with everything from a rock band, to a pop artist, to a jazz/blues artist," says Jay Lewis, head of special events for Knoxville's A.C. Entertainment, which has connected Manross and her band with many of the bigger names for which they've opened. "They've really risen to the
top here."

Asheville has been one of Manross's frequent stops during her quick ascent in the independent music industry; she has performed at Jack of the Wood, the Asheville Music Zone, the Grey Eagle and the Bele Chere festival.

The band's new CD, "Going Somewhere Soon," released just last week, was recorded in bassist Andre Hayter's living room over a period of more than a year. Like their first CD, 1999's "Still," the new recording highlights several of the band's unique qualities: percussionist Nathan Barrett's
"Congosaurus Rex" percussion set-up of bass drum, cymbals, djembe and several hand drums, and Manross's strong voice, developed largely through listening to soul music of the `60s and `70s.

"I remember saying something stupid to her like, `You've got the voice of a 30-year-old blues singer,' or something like that," recalls Laith Kelainey, a co-founder of the Jodie Manross Band, about the first time he heard Manross sing. "I was completely awestruck. She's so young-looking, and she has such a mature, powerful voice."

Kelainey, the band's guitarist, is also one of Manross's mentors. A
professional guitar teacher, he taught her to play. Kelainey also
encouraged Manross to be confident in her songwriting, and the two now collaborate in writing most of the band's songs.

Lately, Kelainey has also encouraged Manross to allow herself more vocal and lyrical freedom during live shows, and free herself from the typical structure of a song.

"That can be hit and miss, but with Jodie, it's hitting every time. It's
all straight from the heart."

Christine Hawes writes about music for the Asheville Citizen- Times and
can be reached at writeceh@comcast.net


The Jodie Manross Band Gets Ready to Go Boom (Knoxville, TN) Metropulse (Knoxville, TN)

When the Jodie Manross Band released its first album, Still, in 1999, the group's rise on the Knoxville music scene had seemed quite meteoric.
Although singer Jodie Manross and guitarist Laith Keilany had been playing together for a while, they weren't really a band per se. Adding Nathan Barrett on percussion and Andre Hayter on bass, the group formed while they were recording Still with the intention of giving the songs a bit more oomph. The chemistry within the group was undeniable—with Manross'
booming voice and the group's energetic playing and eclectic
instrumentation—and they quickly made a name for themselves.
For the past couple of years, however, there's been a certain nagging question that fans keep asking: When are you going to record again?
In truth, the group's follow-up has been 14 months in the making. Started in June 2001, the band expected to have it finished the following October.
Well, they got the month right.
There was no one thing that stalled the project. Between touring and their day jobs, the group found recording more involved than they realized. They recorded the album themselves, with Hayter serving as producer and engineer and his home as recording studio, so there was a bit of a learning curve. "The poor guy couldn't sit down in his house," Keilany says. "We had wires and equipment all over the place."
Once they started putting the songs on tape, they found themselves
re-writing and making changes. The vocal cuts proved particularly
troublesome. "I have the equivalent of stage fright in the studio,"
Manross admits.
Part of the problem is she's a particularly harsh judge of her own
performance. But it's also the sterility of the setting—she prefers
singing live when she can feed off the energy of the audience. Also,
there's the frightening prospect of making a permanent record of her
voice. Sitting in a house that Keilany, Barrett, and Hayter have just moved into, the group teases Manross about her fussy perfectionist tendencies, but
they also jump to her defense.
"When you're playing live and you make a mistake, it goes away. But when you're recording, they're always there," Hayter says.
The resulting record—Going Somewhere Soon—is well worth the wait. "It's
finally representative of the sounds we hear when we play," Barrett says.
The production is sharp and crisp. The band is tight and deftly handles
the spectrum of styles. There's a heavy world music influence, accented
with djembe and oud. At times, they'll hit a groove and ride it, the way a
jam band would. Sometimes, the songs stick to a simpler folk or rock song
structure.
Manross' agonizing has also paid off. As usual her vocals are the center
of the music. Her singing shows varying shades of emotion, including
mournfulness, desparation and jubliance. The a cappella Gospel tune "Ain't
That Good News" is followed by the brooding blues number "Given" (which
includes some fantastic guitar work by Keilany).
"My voice has changed some. It's lower, more bluesy. I experiment more,"
she says. "The more smoky bars I play in, the more bluesy I get."
The 15 tracks clock in at more than an hour. Hardcore fans will recognize
most of the songs, since they've been part of the group's live repertoire
for a while. "It's long, we know. One reason is that it's been so long
since our last one and people keep asking when's the next one coming out."
The band hopes the CD will better showcase what they sound like. The group
often gets the sexistly pigeonholed as female folk, especially by
potential booking agents.
"The singer-songwriter folk label is a complement to me, but it is the
kiss of death for a venue. Then I call and they hear my talking voice and
are like, 'Oh, are you like Jewel?'" says Manross, referring to her
deceptively diminutive speaking voice. "There's three guys in the band.
I'm the only girl. I'm influenced by men. I never expected to get treated
like this."
The band is thinking about getting a manager to help do the tedious
business stuff that they find so draining. And they'd like to eventually
be able to give up their day jobs and focus on music. But, they don't
necessarily aim for major label success—like many bands, they're
suspicious of the majors.
When friend John Mayer told them last year he had been signed to a major
label, Manross' first reaction was sympathy. "The first thing I wanted to
say was, 'Are you OK with that? I'm so sorry.'" Mayer has done quite well
since then, but the fear is real.
"We've seen so many bands go that route and get destroyed," Hayter says.
With the album finally finished, for now the band just wants to
concentrate on writing new songs.
"We've put everything creative on the back burner for this album and
playing shows," Barrett says. "We're about to explode, mostly out of
necessity."
Metropulse (Knoxville, TN)
Thursday, October 10, 2002
by Joe Tarr

Manross to Release Second CD (Knoxville, TN) The Daily Beacon (Knoxville, TN)

The Jodie Manross Band is good. Not just everyday good, but steamingly
soulful folk-rock chunky soup mm-mm good. And they'll be serving up a
piping hot heaping helping of their eclectic sound at Blue Cats tonight.

This record is the CD release party for their new album Going Somewhere
Soon, the follow-up to 1999's Still.

Jodie Manross moved to Knoxville in 1996 and began writing songs with
guitarist Laith Keilany. Percussionist Nathan Barrett and bassist Andre
Hayter joined the group during the recording of Still, and ever since,
Jodie and the band have definitely been going places.

Over the past few years, the band has been keeping very busy by playing
shows across the Southeast with artists such as R.B. Morris, Gran Torino
and Caroline Aiken. In 2000, Manross was voted Knoxville's Best Female
Vocalist in the Metropulse Voter's Poll.

The new album, which the Knoxville quartet began in June 2001, the group
hurdles over the ominous sophomore slump experienced by many ill-fated
bands, and propels their sound into creatively fertile pastures.

"It's finally representative of the sound we hear when we play," Barrett
said.

Recorded in Andre Hayter's house, the process proved to be a more
difficult task than any of them expected, due to the band's touring
schedule, day jobs, and Manross' self-described "stage fright in the
studio."

However, the fluid production quality and sweetly pulsating songs reflect
none of these hindrances, and the band delivers a seamless, enchanting
product.

The album opener, "Manhattan," warmly greets the listener and sets the
pace for the rest of the record. The exuberant second track "To You"
grooves steadily, led by Nathan Barrett's "congasaurus rex," and features
a lightly swinging mid-song break. The title track is jammin' - and it
hopes you like jammin' too - with Manross' booming voice swiftly taking
charge. She flexes her vocal repertoire on "Hard Way," proclaiming "We
keep doin' this the hard way, but we do it so well." On the hard-hitting
"Hope Against History," Manross' direct lyrics are stapled on top of the
band's persistent, but not monotonous, backbeat, as she proclaims "I think
I lost you before we even met." The a capella spiritual "Ain't That Good
News" reverberates up the church steeple and soars to the heavens. The
bluesy "Given," recorded live in Boone, NC, stirs the emotions of
loneliness and desolation.

So now that you have been enlightened, cancel all your plans for Friday
night and get to Blue Cats for some rump shakin' action with the Jodie
Manross Band. It's only $5 and the doors open at 9. See you there.

by Zachary Zoeller
Friday, October 18, 2002

Jodie Manross celebrates success, new album
The Daily Times (Maryville, TN)
There aren't quite words to describe the voice of singer-songwriter Jodie
Manross.
Accompanied by an amazing group of instrumentalists that make up the
Jodie Manross Band, Manross herself allows her voice to soar and tremble
with the control and strength of an opera singer. There's a purity in her
voice that touches the soul, and anchored in the folk-rock stylings of
Patty Griffin and Shelby Lynne, it's almost impossible to pin her down in
any one genre.
These days, the Jodie Manross Band is all over Knoxville, and Wednesday
night, the group will open for singer-songwriter extraordinaire Leon
Russell. It'll be good to play at home next week, Manross said recently,
calling on break from her job at Lawson McGhee Library in downtown
Knoxville.
"We had a great weekend, but I'm kind of a homebody, so it's hard to
travel. Manross said on Monday. I really consider Knoxville my home now,
and I really love being here, definitely. The support we've gotten has
really been wonderful.
That's a bold statement from a girl born in Pennsylvania, raised in
Greensboro, NC, and who intended to stay in East Tennessee six months.
While playing folk and rock with an acoustic music group while a student
at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. Manross found herself
falling in love with Knoxville every time she climbed over the Smokies to
visit.
Her bandmates where all from Knoxville, and after college, her friends
encouraged her to move here and try her hand in the local music scene.
She did, intending to stay six months and go to graduate school to
capitalize on her degree in anthropology.
"It didn't happen," Manross said. "I moved here to pursue music, then I
got sidetracked as a social worker for a while, and I didn't have the
time or the energy to pursue music until now. I've always had varied
interests, and for the longest time I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue
with school in anthropology or do music.
  "It took me a while to realize music was my calling, because I knew how
difficult and competitive it was to make it in the music business, and I
didn't know if I was mentally equipped to handle the pressure and
challenges. But I know that I am."
  What followed was a gradual introduction to the Knoxville music scene
that led to the development of the Jodie Manross Band. Manross and her
musical partner Laith Keilany developed their sound as a folk duo
starting in 1998, eventually adding Andre Hayter to bass and Nathan
Barrett to percussion.
"Laith and I started working on songs together, because he wanted the
challenge of playing the acoustic guitar after years of going the
electric route, Manross said.
"We started playing around open mics, and we got asked to provide some of
the songs for Circle Modern Dance's Primitive Light Show, Manross added.
"We got such as welcoming, wonderful response from doing our original
music there, we started performing more."
In the summer of 1999, the band recorded an album of original tunes
called "Still." From its inception, the band's sound has been hailed
almost universally for its uniqueness: Soaring vocals incorporate rock,
blues and folk, and energetic acoustic guitars are fused with grooving
bass lines and the fury of the percussion which is conprised of bass,
drum, congas, jimbe, bongos and cymbals that Barrett plays entirely with
his hands.
Manross is most proud of the group's most recent effort, "Going Somewhere
Soon," which incorporates more influences and reflects the band's growth
over the past several years, she said.
  The effort that went into "Going Somewhere Soon," was drawn out over
several setbacks, Manross said, including the end of relationships and
the deaths of family members. Those events lend "Going Somewhere Soon" a
wistful sense of urgency, and the songs, from the glorious "Manhattan"
on the opening track to the title effort, float from the speakers.
  "It was really an incredible learning experience, doing that record,"
she said. "We recorded it on Andre's living room, with mattresses for
sound barriers and microphones and wires everywhere. We would do that,
tour on the weekends, and keep full-time jobs, so because of lack of
time, it took a year and a half almost to complete it. But it was so
worth it.
by Steve Wildsmith, Fri, Nov. 29, 2002