Jenny Lewis

Jenny Lewis, the frontwoman of the charting indie band Rilo Kiley, crafts introspective, country-tinged indie pop and rock as an independent artist. After experiencing early fame as a child performer in various television programs and motion pictures, she grew weary of acting and shifted toward music upon reaching adulthood, co-founding Rilo Kiley alongside Blake Sennett in 1998. The group's material reflected the gritty underbelly of her hometown San Fernando Valley and adjacent Hollywood, yet she broadened her scope in 2006 by issuing the country-inflected solo debut Rabbit Fur Coat. Although Rilo Kiley continued for one additional album, Rabbit Fur Coat positioned Lewis as a compelling singer and songwriter independently, with her stature increasing further following the band's dissolution through the rustic Americana of Acid Tongue in 2008 and the polished, retro-infused pop textures of The Voyager in 2014. After the more atmospheric On the Line in 2019, portions of Joy'All in 2023 incorporated tracks developed during a songwriting workshop directed by Beck.

Born on January 8, 1977, in Las Vegas, Nevada, to two performers, Lewis moved to the San Fernando Valley during childhood. By age ten she had featured in several prominent commercials, which led to her casting in Lucille Ball's 1986 sitcom Life with Lucy. Additional guest appearances on sitcoms followed over the ensuing years, reaching a peak with notable parts in the 1989 films The Wizard and Troop Beverly Hills. She maintained an acting career into the mid-1990s, securing recurring roles on the 1990 series Shannon's Deal and 1991's Brooklyn Bridge, yet after her work in the 1998 feature Pleasantville she abandoned acting altogether.

That same year Lewis established Rilo Kiley with Sennett, then her romantic partner, along with Pierre de Reeder and Dave Rock. Following the release of a self-titled EP in 1999 on Barsuk, the group replaced Rock with Jason Boesel and issued Take Offs and Landings in 2001. A subsequent independent release, The Execution of All Things on Saddle Creek, arrived in 2002 before the band secured a distribution arrangement with Warner for More Adventurous in 2004.

As Rilo Kiley gained traction via major-label support, Lewis accepted an invitation from Conor Oberst to record for his Team Love imprint. She enlisted the Watson Twins for backing on Rabbit Fur Coat, her 2006 solo debut. Receiving favorable notices and extensive press coverage, Rabbit Fur Coat eclipsed earlier Rilo Kiley efforts while simultaneously elevating the band's 2007 album Under the Blacklight. Issued directly through Warner, Under the Blacklight became Rilo Kiley's highest-charting release, reaching number 22 on Billboard's Top 200, though the group fractured shortly thereafter. Despite the formal breakup not being declared until 2014, a year after the odds-and-ends collection Rkives surfaced, Rilo Kiley never recorded together again.

Lewis promptly refocused on solo work, producing the energetic Americana album Acid Tongue. Co-written in part with her new partner Johnathan Rice, Acid Tongue entered the charts at number 24 following its September 2008 release. She next collaborated with Rice on the 2010 album I'm Having Fun Now under the duo name Jenny and Johnny.

Lewis enlisted Ryan Adams as producer for The Voyager, an album that channeled the classic AOR era. The Voyager debuted at number nine upon its July 2014 release. In 2016 Lewis joined Erika Forster and Tennessee Thomas to form the trio Nice as Fuck, which issued a self-titled album that June. Returning to solo endeavors, she released On the Line in March 2019, featuring co-production from Adams, Beck, and Shawn Everett; it peaked at number 34 in the United States yet marked her first entry into the U.K. Top 30. She subsequently worked in the studio with producer Dave Cobb, known for his work with Jason Isbell and Brandi Carlile, to record material written partly while touring before the pandemic and partly at her Nashville residence during a week-long virtual songwriting workshop hosted by Beck in early 2021. The latter sessions included prompts such as "write a song with only clichés" and "write in free-form style." Augmented by contributions from Jon Brion on Chamberlin, Greg Leisz on pedal steel and B-Bender guitar, and backing vocals from Lucius' Jess Wolfe alongside a core rhythm section and overseen by Cobb, Joy'All appeared as her Blue Note/Capitol debut in June 2023.