From Honeymoon To Victory Duo Leaving Their Mark

By Robert Thomas

It has been a bad year for the arts as the COVID - 19 pandemic has curtailed touring, opportunities to meet and make more fans on the road, cutting into musicians pocketbooks and limited for many their opportunity to grow as musicians.

The same could have been said for the country folk duo known as Jay & Jo who were making their mark on the Saskatchewan music scene and were set to become more of household known names with a planned Western Canadian tour this past summer that the pandemic forced cancelling of.

But like their unique music full of passion, hope and a strong roots base the young sister duo not only persevered in 2020 but they have been propelled to the top of the Saskatchewan country music scene. The duo’s music and soul full sound earning them five nominations from the Saskatchewan Country Music Association (SCMA), including the 2020 Saskatchewan Country Music Video of the Year.

We touch base with Jay from Jay and Jo.

MJI: Can you give me a brief background as to where you are from? What are your roots? How old are you? Where did your music ambitions come from and nurture?

Jay: We grew up on a farm north of Prince Albert, SK, a once-was place called Honeymoon. We grew up playing music in our family band with our parents and two brothers.

I (Janaya McCallum) am 25 and newly married, and Jolissa (Trudel) is 22.

We both started writing once Jo was nearing the end of high school. It was around that time that we both really started to discover and fall in love with some of our biggest influences. Folk music wasn't really something we grew up with, so we spent years diving deep into the musical legacies of people like Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Stan Rogers, Gordon Lightfoot, Neil Young, Joan Baez, and so many others. From there, writing came naturally to us, and so our journey as a duo began!

As far as ambitions, I think what fuels us is just seeing a need in our immediate society and larger global community for beauty and solidarity. The population of people who are lonely and lost is becoming younger and younger with each passing year, and music is one of the only things that can skip barriers and reach right into people's most hidden places. We just want to be a part of building a better culture around us.

MJI. This is your second album and it was suppose to be promoted through a tour - how successful do you feel you are overcoming the pandemic?

Jay. Yes, we had our largest tour to date through western Canada booked for July 2020, right after we planned for the album to drop. It became clear as the summer crept up that a tour wasn't going to be possible for that summer, and maybe not even the next. We were obviously devastated. In lieu of that, we weren't sure if we should go ahead and release the album when we planned. Should we wait until we can tour? Will it flop and be a big waste of money and time and heart? In the end, we really felt like this album and the songs enclosed in it were meant for a time such as this- and so we ended up feeling a responsibility to share it with the people who helped us create it when we said we would. So, we did! And we have no regrets. All things considered, we are very pleased and proud about how well-received the album has been. I think, in a year like 2020 (and beyond), people are clinging to things they resonate with more than before. Music is a big part of that for us, and we are humbled that people have found something that echoes their own struggles and joys in our music.

MJI. How would you describe your music?

Jay. We simply describe our genre as folk-roots, but we've been described as reflective, introspective, soft-roots, and Canadian acoustica. Our melodies are simple, but lyrics and honesty are very important to us. We usually write more easy-going stuff, but his album tends to be a bit more dancy, and we like that.

MJI. I feel a definite bluegrass influence in your music but it sounds as if you have moved away from your roots of the Trudels do you attribute it to a maturing or did you want to experiment more in a different way?

Jay. We'll never escape our grass roots, we listened to too much genius like Alison Krauss and the Cox Family to forget the magic of bluegrass phrasing and harmonies.

I think the movement from bluegrass to more of a singer-songwriter/folk sound can simply be accredited to what we were listening to at the time that we started writing. Our first album is very gentle and more folksy, while "Victory" is a bit more contrasted and edgy. I think that evolution is just a product of where we are at in our lives and what we have been listening to (which is a lot of Paul Simon, Nathaniel Rateliff, Madison Cunningham, and Andrew Peterson). Our sound will likely continue to evolve, just as we do.

MJI. Where were you planning to go on tour to if COVID had not hit?

Jay. As I mentioned before, we had planned a tour through Western Canada that we were really excited about, but unfortunately had to cancel. Our hearts are still throbbing.

Jay and Jo are nominated for five SCMA awards

MJI. How important is it to work together as sisters? Does one of you take a dominant role or is it more of combining the best of two individuals?

Jay. Working as sisters is incredibly unique, though it has always felt normal to us.

It's like making art with another person who sort of shares a mind and heart with you. We are very different in a lot of ways, but we share a lot of the same curiosities, loves, and convictions.

I think we enrich each other well, and I can't imagine doing this with anyone else in the whole world. We both contribute an equal amount, which I think is rare for a band/duo situation. We naturally write an equal amount (though not often together) and I'm pretty sure both albums are half Janaya songs, half Jolissa songs. One of us will take on a more administrative role when the other is busy, and vice versa, but that's pretty much it! Equally yolked.

MJI: Where do you find inspiration for your music?

Jay. We find inspiration in our own life experience, naturally, and the experiences of those around us. Suffering has a funny way of breaking you open and making you spill your guts, sometimes in the form of art. We try to take advantage of experiences like that when we can, and turn them into something beautiful that people can resonate with. Other than our own lives, we're really inspired by Wendell Berry (American author and farmer), art (especially that of Brian Kershishnik), and the land that we grew up in.

MJI. This album Victory was crowd funded and I am wondering what are your thoughts on that?

Jay. We launched a crowdfunding campaign last spring with a month to raise our funds, and we reached our goal in just 8 days. We were completely blown away that people would buy into something that didn't exist yet. It was one of the most humbling experiences of our lives to have so many strangers and friends lift us up with their generosity in that way. We knew instantly that this album would belong to them in a deeper way than we are used to. We literally could and would not have done this without them.

MJI: Your video for Youth was shot last Spring out doors when other artists may have opted for an indoor setting, was it intentional to shoot outside? Is there any back story to it?

Jay. It was intentional to shoot outside, though we almost froze! The video was shot at Cranberry Flats, a beautiful spot just outside of Saskatoon, videography and drone work done by Erik Paquette (a friend and past bandmate of ours with the Trudel Family). The song "Youth" is melodically pretty light-hearted, but the lyrics are heavier, speaking about regret and missed opportunities. I had the idea of the wintery slo-mo video one day, and knew that it had to be that cheery and chilling song that was showcased. The chorus reads: "I am cold, so cold. I have sold my very soul." The video itself is also a mix of serious and playful- watch it and you'll see! We are very honoured that this music video is up for "Video of the Year" in the SCMA 2021 Awards!

MJI. Is there anything you would like to add?

Jay. We'd like to make a shoutout to our producer and friend Hal Schrenk, who helped make this album exactly what we hoped it would be (he is also up for "Producer of the Year" for his work on Victory!).

We're honoured that the album has been recognized in the ways that it has, and are also up for 5 SCMA awards this year, which is nuts. We are so glad that Victory is doing well and has taken on a life of its own, but we can't wait to share these songs live again.

Speaking of which, we have a show coming up on May 1st at the E.A. Rawlinson Centre in Prince Albert. It is already sold out, but livestream tickets are available online.

As our last words, in light of these mysterious and lonely times, maybe we'll quote our biggest musical man-crush Chris Thile of the Punch Brothers in their song "Forgotten":

"Hey there, it's all gonna be fine. You ain't gonna die alone. You ain't gonna be forgotten."