Although Joe Jencks has listened to Pete Seeger’s music since childhood, it wasn’t until he was an adult that he appreciated it on a personal level.
The singer and songwriter, armed with undergraduate and graduate studies in vocal music performance, choral conducting and music education, hadn’t been able to break into the circuit on a full-time basis.
Jencks shares the stage Sunday with Wes Weddell in Everett.
He had to take day jobs as a warehouse forklift operator, school bus driver, and in marine sales to make ends meet. Those experiences allowed him to better understand the notion of collective bargaining, he said.
So don’t be surprised when Jencks offers a few labor-related songs during his performances, carrying on the folksinger tradition of delivering messages about social struggles and social conscience.
“Labor unions will not survive unless there’s a strong cultural arm to carry the messages, to celebrate through music and art and theater,” Jencks said.
Although Jencks understood the message and task on an intellectual level, he wanted to sing, not run a forklift or drive a school bus. They were jobs that he considered not on a par with performing. Ironically, the Pete Seeger fan was becoming bitter about working as a laborer.
Then friends stepped in.
“They talked to me about taking a real craftsman’s pride in the work that I do, that we should be proud of all the work we do and remove the notion that any work is demeaning.
“That shifted the focus for me and I stopped being bitter. I started to think, ‘OK, this is the work I need to do right now (on my way to becoming) a cultural worker.’
“I started bringing a craftsman’s work ethic to my music. The shift in my understanding made a difference. I quit worrying about whether I’d be famous and started concentrating on making an honest living doing good work. And that’s when I made the break.”
He took a week off of work in August 2000 to think things through. In that week, he booked a five-week national tour.
“I was motivated by sheer terror. I put everything I had into that tour,” Jencks said.
The 10,000-mile, 28-performance tour was a success, and led to the current 4.5-year run of full-time performing.
He hasn’t forgotten the lessons learned about social justice, pride in all work, or the singers who have delivered the messages long before he stepped on stage.
“I’m just a link in a very long chain.”
Singer and songwriter Wes Weddell, also from Seattle, is part of the newest generation of folksingers.
Weddell, in 2001, spent 65 days swinging through Washington, producing nine regionally themed songs based upon stories heard about contemporary state residents.
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