Jeni & Billy's Biography

Jeni Hankins & Billy Kemp perform new old music -- original songs in the Traditional Country, Folk, Bluegrass, Old-time and Appalachian ballad styles. Their top of the Folk DJ charts CD, Jewell Ridge Coal chronicles the changing fortunes of the Southwest Virginia coal mining community of Jewell Ridge. Though the subject is regional, the songs are meant to present universal themes -- earth & heaven, rich & poor, love & loss, work & rest. Jeni and Billy's music mixes delightful shocks and pleasant surprises. Mike Kelsey of WFHB Community Radio writes "Discovery of the month (or maybe the year) is Jeni & Billy, whose release Jewell Ridge Coal arrived a few days ago. I finally got it in the player yesterday, and have been totally captivated by it. The songs are great and Jeni’s voice makes the hairs stand up on my neck — a pure mountain voice that is beautiful."

Jeni comes by her mournful, lonesome voice honestly. Born in the coalfields of Southwest Virginia, her singing has been compared to that of Mother Maybelle Carter and Hazel Dickens. A born storyteller, she has been a writer almost since she could put pen to paper, a vocation inherited from her journalist father and grandfather. Jeni honed her powers of observation and turn of phrase as a student of Pulitzer Prize winning Northern Irish poet, Paul Muldoon. She has emerged as a first class song writer and poet with both modes deeply rooted in Appalachian culture.

Billy comes to the duo with a long history of music-making. He has been everywhere from Germany to the Grand Ole Opry playing his guitar and singing. A Baltimore native, he was introduced to the world of country music through the fateful movie house experience of seeing Bonnie & Clyde featuring Flatt &Scruggs's soundtrack, going back just to listen fourteen times. He has played numerous bluegrass festivals sharing stages with Jim & Jesse and Jimmy Martin. Billy has also performed solo at nationally known venues such as the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, the Lonestar Cafe in New York, the Kennedy Center and the Birchmere, opening for Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Kathy Mattea, Janis Ian, and Joe Ely among others. He has leant his talents to the shows of many folk luminaries including Oscar Brand, Christine Lavin, and Tom Paxton, as well as producing and touring with Debi Smith.

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