Jenny Scara Side Steps into Bluesy Nostalgia on New Record

Written by Zoe Kidd

(Photography by Ryan McCauley)

Jenny Scara is an emerging artist that has created a sound completely unique to herself. Mixing blues with indie pop and rock influences, her new singles stand out as a creation you can’t find elsewhere easily. 

For the rollout of her album I’ve Got a Story to Tell, released March 27th, two singles were released to kick off the early stages of Scara’s career. Black Cat and Stay Back have given her audience a powerful start that represents the album’s breezy spirit effortlessly. The album as a whole contains seven songs, making it a quick and snappy listening experience. 

Given the name of the album, each song details a small story in Scara’s life for the past year or two. The vignette-like musical storytelling gives any listener a small peek into the life of the musician behind the sound. 

“The best part about this album is I can put any song out as a single and it could stand,” Scara said. “But, they are all a part of the concept of storytelling.”

Although it’s not a concept album in the sense that each story flows into one another to convey a large narrative, each song gives its own arc and climax. With each progressive song, the album is read as a tale that everything changes with or without you trying, and that’s the good news.  

The first single, Black Cat, sets the pace as a fun, bouncy song that plays with both fear and relief. Although the song has a very upbeat feel, the context and story behind it entails a twisting web of drug induced spirals and anxiety.  

Detailing a bad trip Scara had a while back, she plays with the black cat motif of symbolizing bad luck and misfortune coming her way. While trying to escape the harrowing trip, the black cat explains Scara can’t escape on her own will and all she can do is ride it out. 

Stay Back is a typical toxic romance song at face value, detailing Scara falling for a free-spirit girl who is unavailable in one way or another. Diving deeper into the lyrics reveals that the song is more about Scara’s downfalls rather than the girl’s.

“In the greater theme of the album, the girl is a distraction from all the other things I need to tend to.” 

Throughout the album, Scara expresses tough times in a myriad of ways, and she does it while maintaining a nostalgic blues-inspired sound. 

A large aspect of Scara’s music that stands out is just how bluesy it is, and how little we hear that type of music in mainstream pop today. The unique sound stems from the intricate guitar solos that are abundant in her songs, and the raspy, gravely tone she provides with her vocals. She often dips into a playful register to mess with her songs and make them stand out even more than they already do. 

“I grabbed onto this area-time of music that nobody was really into,” Scara said. “I realized how much nobody was doing it. It’s something I enjoy doing and right now it’s a lane that is completely open in pop music.”

Emerging from Central Illinois, Jenny and her band now reside in Chicago, but they return to their Bloomington-Normal roots often for shows and to maintain community bonds. 

“There’s an essential element to me that is the live show,” Scara smiled and said. “It’s where I really get to be me and connect with my fans. That’s where the human to human connection comes in.”

Scara feels that she always has the live shows in mind when writing new music. She’s not only thinking about what would be fun to play, but also focusing on how her audience will react and respond to new music. 

Jenny Scara’s new album released on March 27th, and it’s worth a listen if you are into a twist on blues with personal touches from a Central Illinois raised artist.