Jenny Owen Youngs

Many potential pratfalls—stylistic and otherwise—await singer-songwriters, even more so for women. In the still-lingering wake of Alanis Morissette, guitar-slinging ladies with attitude such as Jenny Owen Youngs face lifetime sentences in the spunky-chick-rock ghetto. Youngs’ 2005 debut, Batten The Hatches, was re-released thanks to the TV show Weeds featuring the catchy “Fuck Was I” (chorus: “What the fuck was I thinking?”), a track that ensures critics will always use the word “feisty” to describe her. 2009’s Transmitter Failure found Youngs branching out more sonically, with elements of electronics, country, jazz, and more. She’s currently touring behind her new album, An Unwavering Band Of Light.

Updated 02/21/2012