Janine Wilson’s name carries with it certain expectations. A big voice with a stage presence to match it. Award-winning songs full of love, heartache, and mischief. A command of vocal styles ranging from blues to Americana roots rock. And while those expectations will not go unfulfilled with her next album, don’t let the familiar face on the cover fool you.
It’s time to wake up to a very different Janine Wilson.
Her third album since releasing the debut The Blue Album in 2000, Wakin’ Up is Janine’s first album of all-original material, making it her most personal artistic statement to date. Building on the same partnership that delivered the award-winning songs “Don’t Even Start” and “So Long,” Janine teamed up with guitarist extraordinaire Max Evans (Ugly Americans) to write the songs that would eventually belong on Wakin’ Up.
Once the writing was complete, Janine approached maverick recording artist Blake Morgan, founder and president of NYC’s Engine Company Records, in the hope of having him produce the album. Morgan proceeded to do one better, putting together an incredible band of top-flight New York musicians for the recording sessions- Jonathan Ellinghaus on drums, John Turner on bass, Melissa Giges on backing vocals, and even providing Wurlitzer, Hammond B-3 organ, and backing vocals himself. Together with Evans playing guitar, Janine’s powerhouse vocals have never been in front of a more solid or sophisticated sound.
Recorded with Blake Morgan at the helm of Engine Company Records’s studio in NYC and at Philadelphia’s Studio 4 with Grammy Award-winner Phil “Butcher Bros.” Nicolo, Wakin’ Up proves to be yet another step in Wilson’s continuing evolution. So how should we feel wakin’ up to this new Janine Wilson? With a newfound confidence behind her eyes, she smiles and answers by quoting from the last song on the album.
“Hey–in the end, ‘It’s just you and me . . . like always.'”