Jenny Colquitt is an artist this reviewer has admired since learning via a FB post that she had supported the mighty Merry Hell at a gig. I wanted to find out more and have not been disappointed. I am also very pleased that colleagues at Progzilla Radio have caught the Colquitt bug, and she has attracted a fair amount of airplay on the station.
Before continuing, why not look at my review of her 2024 album, Staring at the Moon?
Come May 2026, we have a new album, Pockets Full of Rain, a collection of ten tracks. You can purchase the album in various formats on Jenny’s Bandcamp page, https://jennycolquitt.bandcamp.com/album/pockets-full-of-rain Once again, Jenny is joined by David Gorst as producer and performer.
We kick off with All of My Friends (Lonely), lyrics which talk achingly of mental health issues, a friend having made war with his mind (what a descriptor of how this impacts that is), the world full of pain and conflict. There is a lyric video for this, and it is embedded for you below. Following the gentle piano, you get the familiar emotion of a voice which conveys such power in its fragility. Colquitt is a major find for me in recent years, her ability to speak to you and the human condition such an attribute. The manner in which the intensity builds to a crescendo when the question in the title is asked is deeply moving before the song comes down to a gorgeous denouement.
To Be Loved is asking the question how it feels to be loved. I know not of any personal issues the songwriter has experienced, but lyrically this strikes me as being a journey from painful breakup through to realisation and appreciation of new love, the initial question being answered by life experience. Following the initial reflection, the question asked is done with force and power, almost accusatory, actually. There is some very nice synth orchestration on this track, the perfect soundscape to some questing words, the mood calming when the words are transformed into the new love affair at the close.
Waiting for the Sun is clearly a deeply personal narrative revolving around family, spurned love. There is an Americana vibe on this, the production on it instantly noticeable, some strong fretwork, the voice when it rises in intensity as powerful an instrument as you are likely to hear all year. It is embedded below for you.
The Water is a call to arms over the damage we are doing to this beautiful planet of ours, every part of Mother Nature taking a fall. Voice and piano take the foreground, but again we have some interesting orchestration, and a very ghostly guitar adding textures, percussion driving matters along with urgency, a track creating a wall of sound which I believe will appeal strongly to the progheads reading this review, especially the guitar solo a minute out from the close, full of rocking ambition. It is embedded below.
Hold Your Light Up discusses those situations of hurt and despair married with a desire to fight, come through, but needing the help of loved ones to do so. There is some very strong bass guitar on this, and a blues-infused guitar solo (there is a harder edge to much of this album in terms of the divide between folk and rock music), the voice burning with passion for the fight ahead, more orchestration filling the senses with sound.
Peace Man is, I believe, a take on the religious fundamentalist, who will talk about peace (man) and faith, perhaps taking advantage of a painful episode in the subject’s life to teach her about the true path. I love the church organ playfully opening the track, and, indeed, there is a sense of fun throughout this piece, the acoustic guitar dancing, the voice somewhat taunting, the chorus extremely catchy in the manner of those gospel choirs, indeed the whole track an exercise in expansive Americana – just listen to some of those guitar licks as we move to the huge conclusion.
Lay Down Your Mind has a conversation with self, nobody around to tell her not to worry, so she persuading herself of love, reassuring her that all will be well if they sleep together in peace (I have recently written on the website about my lifetime coping with anxiety issues, and have just finished a very good book about how to break addiction to anxiety, which involves talking to, taking control of, and reassuring your anxious self instead of constantly fighting it. It works). This is a short number, and is suitably subdued, voice and keys in a duet, a song which maddeningly reminds me of a Joni Mitchell number I can’t quite place.
November was a single release, and another played recently on my radio show, the snow bound month matching the coldness of the spurned and lonely heart. The lonely string orchestration matches the starkness of the piano and voice, and again, when Colquitt turns on the power, it is impossible not to be moved by the inherent feeling conveyed, and this track is as good an example of any as to how she uses the full range of her voice, both in terms of octaves and impact, the second chorus especially powerful, the soundscapes rising to the clouds, underpinned by a very strong rhythm section, the drums crashing out.
The penultimate track is Kill the Silence, a commentary on a cruel world, and, by heaven, turning on the news daily rather does give that impression, doesn’t it? I would like us decent human beings to kill our silence, rise up in protest, and simply have the narcissists, haters, warmongers silenced, out of our lives (perhaps on a small Martian moon colony?). The guitar notes echo in a distorted dystopia, fashioned out of a room where the outside world is bolted out, the voice pleading and dripping with emotion.
We close with the title track, which I see as a call for solidarity with the bereft, the victims of conflict, in which we will die no more. The opening piano is dramatic but segues into a track which has an inner funk at its core, the relentless beat underpinning it inviting that foot to tap, that head to nod, to join in with a call for a better world, the chorus once again expansive. The guitar solo is loud and proud
Colquitt has provided us with a very special album, a unique talent certainly progressing her sound, using a range of styles and influences, this most definitely needing to be categorised as a folk-rock album. It comes very highly recommended.