John Jennings, the multi-instrumentalist who produced eight albums for country-folk singer-songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter, was born on this day in 1953 in Harrisonburg, Virginia.
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John Jennings Played With Mary Chapin Carpenter
Growing up in Virginia, New Mexico and the Washington, D.C. area, John Jennings listened to everything from the Dorsey Brothers to Ernest Tubbs and Lefty Frizzell. Starting out on piano and trumpet, listening to the Beatles eventually convinced Jennings to focus more on bass and guitar.
In the ’70s, Jennings played in “one of the most notorious bands in Washington,” gaining the attention of Robert Palmer and Bonnie Raitt. However, they never managed to secure a record deal. “We had a small but faithful following… It went to my head a little bit,” he admitted in a 1997 interview with Country Music International. “I was not at my most charming for much of that band.”
Eventually, he abandoned the local music circuit for more stable employment producing advertising jingles. That’s about when the Starland Vocal Band’s Bill Danoff, who also penned John Denver’s signature hit “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” introduced him to a then-unsigned artist named Mary Chapin Carpenter.
[RELATED: Mary Chapin Carpenter Shares Insights on Craft, Creativity and Conversation]
As the story goes, the pair dated for two or three years, performing small gigs around the nation’s capital. Eventually they broke up and hadn’t seen one another in months when Carpenter reportedly flagged Jennings down in his North Virginia neighborhood and told him she wanted to make a record. Despite having zero production experience, he agreed.
All told, Jennings produced eight of Carpenter’s albums, including 1992’s quadruple-platinum Come On Come On. In 1993, he received a Record of the Year nod at the Grammy Awards for her album He Thinks He’ll Keep Her. Jennings also worked with the likes of George Jones and the Indigo Girls. In addition to his work with other artists, Jennings also had five solo albums to his name.
Diagnosed with metastatic kidney cancer in March 2014, John Jennings died Oct. 16, 2015, in Rockville, Maryland. He was 61 years old.
“He could play anything,” Carpenter wrote in an e-mail to the Washington Post. “And his knowledge, talent and supreme great taste informed everything he did.”
Featured image by Harry Scott/Redferns
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