Janet Lenore started writing songs while still attending beginning guitar
classes in junior high school. She didn't care that she sang loudly, but
off key nor did she care how silly she must have looked playing the guitar
while walking home from school. She couldn't put it down. In the 8th
grade, Janet performed one of her own songs at a guitar recital and the
local paper described her as a "hopeless guitar freak." Soon she was
teaching herself both the banjo and mandolin as well.
With her mom's patient coaching, Janet even learned how to hold a pitch.
Soon the two were singing together - her mom being a natural and perfectly
blending harmonizer. During her high school and early college years,
Janet and her mom Mildred performed together as a pop/folk duo called
Rosenthorn. They always played songs they just plain liked, from pop
hits to blues and country. Rosenthorn's audiences were just as varied;
everyone from juvenile hall to convelescent home residents, county
fairgoers, and patrons at various coffeehouses and restaurants. Janet
used say, "hey, we played music in this bar the other night but I wasn't
old enough to go see myself play!" The summer after Janet's first college
year, Rosenthorn completed a 22-city cross country tour with
performances in 19 different states from Maine to Arizona. This trip of a
lifetime was an exceptional way to see the country and to meet people from
all over. A live recording made at KDVS in Davis, California, a few years
after this tour serves as a lasting example of Rosenthorn's music.
Janet Lenore wrote many songs during these early years but moving from her
home town, marrying, and engaging in various careers drew her from her
guitar. The loss of her mom to cancer in late 1994 made the thought of
performing again even more daunting. Yet, after moving alone to a small
town in late 1996, Janet met a supportive group of local players, singers
and songwriters which helped her recover her musical roots. Many of
these musicians appear on Janet's first effort as a producer: a tape
release called "Jamey Pyke's Open Mike 1997." More information about this
tape is included elsewhere within this website and at
www.ben-o.com
A collection of Janet's songs will be available on a CD release later in
1998. As with Rosenthorn's music style variety, Janet's songs utilize
country, blues and "new folk" signatures. She finds songwriting "fodder"
in newspaper stories, relationships, and the quirky ideas that pop into
her head. Around Alameda island, Janet's new California home town, she's
known for her silly songs, including "Flat Food," "My Coffee Cup is a
Petri Dish," and "Another Insensitive Lout to Love." At the comet craze
peak last Spring, Janet wrote "The Hale Bopp Comet Song" which was played
on radio stations in Arizona and northern California. News about the
contest she won with this song can be found at
www.wpo.net/halebopp. In the first days of 1998, Janet bought a
new guitar - an optimistic symbol of her songwriting and preforming
rebirth. Since she feels that her recovered musicianship is just a bit
"cosmic" she chose her new guitar, a "sun and moon motif" Takamine, in
part for its beautiful symbols of new beginnings.
Janet Lenore performs every Wednesday night at the Buckhorn Lounge in
Alameda, California, at the corner of Park and Encinal Streets. She is
finalizing plans to play regularly on alternate Friday nights at the Java
Rama Coffeehouse at the corner Park Street and Alameda Avenue in Alameda.
To contact Janet for recording or performing information, please e-mail
her at janetlenore@sfo.com or call
(510) 523-1443
E-mail me at jlenore@siliconsound.com
CDs and music for sample or for sale.
Silicon Sound 1997 SS