It will be a homecoming of sorts when the Jenner Fox Band plays its album release show at the Tower Theatre on Saturday, May 10, for its full album, “Anything,” which drops the day before. Jenner Fox and the other band members are excited to preview the new album in front of their adopted hometown crowd. Several band members have local connections.
“It’s exciting for us and we’re hoping to rally the Bend audience out,” Fox told the Source Weekly.
Fox, playing guitar, is joined by Aaron Guest on keyboards, Jeremy Elliott on guitar, Benji Nagel, who lives in Sisters, on dobro/lap steel, and Aaron Moore, who lives in Tumalo, on bass.
In support of their 2021 album, “Planet I’m From,” band members hopped on electric assist cargo bicycles loaded with their equipment and pedaled 300 miles between a handful of shows in the San Francisco Bay area. (There’s even a story and three-minute video, “The Long Way,” on YouTube.) Pondering on pedaling 4-6 hours a day with bandmates, Fox wrote, “Camaraderie and trust are built quickly on bicycles, and it showed on stage…I remember the hill that beat us in Inverness. I remember hitting the wall. I remember how it felt to be playing music together minutes later.”
Following the Tower show the band is headed down to California for five more dates in support of the new album, but not on bikes this time.
Meanwhile, before Fox was heading out for a three-day rafting trip, the Source Weekly emailed him some questions to which he responded below, edited for clarity and space. See the entire interview transcription at bendsource.com.
Source Weekly: How would you describe the band’s music, your influences, what you’re trying to communicate to your listeners?
Jenner Fox: I think it’s simple, I want the listeners to feel something. I love songs that transport. I love songs that are sad as hell but I find myself laughing. I like when music asks questions instead of answering them. I want listeners to feel more connected to each other and themselves. Just a few modest goals, ha, ha.
SW: How many times has your band played in Bend? Any other venues besides the Tower?
JF: I’ve played in Bend for almost a decade. My parents moved to Bend in 2015, and I started playing house concerts in their living room, and then I played the tiny Commons listening room with the Whippoorwill, and then the Volcanic with my old band “Odell Fox.” In 2020 I moved to Sisters and played the Open Door, and the Belfry, and then the Sisters Folk Festival the last four years in a row. The Folk Fest, and the Bend and Sisters communities have been a big home of sorts for me and the band. One of the reasons why celebrating our album release at the Tower is extra special.
SW: I see that you and many of your fellow musicians are from the Bellingham, Washington, area. Did you grow up there?
JF: I grew up in Palo Alto, California. Jeremy Elliott is from Macon, Georgia. Aaron Guest is from Spokane, Washington, and Benji Nagel and Aaron Moore are from Sisters and Tumalo. My parents were white water rafting guides before they had kids, and when my sister and I were growing up they would get together with their river friends and sing folk songs. There was always lots of harmony singing, instrumentals, and laughs. It was a time when my parents were really happy, and I think I wanted to be a part of it. I picked the guitar when I was 8, and my Uncle Josh taught me lessons in my teens. I think I started writing songs when my first ‘tween crush broke my heart, as you do … .
SW: I had never heard of a Paul Simon tribute band before, so I was interested to hear more about it. Is National Guitar just a side project?
JF: National Guitar started when we were booked to play the Alberta Rose Theatre in Portland, but we didn’t think that we’d be able to sell enough tickets with our original music, so we hatched the idea of doubling as a tribute band. Paul Simon is near and dear to many of us and became the clear choice. Working up his catalog has been a masterclass – Simon has played so many different styles of music so successfully. It’s been especially interesting to try to translate Simon’s arrangements to our band setup with no drummer. I’d say we play the Paul Simon Tribute shows about a third of the time. It really helps us break into new markets.
SW: You told me you’d be off the grid for a few days. Another E-cargo bike tour?
JF: I spent many years working as a white-water rafting guide and I’m working a music and rafting trip on the Tuolumne River in California this weekend. The E-Cargo tours started as a reaction to van touring and wanting to interact with the world around me in a more immediate way. The music we’re currently touring is quite gear intensive, but I hope to get back to bike touring someday. I think it was key in the inception of this band and creating camaraderie. There are some high highs and low lows in bike touring and those brought us together.
SW: Please tell me more about Tower Executive Director Ray Solley wanting you back for your album release show.
JF: It’s a real honor for us to debut the album at the Tower Theatre. Central Oregon has been a home for this band with the support of the Sisters Folk Festival and my time living in the area. We did a Paul Simon Tribute show at the Tower, and the booker at the time, Ray, came up to us after the show and said he wanted us to come back for our album release. That was an exciting moment, and we’re thrilled to be back co-billing with one of my favorite duos, David Jacobs-Strain and Bob Beach.
& Bob Beach
This article appears in Source Weekly May 1st, 2025.
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