Jess Klein

Jess Klein (born in 1974 in Rochester, New York) is an American singer/songwriter. A native of Rochester, NY, Klein picked up the acoustic guitar and started writing songs while living in Kingston, Jamaica in her late teens. On a whim, she auditioned for a guest slot at a local weekly dub poetry and music session. Upon hearing the first song Klein had written, the host Lady Elean Thomas declared "She have soul, mon." Klein returned home, moved to Boston, and began performing locally. After independently releasing her first two albums, winning the Telluride Troubador Songwriting Contest, and garnering several Boston Music Award nominations, she was signed to Rykodisc in 2000 by then-president George Howard. Her first release for Ryko, Draw Them Near [which received 3½ out of four stars from USA Today], launched Klein on a worldwide tour where she performed before 70,000 attendees at the Fuji Rock Festival in Japan. Returning to the U.S., Klein joined the songwriter collective Voices on the Verge, along with Erin McKeown, Rose Polenzani, and Beth Amsel. The foursome performed Klein's song 'Little White Dove' on Good Morning America. Klein's second solo effort for Ryko, Strawberry Lover, produced by RCA recording artist Marc Copely, debuted as the number 1 most added album at triple A radio a week before its release, was given four stars by MOJO, and received a plug from the nearly 80 million readership Parade. In 2005, Nerdcore Rapper MC Frontalot posted on his website a rap breakdown using the beat from the Jess Klein song "Soda Water." Klein's newest album, City Garden [Five Stars, MOJO Magazine] caused the Boston Globe to describe her as "Quite simply one of the most gifted performers this area has produced."