Jenny Lewis: Pretty Bird

Jenny Lewis’ Acid Tongue was Rock Turtleneck’s favorite album of 2008 and it’s still delivering the goods well into 2009.

Ms. Lewis, who also fronts the L.A. band Rilo Kiley and made a much-heralded record with the Watson Twins, is a major talent with a soaring voice and irresistible energy. Acid Tongue is a tour de force of classic-country barnstormers, Bible Belt shouters, Laurel Canyon-style ballads and good old fashioned pop singing and songwriting you would be forgiven for thinking didn’t exist anymore. That it is not a million-seller is a major mystery and a minor travesty.

On Cinco de Mayo, the jumpsuit-loving redhead performed a muy caliente version of “See Fernando” on The Craig Ferguson Show.


Jenny also recently made a memorable appearance on Elvis Costello’s Spectacle show on the Sundance Channel. Elvis has been a Jenny Lewis champion for several years now and duets with her on Acid Tongue’s “Carpetbaggers.” Here they are, along with fellow sweet-voiced hottie Zooey Deschanel.


Spectacle viewers were also treated to a haunting version of the Acid Tongue ballad “Pretty Bird” which, she explains to EC, was inspired by a story she read about a rape on an Indian Reservation. To think, all this time, I thought it was about a pretty bird.