On the road touring for the past two years, San Diegan Jenn Grinels almost feels like she has two homes. Having looped the country twice in 24 months, with extended stays on the East Coast, she now considers New York a second base. “It’s just that when I travel all that way, I try to do as much as I possibly can, so the stays have been extended,” she explained. It has been a whirlwind two years for Grinels, who performs at The Athenaeum Music & Arts Library Acoustic Music Series on Monday, July 13. While she has been a part-time musician for seven years, she has only been a full-time musician for those two years of touring. Indeed, her initial forays into the music world were in musical theater, including stints as Janis Joplin in local productions of “Beehive” and “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.” Her reason for giving up musical theater is succinct. “I just like playing my own music better,” she said with a laugh. Though she has many modern influences, including Fiona Apple, Ben Harper and Martin Sexton, Grinels considers there has been no one big catalyst for her love of music — it’s just always been a part of her. “I think a good percentage of little girls want to be singers when they grow up, and it just kind of worked out that I did,” she said. “It’s just that I’ve always wanted to do it and when I was encouraged, I never gave up the dream.” While Grinels has a backlog of material, she has only released one album, 2007’s “Little Words.” She hopes to correct that situation soon, now that she’ll be off the road for a few months. “Writing has always been cathartic for me. Inspirations? Horrible emotional situations,” she joked. Like many performers, her songs are like pages in a diary. “Absolutely,” she concurred. “Everything comes out of my journals — the heartache and the joy. For me it’s the extremes, trying to figure out what I want to say to a person or trying to find clarity in what I’m going through at the time a song is written.” She cited some recent relationship trauma. “I finished a song and I was elated, because despite all the negativity in my life, I had written a good song,” she said. “That was what kept me going through a particular rough patch.” While the music business is in the doldrums, Grinels is actually finding touring to be getting easier now that she has paid her dues. “When I decided to go into music full time, I spent 10-hour days researching venues and begging club bookers to take a chance on me. Those first gigs were really like auditions,” she said. “Now that I’ve got 35 states that I’ve performed in behind me, there are lots of places around the country that I can play in whenever I pass through town.” She laughed at some of the misconceptions that friends have of life on the road. “They ask if it’s crazy on the road and if I stay out and party, but it’s always a ‘no.’ I have to drive home at night from these venues, so I can’t even accept free drinks that are offered, plus you have to wake up super early to get to the next place,” she said. Despite that, Grinels is more than pleased with both her career choice and its trajectory. “I love what I do,” she enthused. “People are always asking, ‘When are you going to hit it big?’ But in my mind, I’m just really happy that I’ve been able to do it for two years and am making a living and surviving. To me that’s pretty awesome.” Acoustic Evenings at the Athenaeum, with Jenn Grinels, takes place at 7:30 p.m. Monday, July 13, at The Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, 1008 Wall St. All ages are welcome. Tickets are $10 for members, $15 for non-members. For more information, visit www.ljathenaeum.org or call(858) 454-5872.
