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Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner announces debut solo album, signature guitar

By Andy Malt | Published on Tuesday 28 June 2016

Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner has signed two new deals – one with Partisan Records for her debut solo album under the name Flock Of Dimes, the other with Reverend Guitars for her own signature guitar.

In a blog post to accompany the announcement of the guitar, Wasner writes that her relationship with the instrument has actually been a strange one. As Wye Oak began to get more popular, she noticed more people commenting on the fact that she could play guitar quite well.

“Sounds fine on the surface, I guess”, she writes. “Imagine, though, that you’re on tour, and every single night you play with a different group of dudes who are truly  –  objectively!  - equally or more capable at the instrument than you are. And no one draws any additional attention to them  – it is taken in stride. Meanwhile, time and time again, you are fawned over like a child who’s just taken her first steps”.

This ingrained sexism towards female guitar players caused her to begin to move away from her chosen instrument, which is partly why she was initially unsure about accepting the offer made by Reverend.

“At first, I balked”, she writes. “I think this is because, to me, the ‘signature guitar’ was the realm of the soulless shredder  - impressive, sure, but you’re missing the point. It represented the elevation of pure chops over invention, emotion, innovation, and truth. It was in direct opposition to everything I stood for! It wasn’t until my partner pointed out that perhaps this association is in part because so few women have been given the opportunity to do this sort of thing that I realised I couldn’t say no”.

The guitar was designed with April Camlin, who has also worked on the visual side of Wasner’s Flock Of Dimes project. The album is due out later this year. Watch a very brief teaser video for the project here.