Jennifer Gillenwater

I’ve been writing songs and performing with various bands – Family Ties, Turkey Tracks Trio, Nowhere Valley, the Playwrights, and more recently, Jen & Barb, and the SOHA group – in the Tri cities area for over twenty years. My love of music began early, at the age of 11, when I began playing the flute and singing in our church choir with my sister and father. I picked up guitar in high school and then began writing poetry and snippets of songs. I continued playing flute and guitar into my twenties and thirties but was too busy with my studies and then teaching career to do much. My instruments began to gather dust in a forgotten closet until I turned forty. My mother gifted me my first dulcimer and I began to learn mountain music, folk, and gospel songs. I began playing with my cousin, Roger Norris, at Flat Springs Baptist Church, in the old Beech Mountain community of Avery County, N.C. We formed “Family Ties”, playing at local festivals and restaurants, as well as churches.

I remember very well when my first song came: I was hiking on the Appalachian Trail on Iron Mountain in Johnson County, TN., and came to a memorial for an old hermit named Nick Grindstaff. The memorial read, “Lived Alone; suffered alone; died alone.” I couldn’t get the words out of my mind as I continued doing my section hike through Tennessee. I read about him in my AT book when I stopped to get water or rest, and before long, I had a complete song! After that, many more songs came to me, and I was hooked on songwriting.

My husband, Michael, and I moved to Abingdon in 2024, and I was thrilled when I met Mary Munsey and the Songwriters of Highland Appalachia. I am having fun playing at differentvenues, such as Sweet Bay Brewery, the Appalachian Trail Conference in Damascus, local libraries, the Highlands Festival Tunes at Noon, and Birthplace of Country Music Museum. I continue writing and sometimes entering songwriting competitions, when I’m not hiking or gardening. My life is full,and I am grateful.