Community Special
The Bennett Sun
JAM Live! usually features professional or semi-professional musicians from Canada and across the globe. However, we thought that you may also be interested in hearing and learning about the great music by performers who are new to the music scene. JAM Live! Community Special episodes are dedicated to performances by very talented but lesser known musicians from Yukon communities.
This episode features the Whitehorse roots/folk quintet “The Bennett Sun”.
The all female band started in 2010 when some of the band members met at the annual bluegrass music camp near Haines Junction, Yukon. The group hit the ground running. They won the amateur stage at Yukon’s prestiges Kluane Mountain Bluegrass Festival in 2012 and returned to play the festival in 2013. They will also be back performing again at this year’s bluegrass festival.
Singer Dana Jennejon believes that being a female can pose a greater challenge than being a male – like “trying to keep up with band practice and performances while nursing a newborn”.
At one year’s bluegrass festival, Dana counted only seven women out of 62 performers. That really struck her.
The Bennett Sun’s acoustic sound has been described as tumbleweed pop and city folk, playing original songs, traditionals and covers.
“The Bennett Sun” is named after a Yukon newspaper from the gold rush area. Back then the shores of Lake Bennett contained the largest tent city in the world, as tens of thousands of Klondikers set up shop here on their journey to Dawson City. The Bennett Sun newspaper operated here for a little over a year before moving to Whitehorse in 1898 to become the Whitehorse Star (which, by the way, is still Yukon’s daily newspaper).
On March 7th, 2015, the band held their CD release concert at the St. Elias Convention Centre in Haines Junction.
The Bennett Sun is Dana Jennejohn on guitar and vocals, Roslyn Wilson on mandolin and vocals, Lisa Christensen on banjo and vocals, Dorothy Williams on fiddle and Erin McKnight on upright bass.