BRATTLEBORO — In 2020, Hayley Jane gave up music and moved back home to be near her family in California, where she ran a small shop in Carmel.
“I completely detached from music, and it was very painful,” she recalls in a recent phone call.
But Hayley Jane is back with a bunch of East Coast tour dates as she brings a stellar lineup of musicians to the Stone Church on Saturday.
“Coming back to it feels so good, and it feels like coming home,” she says. “I’m so excited about all these shows and hope to just get everyone to zone in and be in the moment together.”
The lineup includes Josh Dobbs (Hayley Jane & The Primates and Dobbs’ Dead) on keys, Jack Vigonion (Swimmer) on bass, and Cotter Ellis (Swimmer) on drums.
As we talk by phone, Dobbs, of Burlington, recalls a unique experience in St. John, Virgin Islands, when they last played together.
“I was on tour with Marcus Rezak (Shred Is Dead) and it just so happened that Hayley Jane was also in St. John,” he says. “We had a three-night run at a big venue and then two acoustic style shows.”
“At the last minute, Marcus wasn’t able to make two of the gigs, so we asked Hayley Jane to fill in. Hayley came in and did this beautiful, magical, and unexpected kind of music.”
“There was this freedom of trust that was established from the first note,” he continues. “We looked at each other and said, “What just happened? That was amazing!”
When asked why Hayley Jane stands out as a performer, Dobbs adds, “In my opinion, she hands everything over. She surrenders to the music. It can be very emotionally, physically, and spiritually taxing. She is 100% honest, and when you see Hayley Jane, you get Hayley Jane.”
In an email, Robin Johnson, owner of the Stone Church, likens Jane’s “powerful voice and commanding performances” to “strong front women of classic rock like Grace Slick and Janis Joplin.”
Johnson, who called the concert “a great preview of our celebration of Women’s History Month in March,” noted that the venue has booked “almost entirely women-fronted bands” through March.
With the underwriting of the Vermont Women’s Fund, the Stone Church has created a program for women, the Women Belong in the Booth Workshops, to learn about the production side of live music.
“In the music industry, women have historically been grossly under-represented,” Johnson says.
The Stone Church will collect donations throughout the month to benefit two other presenting partners Planned Parenthood of Northern New England and the Women’s Freedom Center. The venue will match every dollar donated, up to $1,000.
The Commons reached Hayley Jane on the road in New Jersey, where she was writing new music and hanging with the band Dogs in a Pile, whom she will be joining for their Winter Rescue Tour.
Here is an excerpt from the conversation:
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Victoria Chertok: Last time we met you were performing at Northlands Music Festival in 96 degree weather! This Saturday, at the Stone Church, what are you most excited about with this particular lineup?
Hayley Jane: I’ve known these guys for a long time. Josh Dobbs was in Hayley Jane and Primates for the last six months before we went on hiatus. I always enjoy playing with Dobbs. I’ve known Jack and Cotter for a while.
I had no plans to play with these guys, and then we all ended up on St. John in the Virgin Islands together. So the four of us got together with no real plans and we started to see which songs we knew, and we messed around.
It felt so good and was so playful and stress-free, and the audience loved it. It was almost jazzy. It was percussion, bass, keyboard, and saxophone, and it was improv — and we went on little journeys together.
Dobbs plays in such a theatrical way, and he was making me giggle. He was playing things that were like a brain tickle; I was just laughing, and we just played songs we all knew together. It was such an adventure.
I just blurted out, “Do you guys want to gig this summer?” They’re like, “Yeah!”
V.C.: What can the audience expect at this show?
H.J.: There will be some songs that are mine, and we will have fun with covers. And it will just be very playful. They are such good musicians — watching me and supporting me and knowing where to go next.
When I feel supported, it makes me fearless in my performance, and I take more risks. Different musicians bring different things out of me in my performance. So Dobbs has this way of pulling out my playfulness.
V.C.: You chuckle when people ask you which genre music you play. You pull from many different ones: ’60s and ’70s rock, pop, jazz, funk, blues, musical theater, etc. Do you have a favorite one, and who were your early music influences?
H.J.: Doris Day was a big influence. In my early years I was obsessed with the movie Calamity Jane. Others are Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, and Rosemary Clooney. I have this vibrato which is very old. I tried to correct it once, and it wasn’t natural, trying to take away this thing that is embedded in who I am.
The ’90s rockers? Alanis Morissette for the teen angst. I was into Jewel for the emotional and sad stuff. I did musical theater for years and then got into Led Zeppelin and the Beatles.
People compared me to Janis Joplin. When I checked her out, I could see the similarities — it’s just vulnerability, being open and spilling your guts on the floor. She was an accidental influence, I guess.
Stevie Nicks was a big one for me. Her movement was so free. I really took from that her bravery in allowing the music to move through her. I developed my own clarity around what it felt like for the music to move through me. You give up your autonomy to the music, and magic happens.
I naturally ended up in the jam scene; you don’t have to pick a genre, you can improvise, and there are no rules. I believe that jam music is the young man’s jazz.
V.C.: How old were you when you knew this is what you wanted to do?
H.J.: I knew right away that I was going to be some kind of performer when I was 9 years old. I was in musical theater at age 12 doing Gilbert and Sullivan. I got into dance late at 14. I learned very quickly and was in the senior company by age 16.
I devoured dance classes like ballet, African, jazz, tap, modern. I started to let go of the strict rules of dance but kept the technique and the flow.
At 17, I got a job at Disney and spent one year as Snow White for eight hours a day. She’s heavily embedded in who I am. When I was 19, I moved from Los Angeles to Boston because I found L.A. so overwhelming.
I also played Lulu the German prostitute in Cabaret for three months, so they are both in there — Snow White and Lulu. I have existed between those two women ever since.
V.C.: You say “music is medicine.” How so?
H.J.: You realize that music is medicine and it is OK to be dark, because people need the sad songs and the dark songs to know they are not alone.
My intention around music just changed completely, and it became about healing — helping people and entertaining them while they are here in this realm.
That’s my job now: being as authentic as I can and making them feel something deeper.
V.C.: Finally, why do the arts matter?
H.J.: The arts are so important because they make you feel less alone because of the people who are brave enough to paint their truth, sing their truth, act their truth, and write their truth. You are literally putting it out in the world and someone else is going to see it and say “Oh, thank God, I know I’m not the only one.”
Art is another form of medicine — it is of the Earth, and it’s very natural. Art and music will save humanity, and it’s imperative that it stays. And it will. It will always prevail.
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Hayley Jane performs at the Stone Church, 210 Main St. in Brattleboro on Saturday, Feb. 4 at 8 p.m. Doors open at 7:30 p.m., and tickets can be purchased at stonechurchvt.com or at the door.