Janelle Haskell, Michigan Singer-Songwriter

Janelle performing solo at The Ark in Ann Arbor, Michigan

"I love Janelle's music because of how sincere it is. There's no pretense. She inspires me to be as generously personal in my own work as she is in hers."

KAT EDMONSON
Sony Recording Artist

Next Performance

Friday, April 14th, 2023 | 8:00 PM (Doors at 7)
Canterbury House | 721 E Huron St, Ann Arbor, MI 48104
Suggested $15 Donation

On the one hand, it might seem surprising for a longtime world-traveling jazz clarinetist and saxophonist to suddenly pick up a guitar and start writing folk songs.

On the other hand, for Janelle Haskell it also makes perfect sense.

On many an afternoon, as Janelle walked along Broadway from the Manhattan School of Music after jazz classes up to her apartment in Harlem, it wouldn't be the soulful sounds of John Coltrane playing in her headphones, but rather the soft strumming, sweet melodies, and soul-stirring stories of Joni Mitchell.

I am on a lonely road and I am traveling, looking for the key to set me free.

Almost as though called by the words from one of Joni's songs, after 10 years in the big and often lonely city, Janelle returned to her hometown of Ann Arbor, Michigan. She went there looking for many things: peace and quiet, wide open sky, and also something she couldn't quite put her finger on.

But years later when the pandemic hit and all of Michigan was put on lockdown, Janelle found just what she'd been looking for in the most unlikely of places: a dusty old guitar that had been hanging on her wall for years.

"It was the most unexpected thing," Janelle recalls. "One day I was sitting at my desk working and I looked over at this guitar on the wall. With what seemed like all the time in the world now suddenly at my fingertips, I walked over, picked it up, and started playing any chords I could remember. A few months later I wrote my first song, Michigan, about coming home."

In anticipation of Janelle's debut singer-songwriter album are six videos below. The album is a collection of songs about many things but that all come down to one: love. It is songs about sisterly love, romantic love gone by, self-love, and love for the things in our lives that matter to us most - all performed by a woman falling more in love with a new instrument in the guitar each day.

Wondering what happened to Janelle Reichman? A note from the artist:

When I decided to embark upon an entirely new musical venture in songwriting, I quickly realized that with Google delivering 25,600 (and counting!) jazz-related results for the search "Janelle Reichman," it was possible that no one would be able to find my folk music through all the jazz if I used the same name. Thus, I decided to use my middle name (and my mother's last name) Haskell. I feel this name will serve me - and the music - well.

Read Artist Notes & Lyrics

This song, while originally written for my dear sister, is for anyone going through hard times who needs to hear that morning will come and that there will indeed be light at the end of their tunnel, however long that tunnel may seem. Have faith, press on, and this too shall pass.

LYRICS

When we were young you said
I will always be there
If you ever need there to be
Someone to sit and dry your tears

And now that we are older
I want to be the one who’s there
I want to be the one who cares and can say
You don’t have to hide those fears away

I wish that you could see yourself the way that I see you
It’s a wonder how you give your all in everything you
When the rain is done that sun’ll shine free
So I say sister sister, it’s brighter where you’ll be

I know right now it feels like
You’re barely getting through each day
It’s impossible to find your way but you’ll see
This too becomes a memory

You are so much wiser
That you give yourself credit for
That’s why I want to let you know, you amaze me
And I wouldn’t trade you for anything

I wish that you could see yourself the way that I see you
It’s a wonder how you give your all in everything you
What the future holds is good, you’ll see
So I say sister sister, it’s brighter where you’ll be

These lives, they’re going by so fast
All too soon what’s coming lies in our past
Every day we ask is it this path or another?
But through all of it I’m so glad we have each other

There is a time I know
When everything we long to be
And those lives that we long to see will be here
To see to know to feel

And when we’re there I’ll say
I will always be there
If you ever need there to be
Someone to share your joy and cheer

The hardest thing in life is when we bury what is true
And the only one who knows what longings lie within is you
There’s a place where you’ll have all you need
So I say sister, sister, it’s brighter where you’ll be

I wish that you could see yourself the way that I’ve seen you
It’s a wonder how you give you all in all the things you do
There’s a place for you - just wait and see
So I say sister, sister, sister, sister, sister, sister, it’s brighter where you’ll

Read Artist Notes & Lyrics

One of the great joys in my life has been getting to be an aunt. I wrote this song for my nephew and feel it's for anyone who has a "little person" in their life 🙂

LYRICS

I still can recall
Just like it was yesterday
When I laid my eyes on you that first time
You stole my heart away

You had ten tiny little fingers
And I wrapped my hand around your toes
You had not yet begun to even know me
So I’ll tell you this is how our story goes

You will always be my little love, my darling darling boy
You bring me so much joy
Hear these words and hear them true
When I say I love you

One fine day a few years later
I took you to the park pushed you in the swing
You just laughed and laughed, you always had a way
Of showing me how to find joy in the simplest of things

I gave you a long-eared rabbit
You took her with you everywhere you’d go
I like to think you carried my love around with you
And that’s why you always would know

You will always be my little love, my darling darling boy
You bring me so much joy
Hear these words and hear them true
When I say I love you

Sleepovers under the stars
Or driving across country too
Just a few of the infinite things I would love to do with you

They say that kids grow up too fast
And now I know for sure it’s all too true
But I can’t tell you how much happiness it brings me
To see this person that you’re turning into

Life isn’t always easy
There’ll be many ups and downs over the years
But above it all I want you to remember
If you need me I will always be here

You will always be my little love, my darling darling boy
You bring me so much joy
Hear these words and hear them true
When I say
You will always be my little love, my darling darling boy
You bring me so much joy
Hear these words and feel them so true
When I say I love you

Read Artist Notes & Lyrics

LYRICS

He gets home at 3 am again
The standup life he’s chosen is lonely but is true
He gave up everything to chase this dream
The sacrifices made here will have to see him through
He makes a meal for one, and eats and climbs into bed
He can’t deny the pictures of her dancing in his head

Two thousand miles away she wakes at dawn
Another chance to show them she’s ready to move on
She loves the way the light plays on her walls
There’s just one thing that’s missing, the thing that’d make it all
She sees the way he looked at her with sweet, admiring eyes
She knows he’s gone but still she cannot help but think sometimes

Will there be
A time when we can see
A love to share until the end
And will you find your way to me once again?

He steps down from the stage, another show
These highs and lows are brutal, but part of it he knows
They tell him that he’s come a long, long way
“Just keep on workin’ at it, you’ll make it there someday”
But still at night he thinks of her, a love that was so rare
He dreams about the lifetime he knows they could have shared

Will there be
A time when we can see
A love to share until the end
And will you find your way to me once again?

When he loses faith, he remembers how she believed him
And when she loses hope, she remembers how he adored her
These gifts remain and will see us through
Long after one path becomes two

She’s headed out to meet the next in line
“He’s really nice,” her friend said. “Please keep an open mind.”
She wants to think she’ll find a love again
It’s just so hard not knowing the who or how or when
She loves the life she’s built for her, with pleasures all around
There’s joy that’s firmly planted here, her feet are on the ground
But still she craves an answer perhaps she’ll never find
The ending to their story, and the love they left behind

Will there be
A time when we can see
A love to share until the end
And will you find your way to me
Would you find your way to me
Oh will you find your way to me once again?

Be the first to know about upcoming shows and the release of Janelle's debut singer-songwriter album...

Read Artist Notes & Lyrics

When I found out the war had broken out in Ukraine, I immediately knew I wanted to write a song for the people there. This is what came out. Let them live, let them be as they are.

LYRICS

Letters to and fro half a world away
Two children sending songs and tales of yesterday
A child writes “I’m scared, they’re saying we should go
I wish that things could stay just the way they’ve always been and so
Let us live the way we want to live”

The second child reads these words with fierce alarm
And wonders how someone could ever wish them harm
They write back “you can come, I’ve saved a bunk for you”
But weeks watching the mail, they know that letter’s never coming through
Just let them live the way they want to live

Running through the woods, a young girl finds a rose
Out of dirt and dust and moss, this single flower glows
She cuts it for her own, takes it to her room
But finds that by the dawn, its beauty now has faded all too soon
Her mother shares these words: the things you want, you’ll see
You cannot make your own, you have to learn just how to set them free
And let them live the way they want to live

Let them love who their hearts are drawn to
Let them find unity in one another
Let them change into what they wish to be
Let them take a different path from the one you’re on
Let them celebrate in ways that bring them joy
Let them make friends with the world around them
Let them speak out loud with their hearts and minds
Let them make their choices on what is wrong and right
And let them live, let them be as they are

Read Artist Notes & Lyrics

After 10 years of living in NYC, I knew it was time to come back to the Midwest. I longed for the trees, the sky, the open spaces, the peace, the quiet, and the community I remembered back home in Michigan. And there I found it, once again. This is a song about coming home.

LYRICS

Subway rides and late night dives
These city lights and sidewalks stretch on for days
It took five years just to find my way
And five more just to look around and say
That I don’t know if I belong
But looking to the west, I hear a song

And when you see that sky
It makes you feel that you could do
anything in this place
So I’m going home to Michigan

It’s 4 am the party’s done
I’ll take one last look at these friends who’ve taken care of me
They say that when you close one door another one opens
Is there something waiting there? We’ll see
And I don’t know if I’ll belong
But looking to the west, I’ll follow that song

And when you see that sky
It makes you feel that you could be
anyone in this place
So I’m going home to Michigan

My Dad pulls up the moving truck
The day has come and I know it’s time for me to go
And as we drive across that bridge I should feel sad
But really I just know
I’m going where I’ll belong
Driving to the west, I’ll follow my song

And when I see that sky
It makes me feel that I could fly
away in this place
So I’m going home to Michigan

So five years here I am
Mornings in the garden
Evenings looking up at the stars
And though it may seem simple it is all I need
I know where I’m meant to be is exactly where you are
So I’m going where I’ll belong
Going to the west, I’ll follow my song

And when I see that sky
It lets me know that I
And when I see that sky
It’s my reminder why
Why I came
And why I stayed
So I’m going home, home, home to Michigan

Read Artist Notes & Lyrics

A few years ago, I read the following quote online and felt deeply inspired.

"Winning is great, sure, but if you are really going to do something in life, the secret is learning how to lose. Nobody goes undefeated all the time. If you can pick up after a crushing defeat, and go on to win again, you are going to be a champion someday."

After seeing it was said by a woman named Wilma Rudolph, I immediately looked up her biography. She was an American sprinter, known as the fastest woman in the world in the 1960s and the first American woman to win three gold medals in a single olympic games. She was also an extremely important role model for young female African Americans at that time and still today.

There are lots of decorated olympic athletes in the history books, so what makes Wilma unique? She was born prematurely, and suffered from pneumonia, scarlet fever, and polio as a child. At the age of 5 she was told by doctors that she'd never be able to walk.

Proving them wrong, with the tremendous support of her loving family, she received the rehabilitation she needed and at the age of 12 was able to take off her support brace and walk on her own.

She later discovered her love of running and ... you know the rest of the story.

First inspired by her words, second inspired by her becoming a champion against all odds, I decided to write this song for her.

I hope you'll enjoy it, and take inspiration as well.

LYRICS

A girl is born in St. Bethlehem, Tennessee
An illness finds its way into her body, not one but three
Her mother brings her fifty miles by bus, just to see
The doctor sighs and then
Says she’ll never walk again
They thank him for his time
Find their way in line
and start back home again

On this day this girl makes up her mind, this is not the end
Her father mother sisters brothers tell her, you’ll walk again
They give her all the hope she’ll ever need to find her way
And in her 12th year
This day she’s dreamt of is here
She walks across the floor
Opens up the door
and leaves all fear behind

Wilma Rudolph
You know not what you can do
Wilma Rudolph
The world is waiting for you

A few years later Wilma finds her home out on the track
Her coach says “Skeeter, run straight from this place, and don’t you look back”
She runs so fast her feet they leave the ground, she begins to fly
Yet at her first meet
Our Wilma leaves in defeat
It doesn’t get her down
Her eyes are on the crown
She decides she’s going to win

Wilma Rudolph
You know not what you can do
Wilma Rudolph
The world is waiting for you

And when she runs
The world disappears
Her footsteps are all that she hears
She sees no walls
And she knows no bounds
She hears roaring cheers all around

Wilma Rudolph
You know just what you can do
Wilma Rudolph
This world is waiting for you
Wilma you are
a thousand shooting stars
Everything you need
is right where you are

On her way to Rome, she feels a long way from Tennessee
In 1960 Wilma wins her gold, not one but three
The world is watching as she runs her way to victory
And far far away
A young girl is watching this race
On that very night
A dream is set alight
That runner she looks like me

Wilma Rudolph
Wilma Rudolph
Wilma Rudolph
Wilma Rudolph

Booking & Contact
hello@janellehaskell.com

Be the first to know about upcoming shows and the release of Janelle's debut singer-songwriter album...

janellehaskellmusic