Artists have a tendency to think that they need to always be looking forward, always pushing ahead and keeping their sights on their newest project or their freshest ideas.
But it can sometimes be just as important for an artist to take a look back to see just how far they’ve come and to recontextualize their earlier work within the sounds, styles, and sentiments that they’ve developed since.
That’s what Americana-rocker Beau Jennings will be doing on January 10th when he takes the stage at OKC’s Blue Door to revisit the debut album from his old band Cheyenne for its 20th anniversary, performing the fan-favorite record “I am Haunted, I am Alive” in its entirety for the first time ever and injecting all of the intervening years into his newfound appreciation and understanding of these songs that he wrote two decades ago.
Beau Jennings: About a year ago, I realized it was the 20th anniversary, and, you know, 20 is a nice round number, and like, you know, “Hey, 20 years. We should do something.”
And so Cheyenne had reunited to play a reunion show at Norman Music Fest for the 15 year, but we've never played the first record all the way through.
That was the first album I ever released, and still, to this day, I still get a lot of comments on that record, and a lot of people remember that one.
Brett Fieldcamp: But that lasting respect for the album - and for Cheyenne as a formative and influential act around the OKC and Norman Americana and folk scenes – didn’t come quickly.
It was a respect that grew over time, and that only began to present itself more fully after the group had disbanded and after Jennings launched his current, solo-focused career supported by his backing band The Tigers.
In fact, Cheyenne had originally been an attempt at something similar, but Jennings said the band formed into something more cohesive and defined over time.
Beau Jennings: I started Cheyenne because I'd been in a previous band where I was not the songwriter, and I was really frustrated that we broke up, because I thought, well, if I was in control here, we wouldn't break up. So I thought “I'm going to start my own thing that no one can ever break up unless I want them to.”
I knew I wanted to keep it loose, so Cheyenne originally was a solo project and a revolving door of musicians, and then as you start playing more often, you start solidifying and it kind of evolved into a defined rock and roll band.
Inevitably, as people had to leave and get married and move home and all that sort of things, I fell victim to the very thing that I set out to not be susceptible to, which is, you know, lineup changes.
Brett Fieldcamp: Deciding to forgo the Cheyenne name and to reassert himself more as the Tiger-backed solo artist that he’s become, Jennings began incorporating more rock ‘n roll grit and energy into his often deeply personal and localized songwriting, developing the sound heard most recently on 2024’s “American Stories, Major Chords.”
But twenty years ago, he says, he was still figuring out how to be a songwriter and a performer, collaborating closely with friends like drummer Heath Fisher and producer Chad Copelin to develop the softer, chamber-folk sound that came to define those early days of Cheyenne.
Beau Jennings: I would say I was very green at that time. I knew enough to strum through the songs and to write the lyrics, but what it was going to sound like, I really didn't know, and I think we were all figuring that out together.
That was a very specific way to make that record, very atmospheric, quiet, storytelling songs. So when I think of like the vintage Cheyenne sound, it's this record that we're gonna play.
Brett Fieldcamp: Revisiting that sound now, two decades and multiple acclaimed albums later, has been a way for Jennings to reconnect to that kind of unrestrained, unexpected songwriting, rediscovering that kind of rudderless and serendipitous approach that can lead a song in any direction, an approach that he’s found himself embracing once again.
Beau Jennings: I would say, over the last year, it's been kind of a time of me exploring new sounds and collaborating with different people and trying to be less intentional with the sound and let the music just be what it wants to be, which is exactly how this first Cheyenne record happened in the first place.
And I think why it resonates with people is that it's just its own thing. It's just, it was all that this 20 year old kid knew how to do.
Brett Fieldcamp: But even though he’s been reconnecting with those approaches to his own art and songwriting, and even as he knows how important these old songs are for fans, Jennings says that, come January 10th, he’ll be thankful for the perspective that these past twenty years have given him.
Beau Jennings: You do kind of go back and laugh at what was important to you at that point, how you tried to make sense of the world at that time in your life.
And I think that it's good that it feels foreign to me, because if it felt familiar to me, I think it would mean that I haven't progressed as a person, and it means I'm still in that same place.
And so I like going back and hearing it and seeing a different person than who I am now.
Brett Fieldcamp: 2005’s “I am Haunted, I am Alive” by Cheyenne is available now on Bandcamp and streaming services, and you can catch Beau Jennings with a reunited Cheyenne performing the album in full for its 20th anniversary January 10th at The Blue Door in Oklahoma City.
For On the Scene, I’m Brett Fieldcamp. Now here’s Cheyenne with “You Were the Sound.”
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