jake penna

What is your favorite part of coaching at ROC Star Academy?

It is a real joy and privilege to watch these kids grow. I remember in my own childhood and teenage years learning to play music and all the people who helped me along the way. I am so grateful for them and it is a great honor to pay it forward.

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Hometown: Rochester, NY
 

Your musical focus/instruments you play: 

My primary focus in my own career is stringed instruments. I play traditional American styles of music such as Old Time, Bluegrass, Country and Western, Jazz and occasionally Rock and Roll. I often find myself in situations where blending these traditional styles with modern sounds creates new and exciting music. I specialize in guitar, pedal steel guitar, mandolin, 5 string and tenor banjo, dobro, and upright and electric bass. I also write both words and music.

 

What is your musical background?

The first music I remember noticing and enjoying was the Beatles when I was very young. When I was a little older I enjoyed rock music and metal. I began taking drum lessons from the drummer at my church when I was 10 years old. I later found myself enjoying country music, bluegrass, and the Grateful Dead, which led me to teaching myself guitar and music theory at 16. In my adult life I have branched out to learn other stringed instruments.

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What are your musical influences/favorite bands? 

I heard bluegrass for the first time when I was 11 or 12 and really fell in love with artists like Bill Monroe, the Stanley Brothers, and the Osborne Brothers. I also heard Hank Williams around this time and began listening to country music. In my early teenage years I began taking to the San Francisco sound and British Invasion sound of the 1960s, especially the Grateful Dead. The Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia would ultimately lead me back to traditional American music.

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What one album would you choose if you were stranded on a deserted island?

“The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death” by John Fahey. This album was and still is transformative for me. It has followed me all throughout my adult life and continues to show me new sides of myself every time I listen to it. From the first time I had heard it, it has seemed so familiar, like I had heard it before in another life. It just touches on a place deep inside my heart. The sounds on that album seem to almost come from within myself. Highly recommend.

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What is your favorite venue or event that you’ve performed?

I really enjoy playing at the Middlesex Music Festival. It is in the beautiful Middlesex Valley of Yates County, New York. It is a great collection of a bunch of people I really love in a great location in the month of August. The vibe is always great, full of music, friends and family in the August sun. It just feels like home.

 

What’s the craziest thing that ever happened to you on-stage?

I was performing at the G Lodge in Hannibal, NY at a memorial for my best friend who passed away in 2022. We began playing Bird Song, a song Robert Hunter wrote about the passing of Janis Joplin for the Grateful Dead to perform. When we finished the set, someone came up to me and told me they were talking to their neighbor about Janis between songs, not a moment before the band broke into Bird Song. That made me feel like I was doing the right thing.​

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What’s the best piece of musical advice you’ve received in your career thus far?

The best advice I have received is regarding mistakes and the importance of rolling through them. They are not to dwell upon. Music lives in the present moment and mistakes disappear as quickly as they happen. What I often find is that these mistakes can often give the music more body and more soul. After all, it is only human. Music is a lifelong journey and we never stop learning. Not only do mistakes help us grow, but when we can learn to accept them we become unstoppable.