Words of Wisdom From an Enthusiastic Soul

Dave Jenett, once fearful, now give guidance to aspiring performers along with his extraordinary experiences.

On May 11, 2011, accompanied by his cousin Paul and his son, Dave Jenett, now 85 years old, took the time to recall some of his fondest memories as a musical performer with the organization known as Songmakers. During our engrossing interview, Jenett recounted some of the moments that he feels were most influential on helping him overcome his fear of the stage. Songmakers is an organization of like-minded musicians, songwriters, performers and singers who gather once a week to do what they love, perform music. Songmakers gives people the opportunity to get up on a stage and perform before people who have a similar interest in music. The people who are members of Songmakers come from all walks of life. There are professional musicians, folk singers, New Media Artists and even war veterans like Jenett.

When asked about songwriting, he shook his head and chuckled. He never was quite a songwriter but he just knew from every word to every line, and every note to every chord of songs, even the most classics ever from the 1930s. He had this skill in recollecting songs instantly and performing spectacular covers of them. He’s simply remarkable. We were able to divert him to sing a few lines of  “Red Neck, White Sox and Blue Ribbon Beer” and even play it on his harmonica. He even stated, “It’s my first time playing this on a harmonica.” We were lucky to be able to hear him jam away at it and he was sprightly enthusiastic while doing it too.

Jenett, when asked about his fear of performance, he gasped with eyes wide open and shook his head. “That was the hardest for me ever,” Jenett uttered. He remembered how he use to sweat out of nervousness. When in front of an audience, he would grow mute out of fear. Joining Songmakers had to be the core reason that Jenett was even able to overcome perturbation. As a result of previously having been in that sort of neurotic atmosphere in the past, he became very solicitous in helping others overcome that fear when they too, must be positioned in front of people. Especially when it comes to performing, he would be willing to stand with the performer and quietly play alongside with them just to break the nervousness. Such a sweet, caring man he is. Jenett is such a considerate man.

Jenett has had the opportunities to work with other celebrities such as Don Knott, Don Rickles, Raquel Welch, Linda Evans, Kirk Douglas, Elsa Lancaster, and much more. Jenett had also been on television shows such as the David Letterman show but he wasn’t performing. He was known as “Mr. Fix it!” People would direct him with questions and ask him for his expertise on fixing things.  Jenett has also been broadcasted on radio stations as “Mr. Fix It” as well. The general public loved him! I could recall him laughing and mentioning how all of these high technology are being advertised and he complained how a simple microwave has to have so many buttons now that it gets so confusing but he had the same dial turning microwave for more than 20 years and “It still works great,” he noted. He isn’t about to change his microwave. Jenett is one funny, enthusiastic man.

However Jenett wasn’t always a musician or “Mr. Fix it!” Jenett was a veteran of the Vietnam War and the Korean War. In fact during World War II, he served in the United States Navy. He crewed as a mechanic onboard a light landing craft within the Pacific theater. His vessel was tasked in the shipment of goods and essentials to troops battling inland. It was clear he had intense experiences while aboard - “It was an awful place and no body should ever experience that.” He revealed to us some pictures and documents that he carried with him in his brown suitcase. Pictures that revealed a young fitted handsome seventeen year with his crew landing team. The resemblance of that young man to Jennet was still partially there. We couldn’t point out which soldier was him but of course, Jennet, with a smirk, pointed himself out. 

It was a great honor being able to interview David Jenett. There was so much spirit and energy in him that we ended up exceeding our interview time of 25 minutes. We couldn’t stop talking, laughing, and having a great time. It stopped feeling like an interview and started becoming one of the greatest conversations ever. Jenett is one incredible, heart-warming, and humorous man. He is such a witty conversant character with the greatest stories ever.