Biography

Walking Medicine is the musical vision of Jenny Kimmel, a North Carolina based singer-songwriter who inhabits a kaleidoscope of roles: artist, poet, farmer, and peace and permaculture educator. Kimmel’s songs in Walking Medicine reflect these varied, overlapping perspectives in music that shimmers in in-betweens. Her voice and lyrics blur genre boundaries, evoking Americana, folk, and roots music, echoing elements of old-time alongside influences from philosophy, art, and activism across movements and generations. The sum is visceral, at once raw and sweet.
In her debut album, Peace in the Middle, Kimmel offers imagery and ideas informed by hard-won rural sensibilities, and her music powerfully continues an evolving Appalachian ethos, reckoning complex histories with curiosity and care. Probing the past while reflecting on the present and dreaming forward, she creates soundscapes where anyone might find peace in the middle.
In Kimmel’s own words, “It remains the work of a lifetime to come home to this peace, to treat ourselves and all life we encounter with love and compassion. Though the songs on this album span 15 years of my life and are broadly about home and earth, the daily cadences of living with the land, and ways to love self and others, the core energy I hope to share with this album is a recognition of the ways that we are all bound together, that there is no collective advancement unless we heal and reconcile our relationship with the land, and finally, each and every one of us must find the precious peace in the recognition of our own medicine.”
Melodies take flight from a foundation of acoustic guitar and clawhammer banjo, with Kimmel’s strong, clear voice intertwining with soulful fiddle and stirring harmonies. Kimmel’s voice, original songwriting, and guitar form the core.
Orbiting her for the album is a stellar lineup of musicians. Co-producer and North Carolina based multi-instrumentalist Ivy Sheppard (Roan Mountain Hilltoppers, The South Carolina Broadcasters) offers deft clawhammer banjo; renowned flatpicker and luthier David Sheppard lends additional acoustic guitar. Hailing from Raleigh, NC, melder of fiddle genres Waverly Leonard (Carolina Songbirds) provides alternately liquid tender and soulful strings. Nashville, TN, based bluegrass phenom Mason Via (Old Crow Medicine Show) rounds out the lineup, threading in sensitive mandolin breaks and anchoring tracks with upright bass.
The album was recorded over five days in Flybird Studio with Sam Fribush. Mastered by Jeff Fuller (Fuller Tracks, Nashville, TN), the resulting collection of original songs is a culmination of offerings unvarnished and tender.