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![Songstress Jen Kane](https://eposeidon.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/jen-kane-v1.jpg?w=190&h=286)
Songstress Jen Kane
Jazzed-up background music swells as a woman steps up to the mic. She waits for the downbeat, throws her hair back, and sings the lyrics penned for Fred Astaire by Irving Berlin in 1935,
“I’m in heaven
And my heart beats
So that I can hardly speak
And I seem to find
The happiness I seek
When we’re out together
Dancing cheek to cheek”
The singer continues through the next verse and moves to the chorus.
“I love to go out fishing
In a river, or a creek
But I don’t enjoy it half
As much as dancing
Cheek to cheek”
“I do love to fish,” says Jen Kane. “Growing up we camped in upstate New York. Fishing at any pond these days brings back those fond memories of fishing with my dad or being at my grandfather’s farm near Ithaca.”
Jen Kane, a professional vocalist, is not a stranger to fishing or the stage. Her theatre credits include: the lead role of Eva Peron in Evita, Anita in West Side Story, a run in Smokey Joe’s Café and Why Oh Why Can’t I, an original Judy Garland musical, a two-year stint in Swing! as Ann, and again in a lead role as Esther in Meet Me In St. Louis.
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Jen Kane welcomes Spring and a chance to fish
“Fishing is a great pastime,” she continues. “I’m happy to hook a worm and float it in a pond while watching the sun go down. Or, paddle around in my boat to find a good spot to wet a line. I’m pretty much about fresh water fishing. It’s how I learned. For me, fishing is a pleasant break from singing, which I love more than anything.” She pauses and shakes her head. Her jet-black hair dances as she breaks into song, recalling the lyrics, “I love to go out fishing, in a river, or a creek…”
The vivacious singer finishes the chorus then tells a memorable story about her fishing experiences, “I started fishing as soon as I was tall enough to hold my own pole. For me, the first time I ever felt the thrill of putting a live worm on the end of a hook was in a picturesque lake off the Taconic Parkway in Ancram, New York near the Massachusetts border.”
After a long pause, her eyes sparkle and she continues, “My father taught me to sit quietly and patiently in a tiny rowboat and he was there when I got my first ‘tug’. As the years went by, we continued to camp and fish in our lake, my father, of course, always bringing in ‘the big ones’. It became a running joke that I would always pull in sunnies while my father would haul in bass by the boatload. He would tease that I caught the ‘appetizer’ and he caught the main course. Then, we returned to our campsite where my mother would clean and cook the fish for dinner on her tiny Coleman stove. My father has since passed, but I still fish on our quiet lake, now in a tiny rowboat of my own. Every time I reel in an ‘appetizer’, I think of him and smile.”
Jen Kane lives on a 200 acre farm on eastern Long Island with her dog Lucky, a whimsical cat named Wheezy, and a variety of farm animals.
For more about Jen Kane please visit www.jenkane.net
by Tom Gahan (c) 2014