Times Newspaper 11/17/05

Tour the force
By Jason Jacks
jjacks@timespapers.com
11/17/05

While a rough combat-style landing onto a dusty airstrip in Afghanistan was certainly hairy enough, local singer/songwriter Jenny Boyle said she and her band could have done without the bone-jarring landmine explosions and sporadic machinegun blasts.

“What's more scary is that you just get used to it,” she said wide-eyed of the arsenal, while looking back at her three-week, fever-pitched tour of mostly remote U.S. military outposts in the Middle East, South Asia and East Africa. Boyle, a regular performer at Kilroy's in Springfield, arrived home last Thursday. Is she ready to go back yet? You bet. She has already called the military asking to re-up. “I hope they send us out again soon,” she said.

This 26-year-old from Springfield, along with her band, just wrapped up performing rock, country and blues cover songs at stops in Kuwait, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Djibouti and the war zone of Afghanistan as part of the Department of Defense's Armed Forces Entertainment program. For the past several years, Boyle has been a regular artist on the military jam circuit.

“She makes mom very proud,” said Betsy Boyle of her daughter's performances at military installations around the world. As proud as she is, she is more excited that her daughter just made it home in one piece this time. “That's the important thing".

Soon after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Boyle, singing in bands since she was a student at Lake Braddock Secondary School, sent in an audition packet to the military seeking to play for the troops. It took a couple years, but she finally received a call asking if she would be willing to pack up and fly out to Guam for a performance. “Of course I'm not going to say no. This is what I live for,” she said.

Boyle was hooked instantly on military touring. Since then, she has performed at installations in Cuba and many throughout the Middle East, South Asia and the Mediterranean region. “I've played bars most of my career, and I wanted to do something more rewarding. Not that I don't enjoy playing in bars,” she said.

This latest tour, which she learned of three weeks before flying out, was the closest Boyle and her band have gotten to the war on terrorism's front lines. “All of a sudden they take this nosedive toward the landing strip,” recalled Jeff Reed, 27, Boyle's bass player, about the group's spiraling approach into Afghanistan. “That was pretty hairy.” Despite the stomach-turning ride, Reed, from Maryland and the only one in Boyle's band to accompany her on all her overseas tours, is not about to give up his spot for the comforts of staying home. “It's a long time to be away, but I would go again,” he said.

Boyle, who recently completed her studies at George Mason University to become a nurse, said overseas she is a bit of a celebrity. During this latest tour, her concerts attracted hundreds of fans per show, many showering her with gifts (unit coins, combat bracelets and, on one occasion, a rose plucked somewhere from the desert) and waiting in long lines for an autograph, she said. “I was surprised how well behaved they were,” she said. Quite a contrast to her local gigs where she is usually straining to be heard over clanging beer mugs and muffled conversations. “I definitely hope it doesn't end anytime soon,” she said of her singing career. “I hope it goes on forever.”

To learn more about Boyle's tour and her forthcoming first album due out the end of this year, see http://www.jennyboyle.net