🎙️ “Country Winner Spotlight: Jennifer Alvarado with DJ Jazzy Kat”

Jennifer Alvarado - My Daddy Doesn't Like You
Country-Alt Artist Jennifer Alvarado Blends Southern Grit and Defiance on New Single “My Daddy Doesn’t Like You”
Jennifer Alvarado returns with a sharp-tongued, slow-burn anthem that blends Southern storytelling with a modern edge. Her new single, My Daddy Doesn’t Like You, is available now on all digital streaming platforms
https://open.spotify.com/track/6xIywt5grxG4fPk8q8Cp5n?
https://music.apple.com/.../my-daddy-doesnt.../1874470369
https://www.youtube.com/@JenniferAlvaradoMusic
https://www.facebook.com/jenniferalvaradomusic
https://www.instagram.com/jenniferalvaradomusic
https://x.com/guitardiva12
https://www.jenniferalvarado.com

Big thank you for being on Kattztracks.net Radio SHow!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Good morning, everybody. Good afternoon and good evening. It's DJ Jazzy Cat back live on Catch Track Radio. I've got another treat for you. That's right. Somebody special from Nashville, Tennessee. Jennifer Alvarado, how are you?

SPEAKER_00 0:16

I am great. I hope you are as well.

SPEAKER_01 0:19

I am. I'm so excited to talk with you. Got a nice connection. Nicole Zeller down in Nashville. She said to me, Cat, would you like to talk to Jennifer? And I said, sure. Let's get going on it. And uh, you know, I got to look at your resume. It's so impressive. Thank you. You're welcome. You've got a new single out. We'll talk about that in just a little bit. But uh your country artisan-ness-ish, if you will. Uh, very modern, but yet uh you've got stuff going on from history. Let's talk a little bit about you, huh?

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Yeah, so you know, I grew up listening to all kinds of of different music. My mom would listen to classic rock. Um, I stayed a lot with my grandparents, and my grandfather played in a bluegrass um band at one point. And so I grew up with bluegrass and and traditional country and modern country and everything in between. And then, of course, when I was um in probably I guess high school, I got really involved at church, and so I started listening to contemporary Christian and and honestly, like that's what I was pursuing was a contemporary Christian um career. And 2020 happened and I I I made some adjustments and and life I guess changes, um, and started thinking, you know, I have all these country-esque songs on the shelf. And I I guess I just wanted to see what would happen um if if I actually put some energy into them and and put them out. And they kind of took a life of their own on and here we are.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

And very impressive at that. Yeah, you're on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, all those major platforms. But going back to the roots, you had an influence, like you said before. Um something about your grandfather and a guitar, or was it your dad?

SPEAKER_00 2:16

No, it was my grandfather. So I uh I spent a lot of time at their house and he played several different instruments, and he actually um put a mandolin in my hand probably when I was three or four years old, and um would show me, you know, little things on it until I broke it.

SPEAKER_01 2:35

I guess that's how you learn, right?

SPEAKER_00 2:37

Yeah, I broke it, and so it went on a shelf um for a little bit, and so he taught me some guitar chords and and just you know, I was fascinated by him. Like he would sit there and play for hours, and I would watch him play, and I just thought, like, I want to be able to play like that one day. Um, I want to be able to just, you know, do whatever. Um, and uh I started writing when I was about four or five, just little songs and and recording those and um then started storytelling and and that kind of thing. I was always a writer, um, and I've always kind of gravitated toward that. And it wasn't until probably middle school that I really started sitting down and writing um, like really writing songs, I I would say. Like I did sporadically up until then, but I think once I picked up a guitar and and started actually having something to be able to perform these songs with, um, it that that's when I really felt like okay, I'm in my element.

SPEAKER_01 3:41

Well, poetry is a lot of uh storytelling, right? A lot of folks that do write. So do you have a favorite poet that you can relate back to with some of your music? Anyone that has influenced you over the years?

SPEAKER_00 3:56

I always, for some reason, I always liked Edgar Allan Poe. Um, I know that's really dark. No, it's okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:04

Everybody has their flavor.

SPEAKER_00 4:06

But I I think because I've always liked kind of the horror genre and stuff like that, and just kind of that darkness that comes with life at times. Um, yeah, I I would say I I like his writings. Um, Emily Dickinson was another one, which is also kind of sad and uh melancholy. I I I always loved the emotion. Um, and you know, I love happy things and I want to talk about happy things too, but there's something about being able to just kind of pour your heart out on a page um and process those thoughts that always that's what I gravitated toward. And even with music, like I can remember coming home and feeling especially in middle school. Like, I I feel like sometimes you you feel like the odd man out or the odd girl out or whatever. And um, I would come home and listen to these songs where people are talking about the same thing, and I I felt seen and I felt heard, and I felt like somebody got it. And so for me, that's what music and storytelling's always been about, is is kind of finding that relational element of feeling like the odd person out, so that somebody else maybe feels like they have a place.

SPEAKER_01 5:26

Well, you definitely filled those shoes perfectly. Your music is I I love the title. I love the title. My daddy doesn't like you. I like it, it's explosive. I love it. I can relate. Tell us a little bit about that new song, hun.

SPEAKER_00 5:43

Yeah, so uh that is a it's a very true to life song. Um, I started dating my husband when I was in college, and um very quickly he he became my father's probably least favorite person. Um interesting. And um, yeah, and so they they have hardly talked over the years. Um, we got married and um he did not come to our wedding. He tried to actually talk me out of the wedding the the day before. Um and you know, it's one of those things. I'm an only child, and I I think it comes down to the fact that I don't know that anybody would ever be right or good enough. So I don't think it's necessarily a personal thing, but they they've made amends for the most part. Like they're they're cordial and they're fine. But um grow up like yeah, but it it it's definitely still, you know, that little piece of contention that's that's there. Well, there you go. And um but you know, at this point, I think that I've always tried to poke fun at some things. Um that's probably my dark sense of humor coming out. Um, and I released this right around my husband's birthday because I was sort of like, yeah, you know, still there. Surprise. Yeah, here.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

Happy birthday. Happy birthday. Um love it.

SPEAKER_00 7:13

So, but I mean that's that's our relationship. We we laugh at those things, and I think that it's it's helped us be stronger.

SPEAKER_01 7:22

Absolutely. Well, your influences going back to the music, uh will again, one dare and near to my heart. Uh Dinah Carter. Well, absolutely. What turns you on about her? Because I definitely feel, you know, like you said, talking about nostalgic music and you know, what is it that that turns you on about her?

SPEAKER_00 7:42

I think it's just it's her way of storytelling, but it's also like it's not overproduced, it's not overdone, like you know when you listen to her, like she's she's just singing from the heart, like and and she's telling stories from the heart. And I think that that's the biggest thing. It's a very authentic um thing that she puts out, and um that's what I've always wanted with with my own music, is I I don't want to put you know, bells and whistles necessarily in there to fill the void. I want I I want the music to speak for itself and I want the emotion to speak for itself. So I I just always took a lot of that from her.

SPEAKER_01 8:23

Oh, I think she's a a breath of fresh air as you are too, and I can see where that comes into play. And down to the darker side, again, another fanfrave. I, you know, we're speaking my language right now. Alanis Morsa. I definitely know she goes to the dark side, but she knows how to portray it and she holds her own, right?

SPEAKER_00 8:42

Yeah, well, I think it's just the raw emotion that she brings forth. Like, I can remember, I mean, I remember the first time I heard You Ought to Know. Um, and I was I was really young, and I was just like, She is she is mad, she is quite angry at the world, right? Yeah, at the whole world. And um, but there was just something so cathartic about that. Like, hey, you can you can say whatever you need to say in music and get that emotion out. And so honestly, like that's what music's always been for me. I remember coming home from school and being so ticked off at I had I had some girls that just sure brutal to me, which I think that that's just middle school, to be quite honest.

SPEAKER_01 9:28

That's where you're starting to find out who you are as a young lady, right?

SPEAKER_00 9:31

Exactly. But I would come home and I'd be so mad, and it was like I didn't, you know, as an only child, you really don't have anybody to share that with.

SPEAKER_01 9:39

You're stuffed animals, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:41

And so I would write and I would just put all that onto paper, and it was okay, it was safe. Like, and I think that that's what songwriting's always been for me. It was my safe place of being able to express whatever I needed to say, and it was okay. And that's honestly, like, that's what I learned from Elena and and also other just I mean other songwriters, but other people of like the grunge genre of just they talk about the rough things, the awkward situations that like so many people just want to sweep under the rug, and it's like, nope, here, here's the bitter truth. And I love that.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

Well, that's keeping it an original, such as yourself. Uh, speaking of originals, you've got some good stuff that you're doing when you go out there with the ministry. Has a lot of this music been portrayed through that? Do you get to perform during services?

SPEAKER_00 10:37

Um, so I am a worship leader, but um, I would say there's been some songs that we've done, um, like church wide um and and congregation wide. And I've also done some one-off like worship events and and done my music, um, done my originals at that. Um it it really depends. And and I've really I've always tried to kind of I don't want to say I keep it separate because that isn't true. I mean it's me, but I I try when it's especially when it's worship related, I want to worship. I don't I don't want there to be any kind of focus on what I'm doing. I want it to be toward God and and toward the message. And so if the song relates to that and goes with that, sure. But I I don't want to just throw my music in there if it is just throw it in there.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

Well, it's nice to be diverse in your music selection. That's what I say. And you've got that going on with these two uh other artists that we were just talking about, and and your influences, of course. Uh heard something about a re what is it, uh revamping page or ramping page, if you will, for music awards. Oh, rampage, rampage, there you go.

SPEAKER_00 11:58

Rampage musical has got it. Yes. Um I was like, I hope I'm not revamping no no, my bad. We keep it real. Um so the the Rampage Music Awards. Yes, I uh uh it's a um it's a w award group or a community online um that has supported my music over the years and and they do like an annual award show. Um and uh I just actually got Entertainer of the Year um Album of the Year and then Pop album.

SPEAKER_01 12:35

Congratulations, see? You are revamping. Well, I guess you're recycled, right? That's what they say. But no, that's just a wonderful honor, and I I'm I'm so honored to talk to you about that. I think it's you're welcome, you're welcome. So, of course, you know, folks are gonna want to know what's next for you. I know you said behind the scenes you're gonna be traveling a little bit and you want to do something with that. Could you tell us a little bit about that?

SPEAKER_00 13:02

Yeah, so one of my bucket list goals, I guess, is um I want to play all 50 states. And so I know I'm playing, I I've played probably eight or nine at this point. Um, I've been as far as California and then Texas and then um up to Connecticut and Boston and all that kind of stuff, or Massachusetts and all that kind of stuff, but um I'm adding Florida and Alabama and then Wisconsin, Iowa, Indiana, um, and I think Maryland. Anyway, I'm adding six or seven different states this year to that list. And next year I'm wanting to go all the way up the east coast um and probably make my way back to either the four corners, um, but possibly California again. I miss California. I love California um and Los Angeles area and Pacifica and all that. So I'd like to get back there soon. But yeah, that's one of my goals is just to I I think that you learn so much um from other people. And you know, even if it's what you don't want to do or what you don't want to be, you still learn something. And and I love going to these different places and just meeting people and and seeing their way of life and and all that.

SPEAKER_01 14:22

The storytelling. I bet you there's a million to one on that. You'd probably run out of paper and pen, right?

SPEAKER_00 14:28

Oh, I'm sure. Yeah. Yeah, most definitely.

SPEAKER_01 14:31

Well, you know, the invitation is open to you. You'd like to come to Catch Track Studio here in Connecticut. You mentioned Connecticut, and I thank you for that very much. Yeah. We would love to have you. I'd love to have you here. I say we, it's me. Yeah, we could definitely, definitely relate to a lot of the the growing ups. I like the idea of your storytelling, and you know, you've survived a lot, and you've got a really good uh, excuse the French, kick butt song out there. Uh and I'm really excited to have our listeners listen to it as well. Um, but people want to listen to your music on a regular basis. Where can they find you?

SPEAKER_00 15:09

Yeah, I'm on all of the platforms. So Spotify, um, Deezer, Apple, all of those things. Um, but also check out my website, jenniferalvarado.com, and it'll have links to everything and and socials are at Jennifer Alvarado Music. So yeah, if you want to follow me and check out what I'm doing and send me a message and I will get back to you.

SPEAKER_01 15:31

Oh, that would be me.

unknown 15:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 15:34

Any final messages for the listeners today, other than they're gonna go over, they're they're definitely gonna gravitate and listen to your music because you know I'm already a fan, so I appreciate that. You're welcome.

SPEAKER_00 15:45

Um, yeah, just keep going. I mean, especially if you're if you're a musician, if you're a dreamer, like this this life tries to knock you down and and knock those dreams down, and you've gotta believe in it. You gotta just trust your gut and trust your heart and keep going.

SPEAKER_01 16:03

Well, great job. As as always, I always like to thank people who have come on. Jennifer, it's been fun hanging out with you in the studio today. Again, you know, please feel welcome to come back at any given time. We want to know where your success is taking you, and I definitely want to see those videos of all those people you get to talk to from California, East Coast, West Coast, and much more, right? Most definitely. All right. Well, you have a blessed day, and uh again, guys, go and check out Jennifer's information. She gave you the list of where you could find her. Um, most of us have those smartphones. Go and check out her music. She's got it going on. And of course, on Catch Track Radio, you will be able to listen to this on iHeart and 13 other platforms under the podcast under Catchtrack Radio. Thanks, Jennifer, for everything. Thank you for having me. You're welcome. You have a wonderful day now. You do bye bye. Bye.