NZ Best Country Artist Winner and 2 x Golden Guitar nominee, Jenny Mitchell, is a storyteller from the deep south of New Zealand. Now based in Melbourne, Jenny recently supported Kasey Chambers on a 32 date tour of Australia and released her highly acclaimed album Forest House - via Melbourne based label Civilians.

“Forest House - 10/10,” Newstalk ZB

Forest House was recorded in a house in the Wairarapa and is full of warmth and truth and family harmonies - think the best of The Chicks + Norah Jones. Across 12 tracks Jenny draws upon experiences both personal (the loving duet with her father, Ron, on “Daffodils”) and observed (“Dirt”, in which she reflects on her family’s experiences with farming, “and how farmers feel about their land”) to create a set of songs that are intimate, emotional, heartbreaking and uplifting – in other words, the good, bad and “everything in between” of everyday life.

"Every so often, an artist emerges who has everything it takes to reach the pinnacle of country music success. Jenny Mitchell is a star.” Country Music Capital News

Jenny grew up in a home and family of music and often tours with her sisters, The Mitchell Twins, and country music loving Dad, Ron Mitchell. After growing up with a musical diet of The Chicks, Hank Williams and Dolly Parton, Jenny penned her first songs at the age of 11 after a trip to Ireland where she connected with her Irish heritage and explored the immigration story of her Irish born Grandparents. A few years down the track, Jenny performed original work on the TV show New Zealand's Got Talent, was placed 3rd and went onto crowdfund and release her first album at the age of 15. In 2017, she was crowned the overall winner of the NZ Gold Guitar Awards which kickstarted the professional chapter of her career, leading to her Aotearoa Music Award Winning album 'Wildfires’ produced by Tasmania’s Matt Fell.

Her 2022 album Tug of War included the pivotal release of the 2022 APRA NZ Best Country Song ‘Trouble Finds a Girl’ and was described by Rolling Stone as an album, “worthy of every award it will inevitably collect.” To celebrate Tug of War, Jenny curated a tour based on the album’s bonus track, The Bush & the Birds, that travelled throughout NZ in support of conservation organisation; Forest & Bird. An ode to her late Grandfather’s love of the land, the tour generated over $2000 in donations for Forest & Bird and travelled to small towns and major centres alike. 

No stranger to the road, Jenny was awarded a scholarship to perform at Nashville’s iconic AmericanaFest in 2024 and has toured Australia and New Zealand extensively over the last decade - supporting artists including Fanny Lumsden (AU), Tami Neilson (NZ) and Nadia Reid (NZ) along the way. With a sound that No Depression describes as, “poetry that dominates a beautiful melody,” Jenny Mitchell is comfortable with a country twang or softly spoken ballad and is rapidly capturing fans across the globe.

“Her songwriting sits well between the darkness and the light that this genre is capable of when at its very best.” — Ambient Light