Jan Terri for the holidays
December 24, 2014 7:22 PM   Subscribe

Chicago's own Jan Terri offers up her version of "Ave Maria" paired with an interpretive video for your Xmastime enjoyment

via Jezebel:
...a fantastical re-imagining of the holiday (?) classic. Never change, Jan, never change!

One of the best things about Jan is how passionate she is about her work and how much she wants to give back to the fans. When I met her earlier this year (it was pretty magical), she told me that everything she does is "for the fans" and if this video doesn't prove it I don't know what will.
more Jan Terri musical goodness:
- Losing You (1993)
- Make It With You Babe (1993)
- Get Down Goblin (1994)
- Journey to Mars (1994)
- Skyrockets! (2013)
and holiday songs/videos from years past:
- Excuse My Christmas (2011)
- Rock 'n Roll Santa (1994)

Neal Pollack in the Chicago Reader - Journey to Mars: Jan Terri, Superstar (2000)
...Terri was the musical equivalent of an outsider artist, and she was ripe for exploitation. "I made sure to let Jan know why things were happening for her," Thompson says, "that she knew why people were getting into her. I said, 'You know you're campy, right?' She said, 'Oh, like summer camp?' I don't take any money from her. I try to keep her aware, but always try to put it in nice words. If I thought Jan was getting hurt in any of this, I'd be the first to tell her." [...]

"There are so many people who are in bands who take themselves so seriously," Thompson says. "She does it and she doesn't care. She has sent her music to so many people. She nominated herself for the Country Music Awards. Trisha Yearwood is a big fan. Jan went backstage once in Nashville to meet Trisha. Trisha said, "You're the one who sent me the music!" Here was this big country star excited about meeting Jan. It figured."

Terri's videos have since landed her on Mancow and The Daily Show, and her work is circulated through the VCRs of stoned college students everywhere...
A.V. Club interviews Jan Terri (2011)
No one ever knows what joke the ’90s Chicago underground cult icon is going to tell or what non sequitur she’ll use to bring up her dog, Denny, or the time she said she got hit by a semi truck on North Avenue, or that unreleased video she made where she got drunk and imitated Britney Spears doing the Coyote Ugly dance at Medusa club in the loop about a decade ago.

What we do know is that the much-loved, sometimes maligned, viral video legend has made a bit of a comeback. Terri, a 1983 Columbia College grad from Franklin Park, made her way around the Chicago country and karaoke bars scene on her and her parents’ dime in the ’90s promoting her campy, country-rock albums Baby Blues and High Risk. She hustled her tunes to labels and dropped off press kits to any A&R rep she could find. Eventually, her nose-to-the-ground approach worked, and a press kit, which included a blue teddy bear to promote Baby Blues, landed in the hands of Marilyn Manson. He let her open for him at the Aragon Theatre in 1998, and she can be seen on his God Is In The TV collection. However, Terri is most known for her grainy, low-quality VHS videos on YouTube, which are chock full of unintentional comedy and irresistible charm.

Terri has been relatively quiet since she stopped performing and recording music to take care of her mother from 2000 until she passed away in 2008. But thanks to YouTube, including the more than 1.5 million hits her video “Losing You” has received, she’s back to remind Chicago’s underground music followers of her bizarre and catchy tunes.
*previously on MeFi (2007): Jan Terri, where are thee?
posted by flex (5 comments total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
I'm pretty sure that her mere existence alone was totally responsible for the spontaneous creation of Youtube. For without her, cur est, Youtube?
posted by surazal at 9:16 PM on December 24, 2014


I need to get me some of them purple squiggleys.
posted by idiopath at 12:17 AM on December 25, 2014


"Ave Maria" in the first link and "Christmas Eve Social", the video/tune in the Jezebel article are the same video/tune. The Jezebel article said "Christmas Eve Social: Jan Terri's New Video Is the Best Worst Thing Ever.". I think what the folks at Jezebel meant to say is that Jan Teri's New Video is the Best Best Thing Ever.
posted by vapidave at 1:58 AM on December 25, 2014


I liked it. Oh oh! There's an end bit with a cute dog!
posted by mochapickle at 2:59 AM on December 25, 2014


Sometimes I play a thought experiment game where I imagine how far I'd be in life if I'd had one on tenth of Jan Terri's gumption for one day.
posted by Yoko Ono's Advice Column at 2:57 PM on December 26, 2014 [2 favorites]


« Older In Honour of the One Day A Year This Changes   |   "Returning to Earth, that was the challenging... Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments