Jane Woody

When Jane Woody was just 13, her mother died in a car accident. Her father, already confined to a wheelchair and morbidly obese, retreated further inside himself, leaving Jane to face the world on her own. Rebellion followed a brief mourning period and soon Jane was known to every local policeman and authority figure.

When her father received an ultimatum – take control of your daughter or lose her forever – he had to act. And so, with his latest pension tucked into his coat pocket, he rolled into town and headed for the boarding school. He needed to get Jane enrolled, and quick! As fate would have it, however, Jane had been playing with her father’s electric wheelchair the previous night and sucked the battery life almost dry. Her father only made it as far as the pawn shop at the end of the street. There, he was met by technology-savvy store attendant Winston, who convinced him to buy a second-hand computer. Inside, Winston promised, was enough fancy gadgetry to keep any troublesome teen off the streets.

When the taxi arrived home (the wheelchair’s batteries were dead, remember), Jane’s father proudly showed off his new purchase. Not quite shiny and not quite new, Jane thought it was decidedly average. Still, she’d plug it in and see what became of it.

For the rest of the summer, Jane hardly left her bedroom. Immersed in a world of high-grade graphics and the occasional foot bag tournament, she honed her skills to become one of the suburb’s most talented California Games players. But it was the soundtrack she loved most. The dinky keyboards and oh-so-sweet melodies seeped into her brain until they almost became part of her.

A decade later, Jane Woody works in the local library, lingering often in the children’s section. She dreams of her youth and the glorious summer of ’95 when “Exit To Dos” would flash across the screen to signal the end of yet another marathon session.

And when the last of the uni students leaves at night, Jane turns out the lights and sits on the floor, cross-legged and close to the atlases. With a guitar for company, she strums and sings, coaxing the memories and melodies from her mind.

She sings of being let down (‘Dog’), the wonders of a new relationship (‘Sit/Stand’) and the memories of a love lost (‘The Spot’). But most of all, Jane Woody sings for the summer she’ll never forget.

Jane Woody’s Exit To Dos EP out now on Book Club Records.

For more info, click here.


Low-res audio: Jane Woody - Sit/Stand