Bio

The first time people hear Jes Hudak sing, they cannot believe the amount of sound coming out of this young singer/songwriter. Her sound is a blend of soul, rock and pop, and her instrument of choice is the piano.

Jes started playing the piano when she was 8 years old. By the time she was 13 years old, she had begun performing her own compositions at the open mic night at legendary Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs, NY. After a year of weekly performances, Jes had honed a set of original songs. She headed into the studio with Skidmore College’s Artist-in-Residence John Nazarenko in the summer of 1996. “In There Somewhere” was released in the spring of 1997 into the anxiously waiting hands of Jes’ fellow ninth graders.

Jes continued to play regularly around Saratoga Springs throughout her high school years. She performed at many prestigious Saratoga festivals such as First Night Saratoga, Hats Off, Travers, and the Victorian Streetwalk. She was also one of the open mic hosts at Caffe Lena during her junior and senior years of high school.

After graduating, Jes continued her music theory education from high school at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. After one semester she decided to move back to Saratoga in order to record her second album with Vince Arpey of ARP Productions. “Tiny Dream” was released in the spring of 2002 while Jes was attending Skidmore College.

In the summer of 2002, Jes went on the road with the Jeep World Outside Festival, headlined by Train & Sheryl Crow, as a member of the crew. Her daily job varied from making the access passes for bands and crew to stocking the tour buses with food. If there was a time slot open on the festival stage, Jes filled in. She was able to perform all over the country with this tour, opening up for artists such as Maroon 5, Tonic, Five for Fighting, Rubyhorse, and Howie Day.

Jes moved to New York City in the fall of 2002. Over her 5 years spent in the city, she performed her own music at NYC venues such as the Bitter End, Arlene’s Grocery, the Living Room, Rockwood Music Hall, and Pete’s Candy Store.  Jes’ powerful voice and passionate playing are genuine and full of emotion, no matter what the song topic may be. She sings about falling in love, breaking up, inflated egos, and sometimes even mermaids. And her interactions with the audience always spawn copious laughter.

In August of 2005, Jes began working on a 5-song demo with producer Art Hays. The song list includes two co-writes (Gotta Get Out & Breakup Song) Jes wrote with singer/songwriter Teddy Goldstein. The other three songs, “No One in the World,” “The Scar,” & “Mora the Mermaid.” were written by Jes. “This is the first time I’ve been completely happy with one of my recordings.”

Since then, Jes has been a top contestant for both CBS’s Rockstar: INXS and Fox’s American Idol Season 5.  She sang the Tom Jones song “Chills & Fever” for a national Pantene ad, and has sung the national anthem at Giants Stadium.

Jes made the move from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in October of 2007 and performs around town regularly at venues such as Hotel Cafe.  She has also gone on the road with Enrique Iglesias as the only female backup singer for the Central American leg of his Insomniac 2008 tour, the isle of MTV in Malta, and including a performance during the closing ceremony of the Eurocup 2008 in Vienna, Austria.

You can see Jes live in Hollywood every Sunday evening at Cafe Muse.  With new originals and covers every week, the show is always full of excitement and face-melting acoustic rocking.  There is no one in the world like Jes!