Take Note: Jenny Dalton

Jenny Dalton’s second self-produced album, Rusalka’s Umbrella, comes with an interesting extra: a 100-page book/PDF called Daughters of the Dead Sea. A self-made creature of the digital age, Dalton interacts with her growing fan base through such digital communities as Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, and Last.fm, a sort of YouTube site for musicians. On her website, she also supplies her fans with journal notes, poems, and videos and does regular podcasts about her songs and her life

GREW UP: Bloomington.

MUSICAL BEGINNINGS: My dad used to buy my brother and sister and me these cheap toy-store instruments, and I would recruit my brother and sister to play in my band. I remember we played a lot of blues songs about things I didn’t know anything about.

MUSICAL INFLUENCES: My idols are Tori Amos, Kate Bush, and Sinead O’Connor. They’re all fearlessly creative people who speak for themselves and are always pushing their own artistic limits.

ON THE ALBUM NAME RUSALKA’S UMBRELLA: All the songs have a water element to them and are about change in some way. I love the fact that water can be a gentle force of change or a violent force of change—and that it’s so vital to life. I found out that a rusalka is a kind of mythological water nymph, and I thought it was kind of funny/ironic to think of a water nymph that might need the protection of an umbrella.

ON INCLUDING A BOOK WITH THE CD: The book is mostly journal notes, poems, and my thoughts about what’s behind the songs on the album. I did it because more and more people are buying music online and not getting the physical CD booklet. Part of what I like about the CD experience is leafing through the booklet, so I wanted to give people something to read if they wanted to.

5-ARTIST IPOD SHUFFLE: Santogold, Art in Manilla, Joanna Newsom, Kristin Hersh, The Cure.

CATCH HER ACT: Dec. 27. Kitty Cat Club, 315 14th Ave. SE, Mpls., 612-331-9800