Jenny Conlee

She recently added a Mellotron M4000D mini to a stage lineup that already includes accordion, organ, keyboards and glockenspiel.

I have a Hammond B3, which is the standard Hammond if you’re going to go for the tone wheel organ. It’s humongous, and it has a Leslie speaker with it, the 122, which is one of the biggest Leslies.

That’s the center of keyboard land. Then on top of that I have my Nord Stage 88, which I play piano, Wurlitzer and Rhodes sounds through.

For the Crane Wife tour, I had a Moog Little Phatty Tribute Edition and a pump organ. But all of that seemed redundant. The pump organ sounds like an accordion. We don’t need to bring that out for three songs, because I can just play the accordion. You start to think about channels and costs and space. You can’t just take everything you want on tour. We’re not quite that big yet.

Friends help, and I’ve done some stupid stuff, like plug my Hammond B3 into the 145 Leslie which I have to play with the keyboard. They’re not compatible, so I blew the Leslie up and almost blew myself up. I try things, and I ask people and read my manuals.

I have a Hammond B3, which is the standard Hammond if you’re going to go for the tone wheel organ. It’s humongous, and it has a Leslie speaker with it, the 122, which is one of the biggest Leslies.