Name: Jenna McClelland at AJ's Destin
Start: 2024-07-06T21:00:00-05:00
Location: AJ's Seafood & Oyster Bar

Jenna McClelland is a songwriter-showman from Mobile, AL by way of Opelika. She was sired by Billy Earl McClelland, a late songwriter with credits from Hank Williams Jr., Waylon Jennings, Jerry Jeff Walker, T.G. Sheppard, Sawyer Brown, and Delbert McClinton. Her father was also known for his guitar session work for B.J. Thomas, Willie Nelson, Tony Joe White, Hank Snow, Townes Van Zandt, and more. Jenna was blood-destined to follow suit performing and writing.
Jenna got her start in her Maryville, TN where she and her band meticulously moved from local bars and restaurants to ticketed showcases and hot opening slots. From garage band to hometown heroes, Jenna quickly became known for her energetic full band performances and her way of molding songs you know and love into her very own, delivering something unique, refreshing, and energizing.
McClelland took a leap of faith in 2016 and moved her career, along with a few pieces of furniture, to Nashville. Here she began kicking down doors, performing alongside other hungry musicians and songwriters. Jenna is no stranger to the Whiskey Jam stage, and has been featured on several music row writers rounds. With a Nashville address, McClelland found herself on iconic stages like Exit/In and the Basement East, billed with even more illustrious songwriters and performers, Them Vibes, Ben de la Cour, and Blue Mother Tupelo amongst the many.
We are all familiar with the old saying, “You can take the girl out of Alabama…” and this remained true for Jenna McClelland. Alabama called to her, further south this time, where she met her now husband, drummer Travis Patch. The pair formed a band out of McClelland’s newly absorbed “hometown” of Mobile, AL, and are now well-established as a gulf-coast favorite. As a Mobile-based artist, Jenna McClelland the band has represented their area opening shows for Joshua Ray Walker, Cody Canada at the Departed, and Drivin N Cryin, just in 2023.
February 2022 brought on new adventures and extraordinary opportunities when Jenna got a phone call from peer and hit songwriter, Elvie Shane (double platinum #1 single “My Boy”). The two had met six years prior at the Frank Brown International Songwriter’s Festival, and Elvie phoned to offer a touring back-up vocal position in his band. With no plan to decline, life quickly turned on a dime for Jenna as she found herself in new territory- festivals, tour buses, grand stands, arenas! Elvie, Jenna, and the team stomped, shook, hollered, and grooved their way through summer 2022, headlining the cool clubs and sharing the stages with the likes of Brooks and Dunn, Dierks Bentley, Lauren Alaina, HARDY, and many more.
God and life, however, put Jenna back in hot pursuit of the lead mic. A divine intervention rendered a motley group of musicians that have formed the present-day Jenna McClelland. Consisting of Travis Patch, Jared Messinger, Ryan Dreibelbis, and Reed Gilmore, McClelland and this crew of like-minded gentlemen are working diligently on a collection of songs that they, as a group, have fine-tuned and truly believe will add authentic goodness, in all aspects of the word, to the songwriting and entertainment worlds.