Local singer’s dream-inspired Juneteenth anthem becomes a professional recording
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POCATELLO — Two years after agreeing to write a song she never imagined she could create, singer Lenet Neifert is celebrating the professional recording of her original Juneteenth anthem, “You Knew.”
The song was recorded through City Creek Records, the label within Idaho State University’s Commercial Music Program, where students gain hands-on experience recording, producing and promoting original music under the direction of Jon Armstrong, ISU’s director of jazz studies and commercial music coordinator.
The collaboration began after Neifert performed the Black National Anthem at a Martin Luther King Jr. Banquet in Idaho Falls. Her performance caught the attention of Armstrong and Dave Snell, founder and president of the Idaho Falls African American Alliance, who encouraged her to write an original song for the community’s Juneteenth celebration.
Gate City residents may already be familiar with Neifert, who performs regularly at Pocatello Art Walks, local coffee shops, breweries and the farmer’s market. Despite years of singing, Neifert had never written a song and doesn’t even read music.
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“The thought of it scared the bejeebers out of me. But there was something about saying ‘yes’ that started manifesting something in my dreams,” she said.
One night, both the melody and lyrics came to her while she slept. She woke in the middle of the night, singing the melody and writing down the words before they disappeared.
“Every line is a true story of my life experiences,” Neifert said. “It’s a song about how God knows what we need even when we don’t know ourselves.”
She sent the lyrics to Armstrong the next day. They both knew they had the foundation of something special, though it still needed arranging, composing and harmonizing.
Although Armstrong and Neifert come from different backgrounds and religions – he is Buddhist, and she is Pentecostal – they have a shared belief that music has the power to transcend differences and that “all roads lead to God.”
Armstrong, who played bass, keyboards, and saxophone on the production, said, “The song created a realm of spiritual reverence. When you’re in music, you have to be in that space.”
Neifert performed “You Knew” at local Juneteenth celebrations in 2024 and again in 2025, though she admits those early performances were still a work in progress.
Behind the scenes, Armstrong invited Neifert into the music department, where he and his students spent the past two years arranging, harmonizing and refining the piece as part of the Commercial Music Program curriculum.
“The song became so powerful once we got it into the studio,” Armstrong said. “Such beautiful words. I told Lenet to hit the end of the song and sing like she’s in church.”
“So, I went to church on that last line,” Neifert said.
Armstrong and Neifert said the music students embraced the project and could often be heard humming or singing the song.
“The students call the song ‘sick,’ which in today’s terms is a good thing,” Neifert laughed.
While much of the work was done in the department’s recording studio, Armstrong said they literally had Neifert belting out the song in the atrium of the fine arts building, creating a unique and powerful reverb at the song’s conclusion that can’t be duplicated in a small studio.
“I love what we did with the atrium,” Armstrong said. “The echoes created a sound like the old Aretha Franklin and other big voices from the past.”
The final result is a professionally recorded version of the song, released this month as a gospel/soul single through City Creek Records, that reflects the pride, dedication and shared vision of Neifert, Armstrong and the ISU music students who helped bring it to life.
Neifert said she is forever grateful for Armstrong’s dedication to bringing her song to life. While she says writing more songs has been “heavy on her mind,” she admits self-doubt creeps in.
“No musician is completely confident. Music connects us because we ‘do’ have self-doubt,” Armstrong said. “The humility and reverence of music is what gets people out of their seats. That’s the beauty of music.”
Neifert will perform “You Knew” at the Pocatello Senior Center’s Juneteenth Celebration on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Everyone is welcome to attend the event.
“I love singing it. It’s my baby,” she said.
The professional recording of “You Knew” by Jon Armstrong and Lenet Armstrong is now available for streaming on Apple, Spotify and can be downloaded on City Creek Records for just $2 with an opportunity to make a donation.