Calling all Jodie Borle fans!!!

Here’s a winter party you won’t want to miss. The official launch party for Jodie’s newest CD entitled “Snow” will be coming to a nice warm venue near you! Here are the details:

Thursday, December 14th

8:00pm

Franco-Manitoban Cultural Centre

Salle Antoine-Gaborieau

340 Provencher Blvd

Winnipeg, MB R2H 0G7

Ticket info: $15; includes CD (What a deal!)

Tell everyone you know. Then make sure you’re there.

Hey everyone,

The holiday album is done, so check out the new track “Everything but You” written for me by my good friend Mark Reeves. You can preview the song on my myspace page. Follow this link to hear it: www.myspace.com/jodieborle. It’s a song about hoping the one you love could be there with you for the holidays. I hope you enjoy!

Also, there will be an official launch party to celebrate the arrival of my new disc. Keep December 14, 2006 open on your calendars. Exact details to follow shortly.

How many musicians can listen to their own music? How many can actually listen to it while other people listen to it in the same room, at the same time? I’ve always had a tough time with that. Everytime someone wants to listen to my music, I feel I have to leave the room or die of embarassment. Considering the fact I have no problem singing in front of a thousand people any night of the week, I think there’s something about a very small intimate gathering that scares the pants off me. Perhaps I’m too hyper critical of my own stuff. I know one tune in particular that almost didn’t make it on to “And then I did” but it ended up on the album because people liked it so much. I just had to let my issues with my performance go, because other people weren’t hearing what I heard. So, here I am, on the brink of releasing a Christmas album, and there are two songs that I LOVE and can’t stop listening to. It’s really amusing to me actually. I’m so emotionally involved in these performances. Last night I sat in my room and listened to myself sing, and I actually thought “hey…this is pretty good, darn it!” Sure, there’s one note that is obviously sharp, but I chose to keep it sharp and not do a vocal fix, because sometimes, it’s all about the emotion, over the pitch. I can’t wait for everyone to hear those tracks, so as soon as they are mastered (next week; hooray!) I’m going to upload them here.

Here are my thoughts today. The first thought? If I had a personal assistant they would be doing the sort of things I get to do on a daily basis. This week for example? They would have put together all the packages I sent to jazz festivals across Canada; paid my speeding ticket (this is my fourth one; hooray), called to book the release party space for the Christmas album (which is sounding fantastic, btw); met with the CD designers to map out a layout for the artwork of the album; rushed out and bought the new Tragically Hip CD (which I’m so excited about because I can’t stop listening to “In View” on their website www.thehip.com); would purchase the DVD collection of Pinky & The Brain episodes; and hired a grammar tutor for me as this has got to be the longest run on sentence in recent, well, days I’m sure. All these things were interspersed with mixing the Christmas CD, and that has taken up the majority of my week, as it should. Really, going out and buying stuff like CD’s and DVD’s is just a frivolous adventure….one that could wait until all this recording is finished. However, if I hired someone to do it for me, I could have my guilt free cake and eat it too. Hee hee. See, that personal assistant could have been running around at the same time I was enjoying three gin martini’s with extra olives last night as a celebration to another successful week of recording wrapping up. Hmmm…I wonder if I could really get over the guilt of making someone else do stuff for me while I relaxed???? Ask me again when I’m famous, and see if I feel the same way!
In related news, I am so ecstatic we hired a cello player for the album. There were some truly brilliant moments in his playing, and I think the songs will sound beautiful because he specifically was playing on them. Wow, I love the cello. Actually, I really love the mandolin, just haven’t figured out how to inject the mandolin into my music yet without it sounding too far from “jazz”, but perhaps that will happen for the next CD.
So, let’s get back to this whole speeding ticket thing. It’s those darn red light cameras at intersections. What’s interesting about the cameras, is that there are very large signs before the intersection warning you to slow down, and yet, for some strange reason, I never see these signs. Why is that? I think I was programmed, or am genetically pre-determined to be a fast driver. I like speed, what can I say? I am living in a city with no freeways, and yet I drive like I’m on one. When I went to perform gigs in Toronto last month, I navigated that city like no one’s business. Perhaps I’m just too aggressive a driver for the city I live in. I guess I just don’t understand why people get in my way. (That was sarcasm).  So, here I am with another $167 ticket. Serves me right for always being in a rush to get somewhere. Guess that’s why I would like a personal assistant….
I have, while I write this, successfully listened to “In View” five times in a row now. I’m addicted to this song. It does happen to me though, where I hear a song I immediately attach myself to, and then I have to listen to it over, and over, and over, and over. When I first bought my copy of the new Snow Patrol album, I told my friend Trevor that “Chasing Cars” was the best song on the album. Apparently, months later, everyone and their dog thought so as well as it is now played everywhere. I also felt this same insane connection to Simon & Garfunkel’s “Only Living Boy in New York.” I couldn’t get enough of it, in fact. I woke up to it as my CD alarm clock, I listened to it on my stereo while getting ready for work, I listened to it in my car on the way to work, I listened to it at work, and……….yeah. A healthy obsession. Sort of like fat free chocolate, I imagine. (and officially the sixth time listening to In View in a row.)
So, back to the discussion about music. I currently started to listen to a lot more Country. I guess it’s because I’m interested in someone who only listens to Country, and because I don’t listen to Country (it’s not that I don’t like it, I just don’t seek it out) I decided to expand my musical horizons. Have to say, that Keith Urban fellow is quite talented. I was having a toe tapping good time all by myself in the comforts of my bedroom. So, THAT’s what all the fuss is about.
I will always love my Brit Pop first and foremost though. It’s still my favourite. Every time I discover a new band from the UK I get this giddy school girl excitement. I had tickets to go see Embrace in Toronto. I was willing to stay three extra days, spend way too much money, and go see the band that probably won’t make the trek to Winnipeg any time soon. The show was cancelled due to one of the band members going into rehab. I was very disappointed, so hopefully I’ll still have the chance to see them sometime in the future. Maybe at the Grammy’s! Yeah, I’m dreaming big, but why not? This is my dream, and I want to dream as big as my imagination can allow. I want the life long career where my job consists of making great music, and people rush to buy my album, and get that giddy school girl (or boy) excitement when they find a song they can’t stop listening to. I want someone to be THAT excited about the music that I make. So, I’ll dream big, and I’ll still buy that DVD, but maybe I’ll wait till tomorrow…….
 

We are smack dab in the middle of recording a Christmas album. The bed tracks were done at CBC Studio 11, October 3-5^th. Weather was so beautiful up until a few days ago here in Winnipeg, it was really bizarre for me to sing holiday music with no snow or decorated Christmas trees standing near me. We are doing things a little late in the grand scheme of recording Christmas albums though. Most performers have their albums recorded in the summer so there is plenty of time to get the disc manufactured and sent to stores. The first CD “And then I did..” took a full two years to complete. It’s a drastic change from the two months we’re taking to have this album completed, but sometimes you just have to dive right in and take care of business. Last week the trumpet player Darren Ritchie came in to lay down his parts, as did the sax player Paul Balcain. Tomorrow we have a cello player by the name of Blair Burns coming in to add his parts on two songs. I have never met Blair before, but he has a lovely phone voice, and also teaches my piano player and best friend Jon, cello lessons at the Manitoba Conservatory, where I used to be on faculty as the jazz voice teacher. Jon told me he would be perfect for the job, so…he was hired. Simple as that. One might think me strange to hire someone I’ve never heard play before, but Jon’s been my friend for almost 10 years now, and I’m sure he knows exactly what’s going on. I’m quite excited about the whole process tomorrow actually. One of the songs Blair is playing cello in is a cover of Hawksley Workman’s “Common Cold” as well as a song Mark Reeves (musician and producer) wrote specifically for this project which doesn’t quite have a title yet. The song, which I will right now refer to as “Snowglobe” is almost a refreshing departure from the “wow I’m so happy it’s Christmas” music one would normally hear. Mark’s tune is actually quite depressing and sad, and surprisingly, it was quite enjoyable to sing. It helped me release all my pent up anger I had; mostly for Mark, who made me sing the song too many times when every single take sounded exactly the same to me. The more frustrated I got, the better I was able to translate the emotion required to deliver the lyrics. Funny how that works. I think Producer’s must do that on purpose. They know exactly what buttons to press to make the singer perform better than they thought they could.

So, once the cello parts are complete tomorrow, we’ll be well on our way into mixing madness. As long as Lloyd Peterson, the engineer, Mark and I decided on the right levels without too much fighting, we should be good to go. More info to follow….

It’s official. The holiday CD has a name. Very simply: Snow. After much deliberation, some fantastic ideas from you the fans, and the suggestions I received from some industry friends, I decided on something that encompasses the feeling of winter here on the prairies. I must admit I was very tempted to name the album Borlealis (after Aurora Borealis, of course) but decided Snow was the perfect choice for me.

I’ll be trying to keep everyone up to date with regards to the process of recording this CD. I think it would be interesting to keep a sort of journal about the inner workings of a recording studio and the various interactions of the musicians involved. The rehearsals have been going really well so far, and the arrangements have come together in such a way that I already have my favourites. I think I should love each of the songs I’m performing equally, but I digress, there is one in particular that I am really excited about recording, and I hope you the public will enjoy it as much as I am enjoying it. I shall keep you posted.

In other news, I finally joined the myspace community. I have officially jumped upon that bandwagon, and if you want to check out the site, you can find me at www.myspace.com/jodieborle. If you are a member, drop me a line, or become one of my friends (if you’ve ever been to myspace, then you know what I mean!)

Take care everybody and stay warm!!

This week I grew up just a little bit more. I learned that sometimes you have to make a very hard decision, not because you want to, but because you absolutely have to. Now, this lesson has probably come up in my life a bunch of times before now, but I felt it especially poignant this week. Many of you know, from attending my shows, that I tend to speak very candidly about my personal life. You will probably have heard me speak once or twice about a certain individual with whom I had shared many experiences in the past. That person also got an entire song dedicated to them on my first album. That person was responsible for the first major heartbreak of my life.

Well, it was time to finally put the past behind me and move on. I was clinging to this hope that things would work out exactly as I wanted them to. Unfortunately, you wake up one day and realize not everything is meant to work out as you want them to. Sometimes things happen as they should, like it or not. Maybe it’s the notion of pre-determined destiny. Or fate. Or just plain ol’ timing.

So I grew up in the last 7 days. I went very deep inside and figured out what was the best decision for my future. Forget about the past. What do I want tomorrow? What do I want next year? If I’m going to continuely allow the past to keep creeping into the future, I won’t really move forward, will I? So, I said goodbye to that certain individual. Maybe not in the most mature way granted, but in the best way I knew how. I figured he deserved atleast an explanation, which was something he could not bother to give me in the past. I will miss him deeply. He will live in my heart (and my music) forever. Everytime I listen or perform that song I will think of him.

But like I said, sometimes you have to make decisions; not because you want to, but because you have to. And sometimes closing a door behind you is the only way to open the door in front of you.

Ok, so far we have some not too shabby suggestions. I’m liking the idea of the one word titles. Something like: Joy, Snow, Winter. Keep them coming! Next week we start pre production on the album, and I’m enjoying all of your participation throughout this process. I’ll keep you posted!

Hi everyone,

I am holding a little contest. In celebration of our holiday album, which will be released this December, I am asking for your assistance. I need a title for the CD. I am currently taking submissions/suggestions. I’m opening this up to residents of Manitoba, and the deadline will be September 15th. If you think you have a title that would work perfectly with a new Jodie B album, I want to hear it! I want something creative and fun. I’m pretty sure I’m not going to name the album “Happy Holidays” or “Season’s Greetings.” I want something fresh and innovative. If I choose your title, you’ll get 2 copies of the album, signed, plus your name in lights on the album itself. That’s right, you’ll be included in the liner notes of the CD, forever immortalized on a Jodie Borle CD as a contributing designer.

Have an idea? Email me at jazgrl@jodieborle.com. Let the creativity begin!

Well, I just got back from a very good, very relaxing vacation. It was the kind of vacation that I think everyone should have. The kind where you do, quite simply…absolutely nothing. Well, ok, that’s not entirely true. I did manage to get a really good sun tan. I also managed to put in some significant air time while diving off a dock into the waters of Falcon Lake. 

I am now back in Winnipeg, ready to get back into performing. I was in the town of Winnipeg Beach last night performing at their outdoor amphitheatre. The rain stayed away, and the attendance was great. I even got to have a drink with the former Premier, Gary Filmon. That was a highlight.

Tonight we were back in the city, performing at the Lyric Theatre in Assiniboine Park with Walle Larsson. Again, we were blessed with a clear, sunny sky.

That takes us to the third outdoor gig we’ll have in a week. This Thursday, I’ll be performing at the Winnipeg Art Gallery’s summer Jazz on the Rooftop series. We’re hoping that tickets are already sold out for the show, which starts at 7:30pm, but you can contact Ticketmaster (780-3333 or www.ticketmaster.ca) for any additional information. You can also contact the Winnipeg Art Gallery specifically.

Well, it’s back in the saddle as they say, and I can’t wait to get back on that next stage.