Listen/Hear
I quit my day job back in 1984 to work full time in the music business. I had a great job at the time working on Parliament Hill in Ottawa with really good pay, good benefits and wonderful people but I knew in my heart that music was where my passion lay. So, I decided that I did not want to be on my deathbed wondering if I could have made it. I quit my job, bought some equipment, found an agent and promptly lived on $200 a month plus my pension money for the next 6 months. I was officially a starving artist.
I certainly paid my dues for 10 years before I released my first album – I was playing bars, restaurants, lounges, festivals, conferences and anywhere I could throughout Eastern Ontario. At one point, I was on the road 15 days a month. Then in 1994, I released my debut album, From The Heart, with a mix of songs on a wide variety of subjects: Canada, Acadians, friendship, Christian, volunteers, love – a real eclectic mix of mostly folk/pop stuff. This is when I set a new goal for myself: play gigs where I could sing my own compositions. My daughter was born that same year so I stopped playing the bar scene & started doing concerts instead. It all worked out well.
In 2001, I released “I Believe In You”, a mix of uplifting & Christian songs – it’s still a top seller on the digital downloads market and I still constantly get requests for songs from that album. It sold out a long time ago but thank goodness for digital downloads.
In 2004, “Arise” was released, a Christian album which includes excerpts from “11 Psalms for September 11″ – a tribute to the Canadians who lost their lives in New York. Some day, I hope to release the full musical composition on CD. I co-wrote it with Suzanne Pasternak, a phenomenal songwriter/producer.
In 2006, “Women of the World” was born and it includes songs written by 5 other Canadian songwriters that I admire. There are songs in English & in French, “Amazing Grace” is sung by my neighbour who was 84 at the time and “I Can Touch The Sky” is sung by my daughter, Katie, who was 9 at the time. So it covers a wonderful spectrum of women.
2009 saw the release of “This Is My Canada/Mon cher Canada”, a specialty CD designed for students and organizations who wish to organize events that celebrate our country. I sang this song for our Canadian Olympic athletes in Salt Lake City, 2002 and in Athens, Greece in 2004 along with “Canadian Olympian/Olympien Canadien”. And, on December 15, 2009, I sang both songs at the Olympic Torch Relay Celebration in Picton, ON along with my trio Trinity and the Spirit of the Olympics Choir. It’s been a joyous adventure and I can’t wait to see where This Is My Canada is going to take me next!
2010 I launched 2 CDs: “This Is My Canada” was officially launched in February and “I Wish I Had Wings” was launched in December. Talk about a busy year. “I Wish I Had Wings” is an album of inspirational songs and songs that raise awareness for causes that are close to my heart such as “The Sound of Haiti”; “You Know Who I Am” (mental health issues); “Angels” (the choking game); “Secret Dreams” (educating girls around the world); and, “United We Stand, Divided We’ll Never Fall (families of our soldiers – the Invisible Army). I have also included 4 French songs on this project so it should reach a wider audience for the causes I am promoting.
