| Anne Loree | Mike's email | Hard to find albums |
| Messiah | Return to Ottawa | Home page plans |
New band member: Anne Loree
The latest new member of Jr. Gone Wild is Anne Loree, who is a distant cousin of former Jr. Gone Wild members Steve Loree and Lance Loree. There are, I'm told, other musical Lorees who have not yet played with Jr. Gone Wild.
Anne plays keyboards and sings backing vocals. Her keyboards often have the sound of classic honky tonk piano, so it isn't much like the keyboard sound you may have heard when Ford was still with the band. Also, Mike is now the only guitarist. Larry remains on drums and Dove on bass. Mike is quite happy with the sound of this particular lineup, and hopes it lasts.
Anne, by the way, is not just another hired gun. She's well known as a singer-songwriter in Alberta, and has been profiled a couple times by the Calgary Herald. A few years ago, Anne wrote a song called "Insensitive," which became a hit for Alberta singer Jann Arden.
Here are a couple short excerpts from Herald articles. First, from a piece by James Muretich published on April 16, 1995:
[...]
The most positive thing to come out of the hit-making experience for Loree is that it has fuelled her desire to put out her own CD someday, though there have been no nibbles from any labels at present.
Loree, who has performed at various small acoustic venues in Calgary for more than a decade and released an independent cassette several years ago, says she's essentially ``a humanist, with kind of an axe to grind socially. Musically, I'm rooted in folk but with pop potential . . . obviously.''
On the other side of the coin, the most negative thing to come out of the Insensitive experience is her disillusionment with the music industry in general.
``I grew up with that whole fairytale image of fame. Now, I'm seeing that it's not like that. It's an industry. It's a business. And I don't think it has all that much to do with art."
From an article by Paul Hepher in the October 11, 1994 Herald:
Until recently, she's been known mainly by musicians, scuffling on the fringes of the musical scene while waitressing to pay the bills and performing her tunes sporadically at various local clubs and cafes.
Those days may soon be over. Loree has just signed a co-publishing deal with Polygram Records for her song Insensitive (recorded by Jann Arden) -- and five other compositions.
[...]
The doorway of substantial artistic and commercial success is unfamiliar territory for the 35-year-old Loree. She `s on the edge of something new and says, ``it feels good but it feels scary too.''
``The main thing is I want to keep writing but it would be great to make money at it too. People are saying congratulations but I don't understand what they're talking about really. It hasn't hit me emotionally.''
Change of address
Mike's email address will probably change in the next month or so. Right now the only link to his email address is in the message from Mike; when he has a permanent address, I'll have it somewhere on the main page.
Those Hard to Find Albums
Those of you who have been looking for the Live at the Hyperbole album by Jr. and Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie will have another reason to try to make it to one of the remaining shows on the current tour. The band will be happy to sell you copies of that CD, as well as of their Stony Plain albums and the Folk You tape. I worked the merchandise table at the recent Barrymore's show, and had many requests for copies of Less Art, More Pop. I haven't seen a new copy of that in years; in Canada it was released on vinyl only, and in the U.S. on vinyl and cassette. The band may have tracked down a box of LPs in Montreal in the last few days, so keep your eyes open. If they aren't playing anywhere near you, write to P.O. Box 206, Edmonton, Alberta, T5J 2L8. Don't forget to include a stamp or international reply coupon.
Messiah
And speaking of Jr. and Three Dead Trolls... word has it that they'll be performing their joint musical comedy Messiah in Winnipeg around the end of November. In high concept terms, it's about the Virgin Mary being abducted by aliens. The Edmonton Journal praised it last year, and described it thus:
You might think this sucks. And, like the panto, it's never going to be everyone's cup of Coors.
But, as offered with daffy good nature, it will only actually offend you and your loved ones if you take a strictly orthodox line on the biblical Christmas story.
(From Liz Nicholls' review in the December 3, 1994 Edmonton Journal, "Un-immaculate Messiah radiates daffy good nature; Musical's rock band at least as funny as comedy troupe".)
Another Ottawa Date
Jr. will be playing the Duke of Somerset on Monday, September 25. If you missed them at Barrymore's on Thursday, and missed them again on Friday when they played at the Duke with Jimmy George, here's your chance to see them in a cozy atmosphere.
Home Page Plans
In the next couple of months, we'll be adding Jr. Gone Wild lyrics. We've also just added the text of the two Jr. Gone Wild newsletters produced thus far. They're a couple years old, but they're entertaining reading nonetheless. Also, Dove has promised to have something written up by the time the band swings through Ottawa again next week.
In the longer term, Mike is looking into scanning a number of band photos, both professional and personal, as well as album covers. This site will become more graphically interesting eventually.
Return to Jr. Gone Wild home page.
She is not Tin Pan Anne. Anne Loree may have penned the song Insensitive for Jann Arden, which was a major hit in Canada and Italy (where it was used in a TV commercial), but the veteran singer-songwriter dreams of more than becoming a tunesmith to the stars, even if she's increasingly pigeon-holed as a songwriter. And nothing but a songwriter.
Life on the edge is taking on new meaning for Calgary singer-songwriter Anne Loree.
The Messiah is something like a cross between The Life Of Brian, Hee Haw and skit night in your Comparative Religion 101 class. With a pantomime donkey that makes possible the song Ass For Sale and immortal lines like ``Get off your ass and relax for a change, Mary.''