 
HALIFAX, NS – March 16, 2006 – J.P. Cormier’s new indie label IAG! Recordings this week releases its third album, End of Blue, by Nova Scotia based singer-songwriter Lisa Cameron. End of Blue was recorded at Cormier Sound Studios, and co-produced and engineered by J.P. Cormier who also acts as guest multi-instrumentalist and vocalist on the project. When you listen to Lisa, you can actually hear where her musical influence and inspiration comes from. Her voice sails over, under, and straight through melodies reminiscent of Nanci Griffith, James Taylor, and Emmylou Harris. You are immediately put at ease by her dulcet, melodic toning and creative arrangements. Lisa's ability to engage her audience, highlights her charming and intimate performance style. “A gifted singer and writer, Lisa has a distinctive voice and sound that remains with you… Her passion for each song clearly shows through (and) creates a kind of vulnerability that makes her and her music just that much more endearing.” (Dan MacDonald, Cape Breton Post) “The album is full of rolling melodies and straight-up tender lyrics about lost and found loves.” (Laura Graham, Halifax Herald) IAG! Recordings, launched in January of this year, is a proudly independent and unique specialty label being developed by J.P. Cormier and his business team. Cormier will continue to release his own projects under Flash Publishing & Entertainment, while IAG! remains an entirely separate entity. IAG!, the acronym for Independent Artist Group!, came about as a means to help further evolve and nurture the recordings and careers of some select artists with whom J.P. Cormier has had some professional and artistic connection. IAG! Recordings will provide full service online distribution for the recordings it carries. It will offer customer direct sales, including stock and shipping services, as well as distribution of the recordings to a select group of independent and mainstream music retailers who have illustrated an interest and ability to stock, sell and re-stock roots based music. For more information on the Independent Artist Group!, visit www.jp-cormier.com/webstore/iag.html. Visit Lisa Cameron online at www.lisacameron.ca.
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Mabou
Singer-Songwriter Worked Closely After two degrees, one diploma and years of waitressing and teaching jobs, Lisa Cameron finally came home to Cape Breton to start a music career. She grew up playing traditional music as a hobby, but at 34, Cameron is releasing her own country-folk material. "Maybe I'm not a good planner, things just kind of happened," she says. "I just wanted to do it."
She
thanks her friends for a push in the right direction when they
introduced her to award-winning multi-instrumentalist and
singer-songwriter J.P. Cormier. "While he listened to it, I sat on the couch across from him," she says. "He had a yellow pad of paper and he was taking notes. I was cringing and holding my head in my hands."
As
it turned out, Cormier liked her song called Disgusted. They went into Cormier's in-house studio and recorded the track in four hours. Two years later, Cameron completed her first full-length album in Cormier's studio. Cormier plays various instruments on the album and helped in producing. This August, Cameron put her CDs in select stores throughout Inverness County. The album is full of rolling melodies and straight-up tender lyrics about lost and found loves. "I would like to be more cryptic, but it doesn't work for me," she says. "It comes from emotions, experience." Some of Cameron's lyrics aren't so obvious. The first track on the album, 'For Taylor' sounds like a waltz perfect for a wedding song, but it's not about a person. It's a tribute to her treasured guitar. "I love her so much," she says. "I used to wake up at 6 in the morning and bring her back to bed with me and write songs. I know — I'm a geek." She wrote Lillies and Candles while in Ontario. It is about all the things she loves from home. "The sound of the river, the smell of clothes on the line, hiking in the hills," she says. "Where I'm from is in my music." At the same time Cameron is launching her music career, she is still teaching Grade 12 geography and sociology in Mabou. But her contract is only until the end of January. She says if the opportunity came to go on the road and promote her new album, she would. "Isn't that everybody's dream (to go on the road)? Of course, I'd love to do that. I love performing." For now, she will take up residence in a waterfront house in Mabou. Although rural Cape Breton may not be the easiest place to launch a music career, Cameron takes great comfort in having her friends and family nearby. "I'm getting emails that say, 'I heard your CD playing at the Freshmart in Mabou,' she says. "Cape Bretoners are so supportive of their own". After a month of her CD circulating local stores and restaurants, she's holding a release party Saturday night at 8p.m. in The Barn at The Normaway Inn. Cormier, Stephen Basker and Vern MacDougall will be playing with Cameron. If you miss the release, she'll be moonlighting on Tuesday nights at the Normaway Inn in the Living Room - a gig she used to hold when she was waitressing. You can buy a copy of End of Blue by directly emailing Cameron at lisacameronl2@hotmail.com.
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J.P
Does it Again With Mandolin Album.
J.P. Cormier has done it again. X8: A Mandolin Needless to say, there are some wonderfully intricate and intriguing showpieces, including Big Money, Turkey de Mai son, ala Straw and the Clog From Hell. There is also a new song from J.P, Gone Long Gone, which is likely to become a standard. One of my favourite cuts is Bifi Monroe's Evening Prayer Blues, the weaving notes of which have been ringing through my head since I first played the CD. As expected, J.P. provides all the vocals and almost all the instrumental work. The only exception is the addition of two long-time New Brunswick friends, Danny Mafflet and Russell Sawler, on two cuts. All the rest is 100 per cent J.P. If you are a J.P. Cormier fan, a mandolin fan or you just like great picking and playing, X8: A Mandolin Collection is the CD that you should have. Fourteen of the 16 cuts on J.P's CD were recorded at his own studio in Cap Le Moine. But this isn't the only project that has been done there lately. End of Blue, the new CD from Margaree's Lisa Cameron, was recorded, mixed and mastered there. J.P. co-produced and arranged the CD and provided a great deal of the back-up as well. Other than J.P. and Lisa, the only other musician is guitarist Vern MacDougall. A gifted singer and writer, Lisa has a distinctive voice and sound that remains with you. At times plaintive, you can almost visualize her baring her musical soul as she works through material that, at first glance at least, appears to be autobiographical. As I listened, I could hear shades of Ireland's Black Family and influences from Carole King and James Taylor. There are also bluegrass sounds, blues riffs and solid country tunes. It's quite a combination, but then again, that is Lisa and her music: a real fusion of influences. And it's only this combination, mixed in proper proportion and carefully stirred by life's lessons, that gave her the experiences that led to these sounds. Where else would you get the anguish of Disgusted, or the tender, loving words of For Taylor without this? The fact that Taylor is not her knight in shining armor is a disappointment, but it's just another life experience, isn't it? I enjoy End of Blue and I enjoy Lisa in live performance as well. She is a delightful person with a talent hidden away for far too long. Hopefully this CD provides the jumping-off point for a long career. By the way, Lisa will be holding her CD release concert at the Normaway Inn in the Margaree Valley Saturday night, backed up by J.P Cormier and Friends.
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Lisa
Cameron Releasing End Of Blue at The Barn Although the official release won't take place until Saturday night at The Barn, Lisa Cameron's first recording, End of Blue, is already in popular rotation in homes and businesses throughout western Cape Breton. The Margaree Forks singer has penned 11 intimate and personal songs for her debut album. "They are very personal" she acknowledges. "Sometimes I would like to be more cryptic, but I just want to write and not think about it too much. I don't think many people are familiar with my original stuff. I've been shy with it, but I've been getting lots of positive feedback. Some people are surprised that I wrote, but I wouldn't record until I could put out a record of all my own music," she explains. Her own music stands up very well for fans who are familiar with Lisa Cameron's live covers of her favourite writers like James Taylor.
End
of Blue does not define itself as easily as the singer songwriter who describes herself as a folk singer, but The recording was made this year at Cormier Sound in Cap Le Moine when Lisa brought her music to JP Cormier, and together they put together the arrangements that have endowed End of Blue with qualities that capture a listener on the first hearing. Cormier's presence evident in the guitar bass, percussion, synthesizer, fiddle, banjo and harmony vocals, but nothing in the arrangements dominate Lisa Cameron's lyrics or vocals. On Saturday night, at The Barn on the grounds of the Normaway Inn in Margaree Valley, manager Dave MacDonald will be hosting the official release of End of Blue, and joining Lisa Cameron for the occasion will be Vern MacDougall, who appears with her on the recording and is her guitarist in live performances, and bass player Steve Basker, with special guest, JP Cormier. Following the Saturday release, Lisa has a busy schedule promoting End of Blue, a scheduling that has now to be accommodated by the fact that this week she began a term position teaching at Dalbrae Academy. Having rented a place in Mabou Harbour, she expects the solitude of the coming months to allow time for more writing. Overcoming her public shyness about her own songs, Lisa is now interested collaborating with other songwriters. "I was working alone with my writing," Lisa explains, although she and Vern have worked together on the music for the lyrics, but now that she has played with other writers like Cormier, Brennan MacDonald formerly of Kilt, and Norm MacDonald, formerly Highland Heights, Lisa is interested now in working with someone on lyrics. It is the empathy a songwriter reaches through lyrics that interests Cameron. The way people identify with the experiences related by songwriters through their work. It was something she recognized in listening to James Taylor and other singer songwriters, but the response she is getting to her own music brings the realization that people recognize themselves in her words, as well. This Saturday, people have an opportunity to hear End Of Blue live at The Barn.
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End
Of Blue Released At The Barn I spent a lovely evening at The Normaway in Margaree, Saturday. I enjoyed a lovely meal and lively conversation at the Inn then followed that up with a great concert in The Barn. It was the CD release party for Lisa Cameron's first release, End of Blue.
With
Vern MacDougall on lead guitar, Steve Basker on While End of Blue is a wonderful CD with a great sound, I was quite taken by her solo concert effort - just one voice, no harmonies or backing vocals.
Her
passion for each song clearly showed through as she turned her pain and
joy out for all to see, reminding me of As I mentioned last week, I like End of Blue. The CD is great and the live performance is as good, if not better. Lisa Cameron, backed by Vern MacDougall, Shelly Campbell and Joel Chaisson appear at the Louisbourg Playhouse on Sunday Sept. 26. Why not drop out to see her?
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