First Blog of 2011 for JR it’s a long one!

Hey Kids,

Well 2010 has been kissed goodbye and I couldn’t be happier! I had one of the best and worst years of my entire life and here is the short long version!

Jessy & Jaclyn


I started off the year with big plans to record my album, get a band together and focus the year on music. I entered a songwriting contest that Tony suggested I enter. I was like meh…ok but really it did that help to boost my confidence, create a little JR hype and also allowed me to met some amazing people because of it. I met the lovely Miss Jessy Ashfield who has since become a very close friend and a member in my band so that was better than winning the contest so I think that was one of those “everything happens for a reason” experiences! I finished in the top 6 though out of like 35 or so contestants. I also entered a little contest to win and chance to play at the Lilith Fair tour in Montreal and ended up doing really well for most of the contest. I was in the top 10 most of the contest and held #1 for 2 weeks! I mean the show of support was amazing and made me realize just how many people cared about me and my music and it still warms my heart.

Summer started off with a bang we played some really wonderful shows like River Jam, Canada Day etc. and we had so much fun as a band, it was one of the most amazing summers of my life but then my lief turned completely upside-down mid July….I went though a separation with my husband that caused a lot of emotional and financial stress that I pretty much put on hold to deal with at the time. July we started recording my album at Outreach Productions and oh what an incredible feeling. We laid down the bed tracks and just knew that they felt right except in the middle of this huge project, I had to replace my guitar player. It really worked out for me though because I ended up asking my friend, the fantastic Jonnie Price as a guest on my album and it sounds really great! August I went back to work full time I also started seeing someone later on in the summer that was an old flame if you will that I had written a song about that will be on my album…how crazy is that! We hadn’t seen each other in 10 years so it was poetic, how fitting for a songwriter eh. Haha. Since my life changed so much I found that music really ended up taking a backseat for a while and it was strange. When music isn’t at the forefront of my life…I get squirrely so I had to snap back into it fast and I had some good friends that helped me with that and you know who you are!



Chris Eagles



Fall came and we had to find a new drummer because our sweet little Chris Eagles had to go back to school or something stupid like that haha and also needed a full time guitarist again. Well it took a few weeks but we asked our friend Camilo if he would like to play guitar with us since he had played with us a bit in the summer and he accepted. He suggested a drummer he had played with who turned out to be a mutual friend. He was a really great fit so soon we were back up and running. After a few rehearsals we played a short opener for our friend’s band on Halloween at Mamas pub and it went over really well. It was great to see how quickly we melded together as a band and to get that vibe on stage was really encouraging.



Right before Christmas I lost my job, my uncle died, I had no money and no shopping done and was only getting one last small paycheque before the big day. Well thanks to that small pay and some wonderful people in my life I squeaked by for Christmas but it certainly wasn’t anything I was use to because normally I’m like on Christmas like crazy, I go all out and I’m jolly as an elf! Lacking in the Christmas spirit department coupled with that week didn’t help anything. Ah, I had a little spark left and it took everything in me to muster it up but I did and my kids were happy and my family, boyfriend and friends understood what had happened to me. You know though about getting fired, really it’s a weird blessing in disguise. I was having a really hard time balancing my life with my two wonderful kids and working on music, being in a relationship while trying to have any time just to deal with all that had happened to me. It was hard to have any time left at the end of the day and now I have LOTS! It was really a strange week I found out my band got into the ECMAS! Yeah MUSIC trumps all other bad things and myself and the band couldn’t be happier!

I have been working on getting my personal life on track and things were really really hard over the past few months but hey I’m a songwriter and always need more material. So now here it is January 2011 and to sum it up you know this is what I have learned in 2010, trying to manage a band, solidify relationships and move forward leaving resentment and failures behind only to use them as learning tools has been a huge test but I do believe that they help us grow and prepare us for our next challenge. I have had some really rough things happened to me this year and had to make some hard decisions to but sometimes bad things happen. Other times you are the one that has to make hard choices that not everyone would agree with but when it comes down to it, who do you have to wake up with every morning??? Yourself right? You choose how you feel. Sometimes I think we need to feel bad and sort things out and I took some alone time and really though about my life and what I can do to make it better and I am feeling much more positive about the future and I wouldn’t change a thing about what happened this year. I value the people I’ve met, my experiences and lesions I’ve learned. I will celebrate my successes and keep those memories close to me because I have had lots of great things happen to me and I appreciate it all. It’s not what happens to us its how we deal with it and what we take away from that experience right! Now I am seeing things much more clear, I’m happy, confident and really excited for all that’s to come!

Here is to new adventures, I wish us all the best year ever!!

Love,

Jaclyn

My Band <3
Tony Patterson, Camil Villamizar, Jessy Ashfield, Me, Jeff DiPaolo!