THE WALLACEBURG & DISTRICT COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS PRESENTS CANADA’S MOST AWARDED INDEPENDENT COUNTRY ARTIST JAMIE WARREN AND CHATHAM-KENT’S OWN BROOKLYN ROEBUCK, LIVE FROM THE JEANNE GORDON THEATRE ON SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24TH.
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JAMIE WARREN
Jamie Warren is the most awarded independent male artist in Canadian country music. Add three top 10 singles and 16 top 40 singles to the list and unforgettable songs like “One Step Back” and “Sunny Day In The Park”, and you get the picture.
“I finally had an adult conversation with my broken heart and these 12 songs are the transcripts. I lost love, found love, and believe it or not, lost it again. In the process of losing things I found me. I came home. It’s amazing to feel again, good and bad, and there’s no place I’d rather be than Right Here Right Now”. Inspiring words from Jamie Warren, upon the release of his fifth album, “Right Here Right Now”.
Jamie lives in Kitchener-Waterloo, but was raised in Hanover Ontario, where he pursued an adolescent dream of playing hockey professionally in the NHL, with music as a background distraction. When he realized that his natural abilities for singing and playing guitar might make it easier to attract the attention of girls, he hung up his blades. It was a logical progression for a sensitive guy who wrote poetry and short stories throughout his high school years.
His interest in music was likely genetic, since his mother sang and played piano, and his father played guitar and mandolin. Jamie had piano lessons at age 5 and guitar lessons at age 8, and by the time he was 10 years old, it was traditional for the Warrens to entertain after Saturday night eukre games (a Canadian card-game institution) in their smoke-filled basement. His earliest influences were whatever his parents listened to on the radio, and the only thing his parent’s radio seemed to play was country music. To this day, he’s still a huge fan of Merle Haggard, Tammy Wynette and Patsy Cline. Later, in high school, his best friend’s older brother’s record collection exposed him to celebrated vocal groups like The Eagles, America, Poco and CSNY. Lately, he feels an affinity for Texas singer-songwriters like Radney Foster, Lyle Lovett and Rodney Crowell.
Attending Conestoga College to study Broadcasting, Jamie’s goal was to become the youngest general manager of a mid-market radio station, but he emerged with a desire to sing for a living. What changed his mind? Jamie won a regional talent show at London Ontario’s Western Fair, which sent him to Memphis Tennessee for an international competition, where he placed second. Jamie remained in Memphis, pondering his career potential as a singer while he worked a one-year gig at Libertyland Theme Park. He still feels a connection to the city that started it all for him, thinking of Memphis like a gentle woman who taught him how to love.
Returning to Canada, he began an association with producer J. Richard Hutt, who produced “Right Here Right Now” and all of Jamie’s previous recordings, but who initially engaged Jamie as a singer for jingles he produced out of his Kitchener-based CedarTree Studios. “I didn’t have a clue what I was doing” says Jamie, “but Rick had a lot of patience”. He must have learned something from the experience, because his first Top Ten hit came shortly thereafter, with “Take Me Home Mississippi” and subsequently, a win as New Artist of The Year at the 1985 RPM Big Country Awards.
Five more singles were released from that album but Jamie’s particular style of country didn’t sit well with either ‘80’s country radio or the Nashville labels he almost convinced to sign him (they passed on Jamie in favour of a fellow named Randy Travis). In the interim, he got married and had two kids, playing locally in small clubs to pay the bills.
In 1993, Jamie was convinced that both radio and Nashville might have relaxed enough to make room for him again, and he released “Fallen Angel” on River North/Mercury Records, which yielded an enduring fan favourite and radio hit, “One Step Back”. The success of this record was followed closely and even more impressively, by the album “Just Not The Same”, which surrendered several Top Ten singles and lead to a handful of JUNO and CCMA nominations in multiple categories. Since then, Jamie released the critically acclaimed “Really” in 2003, and a career retrospective collection of greatest hits in 2005 under the title “Make Me Believe”.
“Right Here Right Now” is a frank and personal reflection on Jamie’s life experiences, like a man having a conversation with himself in the mirror. Maybe the big questions don’t all yield answers, maybe you learn only enough to write a song about it.
