So that has been our main focus “these days”. I’m working full time at the YWCA coordinating events, and then I’m working pretty much full time doing all the administrative work, prepping and serving for our Catering Business (Catering by Gail – yes once upon a time there was a Gail, there no longer is, we’ve kept the name for the sake of returning clients for the time being – that is my daily spiel). Jered spent two years recording my album, making my little baby, my little dream come true. So now it’s my turn to pour into his dream, and I’m more than happy to do so. Things have been going well and we’ve been busier than we can handle really, so that is a blessing. *insert plug about if you need catering call us, here*

Just the other weekend I was part of the LOVE.MERCY women’s conference at C3Edmonton. I was involved in the planning, the “activating” and I even performed a little. I was really excited to incorporate the YWCA into my “extra curricular event coordinating” and we made the YWCA the charity of choice for our annual gifting. The phenomenal 70 women who attended raised $3,200 for the YWCA’s Lakeside Haven Retreat for women and their children rebuilding their lives after domestic violence. When I met with Linda Beth (conference head honcho) and introduced the idea of fundraising for the YWCA, I had hoped to raise maybe $500. This far far exceeded my expectations and I was so thrilled, and blessed by my church family and their friends. I am already very aware of the fact, but this definitely reinstated the idea that a small group of women can really change the world when they come together for a cause!!

As part of an art show, wine & cheese environment we had going on the Friday night of the conference, I got up and played for about 30 minutes. It was more of a background thing, so I was happy to just plunk away at the piano and enjoy myself amidst the socializing of the ladies. I sang my newest song called “To Write Love On Her Arms” in public for the first time (inspired by a charitable movement with the same name, feel free to check it out here). I haven’t had time to do a ton of songwriting lately, which is odd because usually when I’m going through a lot, I write a lot. So this has been a quiet, and slightly frustrating time for me songwriting wise. After singing this song, I had a few lovely ladies come up to me crying, sharing that this song really touched them. This is the best feedback any songwriter can ask for. So to those women who had the strength to come share with me, thank you. In a season when I don’t have too much time to write or perform, that little tidbit of connection really fed my heart and songwriting soul.

~LNG

Look at me, blogging regularly. This is most likely because I have had so much going on the past few weeks that I need to document it somewhere so I can look back on my life one day and remember all the amazing things I’ve gotten to do! As I’ve mentioned before, I am a bit of a contest junkie. If I see a contest, I enter it. Especially if it has to do with music or travel. Once upon a time I was the unluckiest girl in the world, never winning anything! Well, that’s changed a bit. These days more than one person has told me I must have a horseshoe up my…

Sleeve. Yes, a horseshoe up in my sleeve. That’s what they say. In the last five or so years I have been super lucky to win a few fantastic contests. This weekend was no exception! On Friday I travelled to Toronto with my girlfriend Laura, compliments of Dose.ca Canada.com and LiveNationON to MEET JANN ARDEN.

Two lovely fate like coincidences – just the week before I was in Memphis doing a showcase at the Folk Alliance International music conference and I covered Jann’s song “Hanging by a thread”. On Monday February 27th when I was flying back from Memphis, Jann was playing her show at the Jube in Edmonton, and I was so heartbroken to be missing it. Now I would get to see Jann live from the front row in Massey Hall in Toronto, AND meet her.

We flew into Toronto to greet a bit of a blustery blizzard. We caught a cab to the lovely Westin Harbour Castle Hotel. The blizzard died down and we spent the afternoon wandering downtown.

At 6pm we headed over to Massey Hall for our meet and greet. Like the slightly silly gushing fan that I am, I brought along a copy of my own record “Prairie Belle” to hopefully hand over to Jann at some point. I’m not sure what I expected, because I do know that Jann is a super friendly and genuine lady, but she still exceeded my expectations. She was warm, sweet and delightful. What could have been an awkward “hey, I’m like, a huge fan of your songwriting” moment was really relaxed and casual. We chatted a bit about Laura & I flying from Edmonton to meet her and see her show, to how I missed her concert in Edmonton because I was on my way back from Memphis, to talking about her new book and cover album.

When we were about to pose for our picture is when I pulled my album out of my purse and told Jann I too, was a songwriter. I told her that her songwriting style really inspired and influenced me and that I’d really love to give her a copy of my album. She seemed kind of touched and thanked me like she really meant it. We posed for the picture, her cd in my hand, and mine in hers! What a great moment.

Laura and I thanked her, and went on our merry little way to find our seats. Which were, like I previously mentioned, FRONT ROW. I’ve never been to Massey Hall, and what a beautiful venue it is. The sound and light techs were obviously skilled. The musicians were fantastic (knew a few of them too!) and Jann was her typical witty, comical and endearing self. Her voice was strong and gorgeous. I couldn’t have enjoyed myself more.

After the show Laura & I headed to a pub for a few drinks & some snacks, and then back to our hotel. We were off the next morning, back to Edmonton just in time for the Prairie Belles Podcast Birthday bash! Which I’m happy to say was a total success! When we landed back in Edmonton and I turned my phone back on my text inbox went crazy. We had a really lovely little article in the Edmonton Journal by Sandra Sperounes about our party that night. I’ll be debriefing about this entire experience and more on this week’s podcast to be posted tomorrow.

I’d like to say a special thank you to Jason Tiangco the Marketing Coordinator at Canada.com who coordinated everything for our trip to meet Jann. He did a fantastic job of taking care of every detail, checking in on us while we were in Toronto, and following up with me when I got back.

All in all, an amazing experience that I will never forget. Lovely quality time with my friend Laura who is about to have her first baby, a once in a lifetime experience to meet one of my great songwriting influences, and a killer concert. All because I took two minutes to enter an online contest. Thank you Canada.com!

My parents picked me up from the airport late Monday night, only for us to head back out the next morning bright & early to send them off to Mexico. I had a jam packed week as my work, the YWCA Edmonton, was sponsoring two documentaries as part of Global Visions Film Festival. I had to put together the discussion panel for after the double bill screening. I also had to moderate the afternoon by introducing the films, sharing information about their directors, and then putting together questions for the panel! I attended the opening night gala as well with a few other girls from the office to represent the YWCA.

Amidst all that I was back to my regularly scheduled podcasting with my darling Daneel. We are just gearing up for our big “2 years of podcasting” birthday bash this coming weekend, where we will be launching our new website – that is such a long time coming! If you haven’t already, please join us and get your tickets here!

I also got the lovely opportunity to attend the Shell Theatre for their “Jazz Me Away” concert with Thea Neumann and Clint Pelletier, and the Jesse Peters Trio (hubbie Jered was on drums). Daneel & I attended the show as the Prairie Belles and “live tweeted” the daylights out of the show.

My sweet sweet little niece & nephew (twins) finally got to come home while I was in Memphis, so I spent a few nights this week (3) just catchinng up on cuddling, feeding and loving on them.

The most exciting part of the week – I won a trip to Toronto this coming Friday to meet Jann Arden, get some fun swag (her most recent release & autobiography) and watch her concert at Massey Hall. Jann is definitely one of my greatest songwriting influences. I never really realized the affect she’s had on me until people started telling me at shows “You sure sound a lot like Jann Arden”. I had always listened to her of course, but never REALLY realized how much she inspired me in my writing style. There were two amazing coincidences with winning this contest (that was apparently a random draw out of a hat) – just last week in Memphis I did a cover of Jann Arden’s “Hanging by a Thread” in my private showcase. Also, the night I was flying home from Memphis, Jann was playing in Edmonton and I was missing it (much to my disappoinment). I’m taking my girlfriend Laura with me (as a last girls trip before she has her baby) and we’re going to paint the town – for one night only since I have to be back the next day for the Prairie Belles party!!

Finally, after waiting a few months since the release of “Prairie Belle” to calculate my cd sales, I made my first donation to the National Scoliosis Foundation. There is a song on my record – haven’t gotten there yet with my song diary – called “This Scar” that depicts my journey with scoliosis. I decided to donate 10% of my gross sales to the Foundation. The online forum has been a great source of friendship, support, information and entertainment for me ever since I was diagnosed (nearly 15 years!) and so I am thrilled to be able to give back in my own humble little way.

So among all that, Folk Alliance definitely inspired me as I knew it would, and I’ve been percolating a few songs in the back of my mind. Now to just have the time to sit down at the piano and let them spill out.

Thanks as always, for reading!

Cheers!
LNG

This was the reason I had originally applied for a FACTOR grant to attend the Folk Alliance International Conference – songwriting development! Although I have attended a number of great workshops over the last few days, it seemed all the songwriting focused workshops that I really wanted to attend all fell on the same day. Thankfully, at different times so I could attend all of them! This particular workshop was an interesting mix because John Vezner is a grammy award winning songwriter, and Rich Warren a well known radio discjockey. Here were two valuable and differing perspectives on what makes a good “radio friendly” song. These two had a ton of great stuff to share and the room was packed and attentive.

After a quick breakfast I was on to the next workshop “Object Writing” with Linda McRea. This was a fantastic workshop because instead of just sitting and listening, we actually got to write! Linda started off the class with some free writing centered around the senses. We were given random topics and had to just write whatever came to us for a 5 minute, 10 minute, 1 minute and 2 minute interval. We wrote about spotlights, fingernails, curtains and windowsills. A number of people shared excerpts of their writing. I just listened. Some of their free writing was incredible. This is a concept I have experimented with before in workshops, but definitely a valuable exercise to re-introduce to my songwriting process. Especially when I’ve got a song idea in mind, but can’t quite seem to get it out on the page.

While I was waiting for my third and final workshop of the day, I ended up having a truly lovely chat with a local Memphis artist named Stephen Hudson. He has been making the Lifetime Achievement Award Sculptures every year for the past five or so years for the Folk Alliance Association. I sifted through his paintings and he told me the story behind each one. His work was so beautiful that I wanted to buy one. I ended up buying four! Two Memphis scenes – one gorgeous and intricate painting of a park with a blossoming tree, and the other of Second and Beale street and BB King’s night club. The two others were of a quaint little church in a farmer’s field, and an old fashioned car in a friend’s country garage. I plan on keeping two and framing them as a keepsake of my Memphis trip, and giving the other two to my mum and sister.

After my exciting purchases I went to join the “Tony Moore Songwriting Masterclass”. Now my schooling for music should have prepared me that “Masterclass” meant more of an interactive workshop, but I definitely wasn’t expecting to sit down and work on my song one on one with Tony Moore (played with Iron Maiden, Cutting Crew, established the Kashmir Klub & the Bedford in London – where Damien Rice & KT Tunstall got their start – bloody intimidating much?). At first when Tony was talking about his history in the music industry and the people he has worked with I said to myself “abbbbsolutely not, nope, not getting up there and playing my songs, not gonna happen”. Then I watched and listened as he worked with the other writers and it became clear that he was really friendly, honest, and easy going. He was also very generous with his time. The other workshops were about an hour to an hour and a half max. Tony’s class went over 3 hours!

After everyone else had their turn with Tony, and most of them had left to other workshops or whatnot it was finally my turn. I got up there, sat down at the piano and played him “Prairie Belle”. Boyyyyyy I was nervous, but I didn’t make any mistakes and I felt like I had decent control of my voice considering my nerves. After I was done, Tony went on to tell me how much he loved my song. That is reminded him of Randy Edelman and Mark Cohn (who wrote “Walking in Memphis” if you can believe it after all my references to that song lately). He gave me some incredible positive feedback, and some very valuable and earnest advice on minor tweaks I could make to make the song that much more powerful. I was just so pleased to have someone like him first of all just sit and spend time with me in a songwriting context and secondly appreciate and understand my song.

After all that excitement, and if that wasn’t enough already to pack away for a rainy day Chloe and I went to Chef Phillipe’s restaurant at the historic Peabody Hotel downtown. This was dining at it’s absolute finest I tell you. I would like to think that I’ve been to some very fancy gourmet restaurants, but they have nothing on the Peabody. Chloe and I had our OWN two waiters that stood whenever we stood, pushed our chairs in for us, gave us brand new napkins if we left the table and came back. It was the most upscale and high fallutin’ restaurant of my life! Not only was the service impeccable the food was also first class all the way. We each had a three course meal, mine consisting of Foie Gras two ways – one as a terrine in a poached apple on brioche with a candied crust and the other portion was served grilled on top of thinly sliced apple. For my entree I had King Salmon on spinach and caramelized onions, with a dijon sauce. To finish Chloe & I shared a cheese plate and a peanut butter chocolate souffle. We also shared a delectable bottle of Pouilly Fuisse Michel de Tour la Rosse from France.

On top of all that, we then returned to the hotel and listened to another entire evening of phenomenal music. Caleb Hawley, more of the Cumberland Collective, Megan Burt, Steve Dawson, Kat Danser, the Backyard Betties, Aly Macrae & Annie Grace. It seriously never ends here!

Can I just say, what a whirlwind of musical madness these last four days have been. I feel sad that it has to end. There are some Memphis tours tomorrow but it’s now past 3am and I will most likely sleep until noon. I may be meeting up with my new Scottish friends later in the evening, since we all don’t leave until Monday and most of my Alberta cohorts leave town tomorrow.

My brain will take a while to process everything I’ve seen, felt and heard this week. One thing’s for sure, Memphis will go down in history as one of the most magical musical trips of my life.

This turned into a novel. Sorry about that, there’s just too much to say tonight.

Cheers!
LNG

As a voice teacher, I am the first to remind my students to never compare themselves to another vocalist, performer, songwriter, etc. So I’ve had to slap myself on the wrist a few times over these past few days when I catch myself wondering “and what am I doing here amongst all these phenomenal people? who the hell do I think I am anyway?” I had to fight with myself a bit last night before my own showcase when I sat down to play my humble little songs on piano (that I clumsily lugged around – sorry for anyone’s toes that I may have bruised along the way). I shook my head & reminded myself, I’m Lisa Nicole Grace, a girl from the prairies and although I may not be virtuosic I still have something to say and my songs are from the heart. Of anyone, these people can see that I’m genuine if nothing else. I’m lucky to be here.

So now that I’ve got my head back on straight, I plan to make the most of the next few days. There’s a long list of workshops & artists I plan to see today including Rose Cousins, Carolina Story, Catherine Britt, Harpeth Rising and whoever else I blissfully stumble upon along the way. There’s a good meal in my future, a walk along the Mississippi and perhaps even building a ukelele!

Cheers!
LNG

My coworker had given me a book to read (Host by Stephenie Meyers) so the hours passed quickly, and we were off. Well, onto the runway at least. Electrical problem, another delay. Originally I had about 2 hours to make my connecting flight in Denver, and now I was going to miss it. Long story short (or not so short as I have a habit of making things) we took off, the captain “flew it like he stole it” (his words) and we got to Denver with minutes to spare to make my connecting flight! Yay! Once I got onto the Denver – Memphis plane, another issue. The plane was too heavy in the front, and needed some passengers to move to the back. I volunteered. The one bonus within this whole shmozzle (Jered’s favourite word) with my first delayed flight, and my second flight volunteerism I fortunately got free drinks on both planes!

Got into Memphis around midnight, and they lost my bags. I caught a cab to my hotel. THIS is where I got my first real taste of Memphis. It was a Tuesday night (a weeknight to most working drones) and nearly 1am, and there was a wicked live band playing in the lounge of my hotel. I listened for a while as I checked in, and then hit the hay.

After a decent night’s sleep I got up and put my gross travel clothes back on, and went and registered for the conference. Holy “so much to do and so little time to do it” batman! (insert nerd reference here). It nearly took me all morning to go through the conference schedule and program. There is so much to do & see as far as live performances and workshops. I will have no problem filling my time here! I also met a very friendly dude named Justin who is the social media coordinator for the conference! We chatted a bit, he educated me on some conference dos and don’ts, we exchanged twitter ids and then I made my way back to my hotel…. to find my luggage! Yay!

I showered, changed & headed back to the conference. I attended the Folk Alliance International Lifetime Achievement Awards, an open mic, a few official showcases (Betty Soo & Doug Cox, The Lost & Nameless Orchestra, & a beautiful flamenco dancer from Brazil) Then began the PRIVATE showcases.

I literally could spend the entire conference in the Alberta Room. Last night the performers were T. Buckley, Brooke Wylie, Tim Leacock, Chloe Albert, Braden Gates & Emily Jill West. I am 150% aware of the incredible talent of my province, but so many of these artists I have heard (and featured on the podcast) but never actually seen live. After 2 hours in there, I had to force myself to go elsewhere (read: INTERNATIONAL conference hello!). I checked out Tom McBride from Boston, Michaela Anne from New York and the AMAZING Tuttles from California.

This festival is filled with freaks. As in, ridiculously talented MUSICAL freaks. The Tuttles (two sons, daughter & father quartet) blew me away. The daughter Molly’s songwriting was literally so precious, and beautiful and farrrr beyond her years. I couldn’t help but feel a little old and untalented by the end of that one I’ll tell ya!

Anyways I digress, I am off to check out some songwriting workshops and then showcase myself tonight in the Troubadour room - twitpic.com/8l811v.

More updates to come! Now to go “walking in Memphis” again (nope, never gets old sorry!)

Cheers!
LNG

For those who know me well, I’m known for filling my days and evenings with plans, plans, and more plans. I love to spend time with my husband, family, friends, fellow singer/songwriters and rarely spend much time by myself. Originally when I got my grant to attend the conference, Jered thought maybe he would tag along and we’d make a trip out of it. Being that we recently bought a catering company, and are in the new baby business stages we decided he would stay behind and cook instead. Besides I was planning on taking in every second of the conference, and while yes Jered is a passionate musician and would love to attend the conference WITH me,  he didn’t get a scholarship like I did to cover the registration costs and what was a free trip for me would not be a free trip for him.

So here I am, attending alone, knowing not a soul in Memphis and now also performing at a private showcase. Although these are not all firsts, they are things I don’t do often. Don’t get me wrong, I am SUPER excited to go and be inspired and have only my own schedule and whims to answer to, but I am still a wee bit nervous. Will I be able to hack it by myself? Will I start to go squirelly spending so much time WITH myself? We will see! )

I will definitely blog while I’m there, given the fact I will have so much time to myself. Time for my “can’t help but be friendly and polite” Canadian gal side to shine through and make some new friends! I was happy and surprised to notice today that the same evening of my showcase I have three fellow Albertans sharing the “stage” – these showcases are in hotel rooms so perhaps stage isn’t the right descriptor. Doing the podcast has acquainted me with their music, and yet I have never met them. Here’s my chance!

Cheers!
-LNG

So I haven’t gotten to song diary entry # 6 (but it’s on it’s way I swear) for my song “Better Things” but here’s the scoop. This is a song I wrote two years ago when I got my most recent grant application rejection letter. I had been applying for grants for years at this point (ok ok – I realize I’m ruining my future song diary entry) and one more rejection just sent me into a bit of a funk. I wrote the song about shaking off the disappointment, and giving up on waiting for funds from a grant. I just decided to do my album on my own, and to plunge into the necessary debt with gusto, believing for “Better Things”.

Fast forward to the beginning of this past November after I had just released that very album, I applied for my first grant since writing “Better Things”. I wanted to attend the Folk Alliance International Conference in Memphis, TN in February and I applied for a ‘songwriting development grant’ from FACTOR (Funding Assisting Canadian Talent on Recording) for funds to get there. A few weeks after I applied, my husband Jered called me at work to tell me I had gotten a letter from FACTOR in the mail. I replied “oh yeah yeah, I applied for a grant a few weeks ago, probably a rejection letter?”. Oh how quickly I reverted to my old wounds of rejection! “Actually….” Jered said “you got it.” I freaked! I was in the car with my boss at the moment and I literally shrieked. What a happy day.

In addition to the FACTOR grant, I applied for and was awarded a scholarship from the Folk Alliance International Association as well to cover the registration costs of the conference. Last week I booked my flights (while humming my own little rendition of “Walking In Memphis”) and in three weeks I am off to Memphis. IN ADDITION to even all that, I got an email this week to say I’d been accepted for a private showcase (albeit at 1:30am – here’s hoping I don’t fall asleep in the midst of it) while I’m there. Exciting stuff all around.

Secondly back in November literally the day after I came back from my VIA RAIL tour across BC, AB, SK & MB, I was lucky enough to do a little interview with TELUS TV’s local community chapter. The lovely and charming Kari Skelton (from up! 99.3FM) came and filmed me singing some songs and talking about my new record “Prairie Belle”.  If you haven’t had a chance to watch it, check it out here:

Telus TV – Prairie Belle

**UPDATE** So after writing this blog yesterday, I found out that I have just been nominated for the 2012 Edmonton Music Awards “Pop Album Of the Year”. Whoa. Where did that come from? Colleen Brown, Doug Hoyer, Se7ensided & Radio for Help are also nominated. Quite the group to be associated with I must say! Stoked to say the least. For more info check the EMA website.

So that’s all my exciting news. Do you feel substantially informed about the musical happenings in my life now? Oh good, I hoped as much. Now there’s a very exciting audition in my very near future, but that will just have to wait for another blog!

Cheers! xo

So although I originally intended to write a song diary entry every week, it’s turned out to be more like every month… or so (I love how all inclusive “or so” can be!). After another whirlwind couple of weeks – my husband and I bought a new house and business, moved into our new house, catered during the crazy Christmas season, and my sister had her twins 3 months premature on Boxing Day – here I am ready to write another entry about the fourth song on my new album, the title track infact called “Prairie Belle”…

Everytime I sit down to write one of these song diary entries, I have such an overwhelming sense of love and ownership for each one of the songs on my album (and every song I write for that matter). I’m sure every songwriter feels that way about their songs, although some are obviously better than others, each one has a special place in my heart. Each song reminds me of where I was when I wrote it, what I was going through, what it means to me.

“Prairie Belle” is a very special song to me (I feel like I always say that, but it is definitely just as true as ever). I love telling the story of how I wrote it when I play it live, because it has so many meanings and so many applications in my life. My friend Ryan Jacobson who I cherish VERY very much, proudly announced the birth of his new niece one day when we were either rehearsing, or playing a show, or possibly even just hanging out (I can’t quite remember the exact details). He told me her name was “Prairie Belle”. Although as I mentioned I can’t remember the exact details of the moment, I do remember being whole heartedly affected by that name.

Prairie Belle? I felt like I immediately connected to the meaning. Prairie – I grew up in the prairies in Alberta and have always had a fierce, fierce love for my home province and city of Edmonton. Belle – although I grew up in the prairies, I am a city girl through and through. What a perfect combination of words to identify with. I immediately began writing verses in my head. I had the first verse “In my daddy’s backyard there’s a sky stretching out just as far as I can see…” written for months and months before I came up with the pre chorus, chorus and bridge. This song was not one of those “written in 30 minutes” cases. This was a labor of love. Sometimes when I have a hard time finishing a song, I just let go of it and think perhaps it’s not meant to be a finished work. Not this song. I didn’t give up! I knew I wanted to write this story, and that when I finally finished it I would have something that seriously represented me as a person.

I decided to name the album after this track, because I really feel like this song and it’s content truly represent me as a person, a songwriter, a sister, a daughter, a friend, a wife.  I am a Prairie Belle through, and through.

Here’s to another song entry coming to you soon. Cheers!