JB Blog

Great 2009 and looking forward to 2010!!

I’m thrilled to tell you all that the new record is ready to go! It has been in the works since April 2009 and now we’re ready to send the first single out to Country Radio the first week of 2010! I sure hope you all like the song; it’s called “Numb”. Makes you wanna ask what it might be about right? How do you make a song out of that title? Lol.

Well, it’s a powerful, emotional song based around a break-up and that moment right before the hurt sets in. (yes, it’s country music so we cry in our beer a bit when love goes wrong) It’s one of my favs from the new CD.

We thought we should go with this song first since I’ve done a bunch of light-hearted & fun songs for a while with Rock In My Boot, Flirtin, & Good Day To Get Gone all still getting a bunch of radio airplay, BIG THANKS country radio for that! So, we thought it might be good idea to lead off this new record with something powerful that shows another side of what I do musically. That’s really what this new record is, a collection of songs that reflect many styles of music that I love to write & play. Time will tell if it is the right call, you never know what will be a HIT but I sure love the song. There is still plenty of fun to come as well! We kinda tested a couple on the crowds this past summer. Run With Me & Hillbilly Girl went over great in the live show and I can’t wait for you guys to hear how they turned out on the record!

One of the highlights of the new record for me was getting to write & record with one of my all-time musical heroes Steve Wariner! The song is called Home Is A Highway and it’a a kinda blues-based travelin’ song about life on the road for guitar pickers. It was fun to solo and rock out a bit on the Les Paul to this one. Steve even sings and plays guitar on it as well.

Much more to come on the new record in the New Year! In the morning, I’m off to my home town of Pembroke, ON to spend a quite Christmas with family & friends and really looking forward to it, but it's going to be so cold! Hope you all have a great Holiday Season and I wish you all the best for the New Year!

-JB

Big Valley tragedy

I have just learned about the tragic accident that took place at Big Valley Country music festival in Camrose, AB yesterday. It has been reported that one person has been killed. Many more were injured when the stage collapsed in a severe gust of wind. My thoughts & prayers go out to everyone.

Just spoke with my agent Nick, he was in hospital but will be ok. He is also an agent to actor/singer Kevin Costner and they were both backstage at the time and said they both ended up under the stage wreckage but they are fine. Kevin’s guitar player & tour manager both sustained minor injuries. I’m told that Billy Currington & a few of his band member’s were also hurt as they were on stage the moment it came down.

I played this same show last summer and have to say that the people from Big Valley Jam were amazing to work with. We had such a blast last year and we were treated so well by the entire BVJ crew & staff, it’s one of my favourite festivals. God Bless - JB

CMT Tour wraps & Summer 2009 begins

It’s a four-hour flight to Edmonton today and I finally have time to write a new blog! Wow, things have been crazy since the CMT tour wrapped up on June 18th in Halifax.

I want to say thanks to Ron Kitchener from Dart Entertainment, Nick at The Agency, Kevin Bushy (great tour manager!), Everyone at CMT Canada, Randy Stark, Eric Apler from E-1 Music Canada, The CMT Tour Band, crew and Ian on sound (you guys rocked it every night), Krystal, Jen, Gene & Doug (thanks for driving us across the country on the busses safe & sound guys).

Steven Lee Olsen (aka “new guy”) Tara Oram, & The Higgins, it was a blast of fun guys and your all amazing, really! I hope we get to tour together again.

Ok, since then… I flew back to Nashville from Halifax on the 19th and got in pretty late but that was ok since I woke up to a beautiful sunny Saturday morning at home in Tennessee. It was cold in Halifax so it was nice to be back in the South.

After being on the road for five weeks solid I took the weekend to just unwind and decompress a little, it was great. Then Monday & Tuesday in the studio and Wednesday morning I packed up for this summer’s touring and flew back to Ontario to see family before hitting the road again! It is so crazy busy with shows but it’s awesome!

The first show was July 27th in Athabasca, AB with my pal Shane Yellowbird. It was a fun first show, great fans! Then I flew back to Ottawa for one day with friends & family before it was off to Toronto for Canada Day! What a blast we had with Country 95.3, thanks guys!

The next day you can bet some friends & me hit the craziest roller coasters at Canada’s Wonderland like a bunch of teenagers! Haha! I love coasters!!

Now it’s July 3rd and I’m heading to Edmonton to start our summer Western Tour.

The next show is in Slave Lake (I think, lol) then we’ll make our way over to the Calgary Stampede to headline Nashville North. We’ll be sure to post some new webisodes from behind the scenes on the bus, Stampede, Craven Country Jam, & more!

Here we go!!

Bus-blog - Kelowna, BC

Ok, so I'm behind on my blog by a couple of days so let me bring you up to speed.

It all began with a flight from Nashville to Toronto for rehearsal for the show, then an in-studio interview at CMT, then Tara & I hopped on a plane to Kamloops, BC to meet up with the busses. Wow! The busses are wrapped with our photos and the CMT On Tour banner! Ok, that's pretty cool.

We had a great 1st show at the Sagebrush Theatre last night in Kamloops, BC!

CMT On Tour rolls on today, along with my pals Steven Lee Olsen, Tara Oram & The Higgins. Had a blast with you guys during our surprise at the end of the show!

(You’ll have to come to the show to find out what our surprise is!)

Tonight we’ll be at “Flashbacks” in Kelowna, BC and then we roll into Edmonton tomorrow. New webisode coming soon!

Recording & watching TV for down time...

It’s Wednesday night & I just got in from the studio. Things are going great, I’m really thrilled with how the new music is starting to shape up. I was playing some electric & acoustic guitar parts, and doing background vocals today. It gives me great respect for the session musicians who can deliver want they want on the first or second take; it always takes me a few more before I’m happy with it. Just posted a new webisode, and there are more on the way.

Enough about music stuff, did you guys watch celebrity apprentice this year? Well, I was hooked on it, lol! I couldn’t believe how crazy everyone got on the show this year with all the horrible personal attacks and arguing, wow, all except out country music brother Clint Black. He’s a good friend of Steve Wariner & I’m a fan too, so I was sort of routing for him to win it all. I thought he handled himself the best… never loosing it. Still can’t believe he lost the jingle-writing thing though. Anyway, it all sure does make for good TV.

The CMT tour is coming around really fast, make sure you check out the tour page to find show info & your tickets! It’s going to be a blast!