Difference between revisions of "Jaylene Johnson"

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What began with a bang finished with a crash for Winnipeg’s Jaylene Johnson. The release of her sophomore project, “Finding Beautiful” was met with stellar reviews and ample opportunities for promotion, including a Western Canadian Music Award Nomination and Pop Showcase at the awards festival in 2004. In addition to a spring tour with Juno Award winner, Jill Paquette, she spent the fall of that year touring solo for three months, beginning in Campbell River, B.C. and making her way to the Maritimes by car. On her way home from the East Coast, after finishing a final gig in Thunder Bay, she found herself in a head-on collision with a semi-truck on the TransCanada highway.

“I had planned on continuing to promote my record through 2005 after Christmas, but I needed time to heal from my back injuries. My marriage had also officially ended just prior to my accident, so there were a few things to sort out in life.”

The unexpected halt to her career as she knew it, however, turned out to be only a “bump” in her musical road. Despite being unable to self-promote or play live in 2005, her music found its way to several placements through SONY Pictures TV, for shows such as CBS’s Joan of Arcadia and ABC’s Beautiful People, and the DVD release of Season 6 for Dawson’s Creek. “Finding Beautiful” also took off when she registered with CD Baby and received a glowing review on their front page. More recently, her music has been used in two independent short films by new York based director Joyce Storey, and her song “Butterfly Girl” was recorded by a new trio called “Braided”, formed by three of last year’s Canadian Idol finalists and woven together by Canadian Idol music director, Mark Lalama.

With her back pain now in check and her undaunted passion as a singer/songwriter, Jaylene has spent the better part of the year reconnecting with the music community and establishing her network in the industry. She attended Canadian Music Week in March, spent two weeks co-writing in Nashville in April, and sat on a panel for SOCAN at the NXNE music conference in June. Her music has been featured numerous times on CBC radio and receives regular spins on stations such as Shine FM in Edmonton and Calgary, Winnipeg’s CHVN and Canada’s first Triple A format station, Café 100.7 FM. She has also been rebuilding her live show, performing in and around Winnipeg whenever possible, and played the Trout Forest Music Festival in North-Western Ontario in August. Currently she resides in Winnipeg where she spent the summer writing for a new project which she hopes will be underway soon.

“There are definitely pieces that need to fall into place for me regarding industry support such as distribution and marketing, and I know that there remains a large audience of people that my music has yet to reach. But having been through what I’ve been through, I feel like I haven’t exhausted all of the possibilities for my life and that I need to keep going-like maybe it’s why I’m still alive. I’m just so grateful that I can still sing, write and play music, wherever the road leads.”

Finding Beautiful is Jaylene's sophomore release.

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http://www.jaylenejohnson.com

http://thelife.com/lifestories/jaylene.html