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Veteran Ken Tobias and rising star Jessica Rhaye collaborate on songs and on stage
Times & Transcript
November 18, 2009

On Friday night, Ken Tobias and Jessica Rhaye take the stage at the Capitol Theatre. They will each have their own bands and perform their own music, but there will be some collaboration, too.

Ken is a Canadian icon who has been writing and performing music since the '60s. As a young man, Ken moved to Los Angeles where his first record, "You're Not Even Going to the Fair," was produced by Righteous Brother Bill Medley. During his time there, he also worked with the Beach Boys, songwriter Sharon Sheeley, The Everly Brothers, Ricky Nelson, and many other great music greats.

Jessica Rhaye is a rising star at the beginning of her career. She began singing when she was four when her father brought home a microphone which plugged into the stereo. Her first album, the self-titled "Jessica Rhaye" was released in 2000, followed by "Short Stories" in 2006 and her latest album, "Good Things" earlier this year. She has performed throughout Canada, in Africa, the United States and all over the United Kingdom. She has been nominated for eight East Coast Music Awards and recently won the 2009 Canadian Folk Music Award nomination for Contemporary Singer of the Year. One of the many things these two artists have in common is their home town -- Saint John.

Jessica actually grew up in Hampton, just outside the port city. She was one of the first students to attend the newly built Hampton High School.
"I guess I am a big family girl," says Jessica. "My family is still here, and my husband and I both work here. I love to be around the people I love; and there is freedom being here, I can move around if I need to." Jessica says that the modern music industry is different than it used to be; artists don't have to live in Nashville or Los Angeles thanks to e-mail and the Internet. "Still, I'd like to go look around Nashville and see what all the fuss is about," she laughs. "Probably not to live there, but to visit, and see it all. I still want to be able to come back home though, and there is something about being close to the water that I need as well."

Ken Tobias grew up in the city of Saint John and attended Simonds High School. "I got an education, and Saint John was a great place to grow up, but I had a little bit of the wanderlust in me," recalls Ken. "I got to live out my own 'California Dreaming' and it was wonderful." Ken returned to Saint John to be with his aging mother, thinking that with computers and modern communication he could do things from anywhere. "Saint John is quite different than when I left," he says. "Back then there was just no way for an artist or musician to make their mark without leaving."

About four years ago, Jessica's father was reading the local paper and saw in an article about Ken Tobias moving back home. He told Jessica and her husband and manager, Mark Marshall, and together they wrote to Ken asking if he was interested in collaborating on some song writing. "It was from that e-mail connection, all from one story in a paper that we began to get together regularly to work and write songs," Jessica says. "We have become really good friends, and now have bonded in many ways. Our music is just a really good fit and so we decided to try a show together."

Creative collaboration was something that really appealed to Ken.
"I loved her voice and her lyrics and I could see more promise in them than she saw in the moment," he says. "We were working on unfinished songs she had started. "I am good with a hook, or writing choruses, and not being as close to it as she was, I would see some stuff that she would not see."

There were times that Jessica attended Ken's concerts and he would call her up on stage to sing the harmony on a song, sort of showing off the talent of his new friend. They have also done some Songwriters Circles together in Saint John over the last little while. "My manager is also their publisher," explains Ken, "so we are friends, and colleagues. We have done some good things together and we decided this might be a good idea; the veteran and the younger person doing a show together." We really have bonded and are good friends," says Jessica, "and it is a good fit to perform our music together, I am not doing exactly what Ken is doing or vice versa, but we complement each other. He lets me sing on some of his stuff; we are doing a couple of pieces together in his set and I am pretty excited about that."

If the current shows go as well as Jessica and Ken are convinced they will, they will continue to work and perform together. That is, if they can work it in to their already jam-packed schedules. Jessica has a DVD of concert footage coming out at New Year's and then she is off to Vancouver to perform at the Olympics. That will be really great, I have only been out West once and I am really looking forward to it," she says.

The show at the Capitol will feature sets by both artists, their full bands, and some singing together. "It is a full production," Jessica says. "I am going to be singing pretty much everything on the new album and some of my older songs. It will be pretty cool."

"I have had hits, radio songs, and so I will do those," says Ken. "It is basically a one-hour show, so it won't be all my music. Besides, what I like to do is tell the stories behind the songs; I like to lead up to them, I don't do too much talking, but a balance." An example of this is a song from his upcoming album, "Prince Edward Street". "It is a song about where I was born, about being immigrants, how I felt about my family," Ken says. "The song just means more if I tell people the story that was behind what I wrote. "I am thinking of doing a book. All of these stories need to be told and as I am revisiting them, I am finding the stories have more and more impact." Ken is a big fan of trains, and wishes Moncton was still the rail hub of the Maritimes, but he is looking forward to being back in town.

"I am really looking forward to being in the Capitol Theatre," he says. "It is a beautiful building, and being back in Moncton will be great. It is going to be a great show."