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Jessica Rhaye to perform at RAC on April 16
ThisWeek Canadaeast.com
April 8, 2010
By Margaret Patricia Eaton

Jessica Rhaye's band includes Mike Carroll (drums); Matt Gray (acoustic guitar); Chris Braydon (electric guitar) and Jon Goud (bass).

Singer/songwriter Jessica Rhaye says the Riverview Arts Centre "is probably my favourite performance venue."

"The acoustics are incredible and I love what sound technician Peter Brzezicki does. In fact the sound is so good that I chose to record my most recent DVD, Good Things fromt he Stage, at the RAC," she says.

This is high praise for our local centre, considering that Rhaye has been performing in venues around the world, including Niger in 2005 as part of the Francophone Games, which she says was "an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime experience."

To date, 2010 has also been an amazing year for the Saint John native. In February, she and her four member band performed in Memphis, Tennessee, at the Folk Alliance Festival, where she met people from all over the world.

Then, it was off to perform at the Atlantic Canada House in the Olympic Village in Vancouver. Atlantic Canadian musicians were really popular she says.

"The venue held only 400 people, but there would be over a thousand lined up, trying to get in."
Then, with barely time to catch their breaths, Rhaye and the band were off to the East Coast Music Awards in Sydney, Nova Scotia, where they were nominated for three awards: Folk Recording of the Year, Female Solo Recording of the Year and Industry Award for Visual Artist.

Although they didn't take home any hardware this year, Rhaye says it's an honour to be nominated and invited to play at the ECMA's. She did, in fact, win the award for Graphic Artist of the Year in 2008, which ties in with another part of Rhaye's life. Not only is she a singer and songwriter, Rhaye is also a graduate of the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design in Fredericton and a talented graphic artist.

"College was such a wonderful period of growth and evolution for me as an artist. I was surrounded by such a variety of art forms and artists; I had never been so full of inspiration and ideas," she says.

Upon completion of the three-year program, she began her own freelance graphic design company, Jessica Rhaye Design.

"I love anything to do with colour, texture and paper," she says, but because she loves music too, focusing on both requires a bit of a juggling act.

While still at the college, Rhaye began working with some "phenomenal songwriters, including my producer, Ed Woodsworth, Ken Tobias, Dave Gunning, Asif Illyas and Ron Sexsmith, which resulted in a second album, Short Stories in 2006. Then, when touring the United Kingdom with Dave Gunning and Matt Anderson, I started thinking about producing an acoustic album and revisiting my childhood roots.

"The result is my third album, Good Things, which takes a more organic approach focusing on simple and classic instrumentation such as stand up bass, acoustic guitars, mandolin and piano. I believe Good Things really reflects who I am as a musician at this stage of my life and the skills I've developed as a songwriter, musician, graphic artist and person."
Reviewers agree. According to the Telegraph Journal (Jan. 9, 2010), Good Things is "warm, whimsical and winsome and bursts with rootsy instrumentation, lyrical candour and sun-kissed melodies."

Metro audience will have an opportunity to hear those melodies for themselves in mid-April, as Rhaye makes a stop at the RAC on her Maritime tour, before flying off to showcase at the Juno's in St. John's, NL.

Opening for her on this current tour will be Clinton Charlton, who she refers to as "a good friend and a very good songwriter."