What's the Buzz?

The girl can sing. A Class Act. ~ Music Technology Magazine
Few vocalists create images and stir emotions merely with the sound of their voice, independent of the subject matter of the song. All the great ones do, and Jeannie does, too. Everybody needs a songbird in their lives. Try this one in yours. ~ Downtown Magazine, New York City
In an era when singer-songwriters are a dime a dozen we are constantly being bombarded with marginal talent. That's what so good about a sweet messenger like Ms. Gagné, whose voice may be favorably compared with Shawn Colvin, Suzanne Vega or Joni Mitchell at times. ~ Downtown Magazine
Jeannie Gagné's music is soulful, relevant, and beautiful. In Wide Open Heart, she explores a diverse range of topics from love to motherhood. The music manages to offer both delicious pop/folk goodness and a wholesome humanity to it all at once. ~ iTunes review
About halfway through listening to "Wide Open Heart," the first solo effort by Jeannie Gagné, you start to pick up the threads of a theme. The songs range widely in topic, from a shooting in the city to overcoming anger and loss to the joys of motherhood, but each is a slice of life recounted by a keen observer with a tender heart wide open to whatever life has to offer. ~New Bedford Standard Times
WOW!!! Thank you for bringing Jeannie Gagné to Corvallis (Oregon). What a fabulous performer and one of the finest evenings of music I have ever experienced. I loved the set which included some of my most favorite tunes. I thought her version of "Round Midnight" the best ever as well as her Carol King song and "That Was Me" were terriffic! She holds nothing back; is totally committed to the music . . .what fun it must have been for the trio to work with her . . .everytime I looked at them they were smiling in what must have been total satisfaction with the experience.
A great evening. Thank you. -George
She has a superb liturgical sense; it is a gift. UU [Unitarian Universalism], as we understand it together, incorporates a cultural diversity that is very challenging musically. So she's apt to have a Japanese hymn one week and spirituals another. ~ Rev. Tricia Tummino, Middleborough Unitarian/Universalist Society
Jeannie is one of the most talented and promising singer/songwriters I have the pleasure to know. Her knack for melody leaves you humming her tunes. The images in her lyrics pop out at you. Her exceptional ear for musical arrangement, especially percussive and vocal choices, enhances an overall sound that is distinctive, original and memorable. I have also seen Jeannie perform, and she is magnetic and powerful. ~ Bob Leone, The Songwriter's Hall of Fame
There are as many so-so female pop vocalists around as there are phone messages tacked on NACB's bulletin board, but the really moving voices are few and far between. Somewhere between the soft songspeak of Suzanne Vega and the sweet joyfulness of Amy Grant lies the enchanting voice of Jeannie Gagné. Her songs are by turns frenetic, fulfilling and just plain old style pop fun. ~ College Broadcaster, Choice Cuts
Every town has its share of celebrities, and ours may very well be the home of the next musical mega-star when Jeannie Gagné does, as she says, 'What I do best.' The work on her CD "Wide Open Heart" is similar to the work of Sarah McLachlan or Margo Timmins of Cowboy Junkies. The CD is a mix of affirmations about life, about love, and some good-natured giggles on life as a mom, and how that works in the life of the artist. ~ The Middleboro Gazette

What fans are saying about Jeannie's concerts:
Sometimes performers just "perform" and don't relate to the audience the way you do. How you encourage and involve your audience adds so much to your performance;it becomes a shared experience, lifts the spirit. "Music is the language of the soul" and you make a live performance truly alive. Loved the tone and quality of your voice on the ballads, enjoyed your versatility. Combined with excellent, talented musicians, I couldn't help but be awed by the gifts you have to share. It really gives me a feeling of joy to hear your music. This was a different concert than most. As an audience member I felt more connected to the act of making the music. I had goose bumps.

Articles

Corvallis Gazette-Times:

East Coast Singer Swings Through

Jeannie Gagné joins up with local band for vocal jazz performance

by Mary Ann Albright

In her first visit to Oregon, jazz vocalist Jeannie Gagné will fuse her Beantown stylings with Corvallis musicians Neal Grandstaff, Ray Brassfield and Lou Chavez for an evening of jazz, soul and R&B.

Gagné's concert, "East Coast Singer, West Coast Band," will feature some original songs, touching on themes of love, relationships, motherhood and spirituality. She'll also offer a new take on standards such as Stevie Ray Vaughan's "Pride and Joy," Etta James's "Something's Got A Hold On Me" and Bonnie Raitt's "Give It Up Or Let Me Go."

Thanks to a four-octave range, Gagné is able to tackle songs with husky alto notes, lilting soprano passages and everything in between.

Her sound has been compared to everyone from Shawn Colvin to Sarah McLachlan to Sheryl Crow, and her earliest influences included Led Zeppelin, Joni Mitchell, the Grateful Dead, Laura Nyro and the soundtrack to "West Side Story."

While Gagné leans heavily toward "soulful jazz," she's hesitant to box herself into any particular genre.

"My music doesn't fit neatly into one tidy category," she said. "It's just good music."

Gagné has two solo albums available. On the most recent, 2005's "Must Be Love," she sings the blues.

From a stunning cover of Carole King's "You've Got a Friend," with stellar saxophone and background vocals, to the guitar-heavy "Too Good," a sad exploration of a love too good to be true, to the great Billie Holiday classic "God Bless the Child," Gagné explores a range of sounds, styles and emotions.

Her first release, "Wide Open Heart" (1995), has more of a pop flavor, and all songs are written or co-written by Gagné.

Gagné, a mother of two, lives near Boston and is on the faculty at Berklee College of Music.

She has sung with Philip Glass, opened for Barenaked Ladies, performed for NBC-TV with comedians Penn and Teller, toured with reggae artist Frankie Paul and lent her voice to the soundtrack for the feature film "Anima Mundi" (1993). She's been featured on PBS's "All Things Considered" and the "CBS Evening News."

Gagné leads workshops around the country on achieving personal empowerment through singing, jazz and pop improvisation and movement. She is working on a book for vocalists addressing both pedagogy and performance.

Gagné is active in the Unitarian Universalist Musicians Network and the Unitarian Universalist Association General Assembly. She also is a master of Reiki, the Japanese art of energy healing.

Accompanying Gagné at her Corvallis gig will be Grandstaff, a guitarist and singer who teaches jazz improvisation at Oregon State University, bassist Brassfield and drummer Chavez. Gagné will also perform in Ashland and Portland during her visit to Oregon.

Jeannie Gagné joins up with local band for vocal jazz performance

Thanks to a four-octave range, Gagné is able to tackle songs with husky alto notes, lilting soprano passages and everything in between.

While Gagné leans heavily toward "soulful jazz," she's hesitant to box herself into any particular genre.

"My music doesn't fit neatly into one tidy category," she said. "It's just good music."

Gagné has two solo albums available. On the most recent, 2005's "Must Be Love," she sings the blues.

Her first release, "Wide Open Heart" (1995), has more of a pop flavor, and all songs are written or co-written by Gagné.

Gagné, a mother of two, lives near Boston and is on the faculty at Berklee College of Music.

Gagné is active in the Unitarian Universalist Musicians Network and the Unitarian Universalist Association General Assembly. She also is a master of Reiki, the Japanese art of energy healing.

Boston Globe:

A year into her job as music director at the Unitarian Universalist Society in Middleborough, the former New York City performer recently released her first solo CD, "Wide Open Heart," an accomplishment she has long dreamed of but that had been on hold since she developed a neurological disorder seven years ago.

Gagné's return to the folk-rock music scene will be celebrated at a CD-release party in the church on Jan 8. Plans also are in the works for her to perform at the South Shore Music Club's Beale House in Kingston next spring, among other venues.

“I'm really proud of the CD, but I've learned my limitations," she said of her illness as it relates to her music. She has to take it easy some days, a restriction not easy to meet when she was part of the New York music scene.

The new CD is produced by WizardWolf Music, a Middleborough company owned by Gagné and her husband, Charles Wolff, a family physician in the town where they live with their two children, Dylan, 7, and Arianna, 3. Many of the studio musicians on the album are veteran professionals the singer often worked with in New York. "I used to want to conquer the world, that was my dream," the singer said.

Nowadays, though, the world she hopes to conquer is far smaller.

"I'm going to stay local for now, stay focused on New England," she said. "I will just take it one step at a time."

A classically trained musician who performed with local opera companies in upstate New York as a child and who always got the leading role in her high school's musicals in New York City, Gagné may have given up on her original dream after her illness, but she never gave up on her music. "I'm one of those people who was born musical," said ...Gagné, who majored in music at Wesleyan University, where she learned African drumming, an art form she brings to Middleborough next month for the second year in a row. "My mother loves to say I sang before I spoke," she said.

Two of her older brothers were in the professional music business, and Gagné expected to follow in their footsteps. Before getting gigs at clubs in the city, she performed her songs on the streets and in subway stations. She collected enough money to buy a Martin guitar costing several hundred dollars, she said. "I would have people standing for an hour or two listening," she said of the subway performances. "It was like a set. I worked hard."

But Gagné's musical career as a performer in New York City was cut short by the onset of her debilitating neurological troubles, which sapped the strength she needed to work long, late hours. "My story is I had to stop music for a while," she said during breakfast at a coffee shop in Plymouth recently. "But I had to come back to it." Going back to music in New York was out of the question.

Even though she had performed regularly in New York while running a busy recording studio with her husband, New York's hustle, bustle, and sensory overload exacerbated her neurological problems, said Gagné. Some days she had to muster all of her energy just to get from one room in her apartment to the next. She grieved for the loss of her big city music life, she said. "But I've never stopped singing," she said, noting that except for a two-year period, she still wrote songs as well. "I have a very positive spirit." Four-and-a-half years ago her dreams of a career in music were renewed unexpectedly when she and her family moved to Southern Massachusetts.

"When we came up here I said, ‘Don't kill yourself," Gagné said. "There's a lot of heartbreak when you are trying to make it. I said to myself, "Don't do too much, just be kind to yourself." At the Unitarian church, where she and her husband had been greeted warmly while shopping for a house in town, Gagné found the kindness and encouragement she needed to return to regular performance. The late Rev. Elizabeth Tarbox, who was the Middleborough minister before leading a congregation in Cohasset, urged her to lend her talents to the congregation. Soon Gagné was singing classical arias and organizing a church choir. "It was Elizabeth who originally made the invitation to sing," ...Gagné said.

Through her involvement with the music program at the 110-year-old church, first as a volunteer then as the first music director in charge of all music at the church, ...Gagné said, she has found renewed strength and spirituality, even though she must still manage her illness with medication and a schedule that doesn't exhaust her. Introducing music from other cultures, such as the African drumming workshops and performances next month, is part of her calling, she said.

"Part of what I've been about is Unitarian Universalism, where we have eight religions [represented] on the wall" in the church, she said. "Why should the music be by only dead white men?" The Rev. Tricia Tummino, who became minister of the Middleborough church at the same time Gagné was named music director a little more than a year ago, applauds her co-worker's musical talents. Gagné is the first "soup to nuts" music director at the church, Tummino said. "She has a superb liturgical sense, it is a gift," she continued. "Unitarian Universalism, as we understand it together, incorporates a cultural diversity that is very challenging musically. "So she's apt to have a Japanese hymn one week and spirituals another," she said. "And the hymns that she chooses, separate from anything the choir does, also are always themed to whatever the sermon will be."

Gagné's success with the church choir also is noteworthy, Tummino said. Of the 119 members in the church, close to 30 sing in the choir.

"When the choir gets up to sing, it is a huge portion of the church," the minister said. "Jeannie's brought out the talent of the congregation. That's a gift."

Gagné hopes to share that gift with the entire community.

"To me, each Sunday is great, but that is only part of it," she said. "I would love to see music going out into the community more, it's such a powerful medium."'

That's why she drew on her Wesleyan music ties to bring African drumming to her town, she said. She also hopes to start folk song circles and a concert series, based at the church but open to the whole community.

To accomplish all that she plans, Gagné said, she must draw on support from both her congregation and the community.

"I'm trying to branch out with music this year," she said. "But I can't overdo it."

Taunton Gazette:

by Rebecca Segaloff

Singer and songwriter Jeannie Gagné, who recently released her first CD "Wide Open Heart," describes her life as a journey. She has certainly made sure that the journey has had a soundtrack.

Raised in a musical family, she was singing before she could talk, was writing her first songs by the age of three, and started performing professionally at the tender age of five in the chorus of the renowned Tri-Cities Opera in upstate New York along with her parents and brothers. After years of training as a lyrical soprano and receiving her bachelor's degree in music from Wesleyan University, Gagné headed back to new York City, where she has lived most of her life, to pursue her dream of a career in music.

But as is true of many journeys, her path was not without twists and turns. Though Gagné has been a highly acclaimed singer, performing with the likes of Philip Glass, comedians Penn and Teller and reggae legend Frankie Paul, getting that big break of signing with a major record label always seemed just around the corner. And then in 1992 she was suddenly hit with a neurological illness that caused chronic pain and fatigue. The noise and hubbub of New York City quickly became unbearable. On top of that her husband Charlie Wolff -- a local doctor whom she met in college and refers to as an "amazing electric guitarist" -was about to begin his medical residency at Brown University. So, the couple and their two young children packed up and moved to town in 1995.

It was not the life she had envisioned when she was fresh out of college, singing on the street corners and subways of New York, in jazz night clubs and cabarets and getting rave reviews comparing her to acts such as Joni Mitchell, Suzanne Vega and the Cowboy Junkies and predicting she would be the next pop-folk superstar, a "songbird" with a soaring voice. But Gagné says that over the years her definition of success has evolved and the life she has built here is one that she finds deeply satisfying.

Through a combination of exercise, meditation and medication, she regained her strength. And though Gagné says she still misses the creative energy and tempo of New York City, there are rewards to life in a small town as well. "I'd never lived in the country and I wanted a garden. There's a part of me that loves sitting under trees and meditating. You can't do that in Central Park." And all the turns in the road, her life-experiences that have been sometimes painful and sometimes joyous, have added depth and soulfulness to her music.

"As a person who's not right out of college anymore, I've had some hard things happen and some wonderful things happen. If you can put that in an expressive form, other people can be touched by that. Touching people through music is what's important to me," Gagné says.

Maybe that's why "Wide Open Heart" is such a milestone in Gagné's journey. She says it is the album she has always wanted to make. She has come into her own, she says, not just as a polished musician and expert crafter of songs, but she has found her voice. It is a distinctive style that allows her to speak directly to her audience about a whole range of human emotions -from love, to gritty determination to moving forward in the face of challenges, to the joys of motherhood and even, with a light-hearted touch of humor, the frustrations of being a frazzled mom at times.

And maybe that's also why her job as the new musical director at the Unitarian Universalist Society in town is not as different as it might at first glance appear from the time she has spent moving audiences in nightclubs and on recordings with her dynamic and passionate performances. In both cases, she is able to communicate through music, her prime objective, she says.

"Music is a very powerful medium. It can have all sorts of functions. It can soothe, inflame, reach deep recesses of your being where words won't go. Sometimes people have told me when I sing it moves them to tears. It moves in any number of directions. It might just move you to dance or make you feel loving towards someone. Sometimes, it's just beautiful," she says.

Patricia Tummino, minister at the Society, says the entire congregation is thrilled with Gagné's work, selecting music to complement the Sunday services and directing the choir, as well as planning other musical events, such as an upcoming afternoon of West African drumming. Gagné has also brought Hebrew and Japanese music to the church, as well as blues, dixieland and jazz, she says.

"Jeannie taught this church what a director of music can truly be... There are some days I feel people will walk out and what they'll remember is the music. And to me that's okay because it's consistent with the message of the sermon and I don‚Äôt care which way they get it," Tummino said.

"Wide Open Heart" has already been getting play on some local radio stations and Gagné says she is "very excited about how the CD came out." So what will the next stage in her journey bring? It might just be that big breakthrough that will make her a household name. Either way, Gagné says she will be satisfied.

As she sings in "Keeps Me Smiling," a cut from the CD, "Our house is filled with laughter/I count my blessings every day/But I can't sing of what I don't know/Like a song that's #1/Or stories from living on the road/Or a maid to clean the john/But I've got a man who loves me/A soulmate, and a friend/And every whisper in this house/Keeps me smiling."

"Wide Open Heart" is available nationally on amazon.com and locally at Maria's Hallmark, Mack's Music, the Burt Wood School and the Unitarian Universalist Society in Middleborough and at the Spinnaker in Falmouth.

New Bedford Standard Times:

About halfway through listening to "Wide Open Heart," the first solo effort by Jeannie Gagné, you start to pick up the threads of a theme. The songs range widely in topic, from a shooting in the city to overcoming anger and loss to the joys of motherhood, but each is a slice of life recounted by a keen observer with a tender heart wide open to whatever life has to offer.

Like her songs, Ms. Gagné's voice is full, detailed and inviting, and she can handle almost any style of music, it seems from listening to this CD. Folk, blues, rock and pop all tumble infectiously off the tracks. She's been compared to Sarah McLachlan, Suzanne Vega and Amy Grant, but if you hear hints of Bonnie Raitt's bluesy strength in Ms. Gagn√©'s full throttle approach, you shouldn't be surprised.

"She is definitely one of my influences," Ms. Gagné said.

Ms. Gagné will be celebrating the release of her self-produced CD with a party and concert at 8 p.m. Saturday at the First Unitarian Universalist Society, 25 S. Main Street, in Middleboro. With her will be West African drummer, composer and Broadway musician ("The Lion King") Robert Levin, as well as her husband Charles Wolff, Steve Bolton, Dylan Wolff, Ed Priest, Andrea Priest and Lorna Sleeper-Brunelle. Tickets are $8, and are available at Mack's Music, Maria's Hallmark Card Shop, at the Unitarian Universalist Society and at the door the night of the concert. Seating is limited, however, so advance purchase is recommended.

The CD is also available at the previously mentioned sites, on amazon.com, or through Ms. Gagné's web site, www.jeanniegagne.com.

An experienced singer/songwriter with decades of professional credits and accolades on her resume, Ms. Gagné settled in Middleborough five years ago, migrating from the hustle and bustle of New York City with her physician/musician husband.

"I miss the vibrancy of New York," she said. "It's still my hometown."

She has most definitely settled into her adopted hometown, however. The culmination of a decade of work, the songs on "Wide Open Heart" seem to reflect the journey Ms. Gagné took from the professional to the personal, and on the final song on the CD, "Keeps Me Smiling," you can hear the voice of experience laying claim to some peace of mind.

She has been the musical director of the Unitarian Universalist Society in Middleborough since 1998, and is now the mother of two children. Her current life seems a far cry from her previous one as a busy performer and writer.

"I could sing before I could talk, right along with the sound track of West Side Story," she said. She began singing professionally at the age of five, with the children's choir of the Tri-Cities Opera in Binghamton, New York. After studying to be a lyrical soprano and receiving her BA in music from Wesleyan University, she began to make her mark on the New York City music scene.

She has sung with modern composer Philip Glass, magician/comedians Penn and Teller on NBC and reggae artist Frankie Paul. She was featured in People Magazine, on All Things Considered for PBS and the CBS Evening News.

She hasn't found the slower pace of life in Southeastern Massachusetts to have slowed her creative abilities, though, and "Wide Open Heart" reflects that.

"My music lives inside of me," she said. "There is rich support for music in this part of the country. What I have found here is just wonderful. We make music because it's a beautiful thing."

And, as she says on "Wide Open Heart," "I count my blessings every day."

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