About
Julie Gibb is a Toronto-born writer, singer, multi-instrumentalist, and producer, who recently released her third solo album, Rewriting History.
Often referred to as "Canada's best-kept secret", Gibb began performing internationally as a pre-teen and over the years has performed alongside an eclectic group of fellow artists, including Bob Geldof, Bill Monroe, the Barenaked Ladies, among many others. She has also appeared in a variety of film, TV and print ads, including worldwide campaigns for Levy’s Leather’s (guitar straps), and national campaigns for CIBC and Whirlpool Appliances.
As an instrumentalist, Gibb studied privately with Canadian notables Alan Ray (best known for his work with jazz legend Billie Holiday) and Red Shea (Gordon Lightfoot's longtime guitarist). For over a decade she taught guitar, piano and bass herself and has authored two guitar instructional books, Fundamentals for the 21st Century Guitarist and Easy Christmas Songs for Guitar. In the time between recording albums and writing books, Gibb hit the road as the tour guitarist for Texan singer, actress, author (and John Carter Cash protégé), Kasey Lansdale.
Her sophomore CD, All My Yesterdays, received stellar radio support from Americana radio across Europe, with great reviews from print, television and internet media outlets alike. One such review from Radio Compagnie in the Netherlands read: “Fine lyrics on relationships sung with deep and heartfelt emotion, supported by great musicians. To put in one word: Great!! 'All My Yesterdays' has changed my tomorrows. This album deserves our attention and a lot of airplay”. All My Yesterdays was also playlisted by Stingray (across Canada) with generous airplay for the songs “Cleveland” and “All My Yesterdays”. In 2015, New York-based distributor Factory Fast Records included several songs from the album on their compilations, released across the United States and beyond.
Gibb is a staff writer for Nashville music publisher, Spoon’s Tunes LLC. Most recently, her lyrics were featured in a graphic novel by legendary author Joe Lansdale; this project was nominated for a 2015 Bram Stoker Award.
For more information, please contact us: JulieGibbMusic AT gmail.com
About the Album
Rewriting History is intended to be a rocking, swooning, melodic love letter to all the musicians and writers who have inspired Julie Gibb. These eight new songs, written by Gibb, feature passionate lead vocals supported by layers of harmonies, produced with care for the arrangements to highlight each song’s lyrics. The themes range from self-reliance (“Get the Show on the Road”) to flirtatious temptation (“Now Would Be the Time”), to finding true love (“Thank God for You”), and beyond. As always, Gibb is difficult to file into one musical genre – perhaps Americana, some alt-country, a bit of classic country, some adult contemporary. Says Gibb, “I’m afraid I have never given a lot of thought to committing myself to one clear genre. I figure that if I write something that is true and I sing it with all the intensity and honesty that I can, it will find its audience. The important thing to me is to take the listener on an emotional journey with the song, not to worry about where it might fit in commercially.”
Upon deciding to get the recording under way, Gibb’s first call was to long-time friend and collaborator, Cliff Goldmacher, who played, coordinated and engineered many of the sessions, and co-wrote the fourth track, “A Single Yesterday”. Of the recording process, Gibb says, “Given that we were both almost constantly on the move while we were planning and tracking the sessions, I’m amazed that it all ran as smoothly as it did.” The tracking process began in Nashville with seven-time Grammy Award winner Andy Leftwich on mandolin, banjitar and fiddle (Leftwich is best known for his work with Ricky Skaggs), multiple ACM winning guitarist Pat Buchanan (Kenny Chesney, Darius Rucker, Faith Hill), Russ Pahl on steel guitar (Ray LaMontagne, Blake Shelton, Florida Georgia Line), Catherine Marx on keyboards (Linda Ronstadt, Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks), among others. Gibb raves, “I couldn’t have imagined a more amazing team than the group we had on this project. Aside from being some of the best players in the world, the energy and enthusiasm that each one brought into the studio made it one of the best musical experiences of my life.”
Of the overall feel of the album and her songwriting process, Gibb articulates a clear purpose. “I want to write songs that say something, and I believe I write best when I write honestly about where I am in my life. When I wrote the last album, I was grieving the loss of both of my parents, and that sadness obviously came through in many of the songs. In writing the new ones, I was coming from a place of having survived the hardest era of my life and feeling more upbeat and positive so the music reflects that. “
It’s been more than five years since Julie Gibb released her album, All My Yesterdays, which received great support from Americana radio across Europe, national airplay across Canada, and most recently has been featured as part of a compilation series by New York-based Factory Fast Records, which is distributed and promoted across the United States and beyond. In the period between albums, Gibb devoted herself to venturing into new musical terrain: working as a staff songwriter for a Nashville publishing house (which resulted in film placements and a lyrical feature in the graphic novel “I Tell You It’s Love”, which was nominated for a 2015 Bram Stoker award), writing two guitar books (“Fundamentals for the 21st Century Guitarist” and “Easy Christmas Songs for Guitar”), and working as a touring guitarist for John Carter Cash’s protégé, Kasey Lansdale. “I knew I wanted to make another album but waited to begin production until I was prepared to be all in – living, breathing, and sleeping with nothing on my mind but making the songs what they needed to be…and I am so glad I did,” says Gibb.