Julie Corbalis

Artist Information

Biography

My name is Julie Corbalis. For the last 10 years, family, friends, and lovers have made their ways into my song lyrics. Like flowers, some of our relationships were cultivated and coaxed toward sunlight with thoughtful encouragement and practical decisions. Others managed to flourish keeping hydrated with a little beer and light from the bulbs on the Triboro Bridge. Both are the stars of my songs; the reasons I write.

My most recent CD “Old Flames & New Names” (released in November 2008) is a ten track set of soulful, acoustic rock. While all 3 of my CD's enjoy steady sales through itunes, CDBaby, and gigs, “Old Flames” has recently been featured in NY newspapers and the tracks “Johnny & June” and “Broadway” were played on the NYC radio stations WHUD (100.7), THE PEAK (107.1), and college radio. My website, www.juliecorbalis.com, averages 23,000 hits a month. I have been featured in 3 prominent singer/songwriter showcases at the national venues The Bitter End, NYC, The Towne Crier in Pawling, NY, and 2009's Pleasantville Music Festival, in Westchester, NY. Fans have compared the vibe of the tunes from "Old Flames" to the early, rootsy, Sheryl Crow, and the honest storyteller, Carole King.

Prior to "Old Flames" I released two successful indie pop/rock albums with the quartet Jules & the Family. Our tracks have been played on public, private, and internet radio throughout the US, Europe and Japan.

All three of my albums have different feels and sounds to them, however, they all share the same storyteller. Like everyone, I had much to learn over the last decade, and the lyrics on each record reflect some of the changes that one goes through as she progresses through her 20’s. These albums take the listener on the journey I’ve been on, and hopefully provide the soundtrack to his or her passage.

Instrumentation

Julie Corbalis - Vocals & Guitars
Can furnish duo, trio, or full band upon request.

Discography

2008 "Old Flames & New Names"
2007 "Border Radio"
2005 "Jules and the Family"

Links

• MySpace

Audio

• Should've Stayed Away
  Listen  
• Broadway
  Listen  
• Johnny & June
  Listen  
• Spinning
  Listen  

Lyrics

• Should've Stayed Away
• Johnny & June
• Broadway
• Turn Away

Video

Photo Gallery

Press

• Yorktown musician brings new songs home [+ Show ]
  

  To see this article in its original form please follow this link: http://www.northcountynews.com/...To see this article in its original form please follow this link:
  
  http://www.northcountynews.com/lifestyles/ncn_lifestyles1.asp
  
  
  By Thomas Staudter
  
  Photo by Thomas Staudter
  
  Julie Corbalis, a 30-year-old native of Yorktown Heights, has found the secret to balancing her time between her job as a social studies and environmental action teacher in Manhattan with a budding music career as a singer-songwriter. She recently released “Old Flames & New Names,” her first solo CD.
  
  Singer/songwriter Julie Corbalis feels lucky to have two passions.
  By day, the 30-year-old Yorktown Heights native teaches sixth and eighth grade social studies and environmental action at Manhattan East Middle School in Harlem, a magnet school that brings together a diverse group of 270 students from around New York City’s five boroughs.
  
  “The kids are awesome,” she said, adding that the energy and enthusiasm that greets her each day in the classroom is infectious.
  After school, however, Corbalis tends to her budding music career. Until recently, she has been performing in a quartet called Jules and the Family, playing originals songs and select covers of Beatles, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Elvis Costello. With her first solo CD, “Old Flames & New Names” set to be released this week, though, Corbalis has been busy with the logistics of spotlighting her new work.
  
  Working as an independent musical artist is a matter of faith, and Corbalis seems to have the necessary pluck and determination to keep surviving in the business. She has spent a few thousand dollars recording and manufacturing “Old Flames & New Names,” realizing that the CD, in her case, acts more like a calling card and a way to drum up more gigs. And for the last eight years, she has been playing venues all over the tri-state region, and traveling to Europe as well, touring mostly through Belgium and the Netherlands, where she has developed a sizable following.
  
  Another example of the singer/songwriter’s inner feistiness was her decision to hold her CD “release party” this past weekend at the Marsh Sanctuary in Mount Kisco.
  The event, which ran from 4 p.m. to midnight, featured Corbalis along with separate performances from a number of special guests, including Gillen & Turk, Jay Gisser, the Bryan Gordon Band and Dovetail. Proceeds from Corbalis’s “concert in the woods” were donated to the Marsh Sanctuary.
  
  Corbalis said “Old Flames & New Names” was titled as such because “half the songs are about 10-years old, and the rest were written in the last few months,” and the subject matter focuses on past loves and “family stuff.” The 10 songs on the CD fall stylistically, for the most part, into the realm of toe-tapping folk-rock; lyrically, there are enough references to beer drinking and bar hopping to convince listeners that Corbalis is not merely home at night in her apartment in Harlem, a short walk from the school where she teaches, working on lessons plans for the following day.
  
  “I’m really proud of this new CD,” Corbalis said. “I recorded it with Fred Gillen Jr. at Woody’s House, his studio (in Cortlandt), and he helped put together my ideas and let me work out a lot of things for myself without shooting anything down. Plus, I was surrounded by my favorite musicians, a lot of people I’ve worked with over the years, and that was fun.”
  Born in Yonkers, Corbalis moved to Yorktown Heights when she was little and was raised by her mother and stepfather, Barbara and Phil Fattrusso.
  
  “While playing music over the years I have met lots of musicians, and none of them have parents like mine,” Corbalis said. “They are at every show possible, even heading into New York City at the end of a long day to come hear me. They support my work in every way imaginable, and even help me load the equipment.”
  An avowed tomboy, Corbalis said she grew up playing baseball, “building forts with other people’s garbage” and catching snakes.
  
  “We played in the woods whenever possible,” she said. She caught the music bug early on, listening to her parents’ Beatles records, and hearing the same rock cassettes —namely Queen, Foreigner and Meatloaf — on road trips. In fifth grade, she started alto saxophone and by high school was honking away on tenor sax and playing guitar, as well as cheerleading, playing softball and participating in Girl Scouts. She wrote her first song in 11th grade about her natural father, who has never really been a part of her life. She continued to write in college but was too afraid to sing them in public. “Also, I was too young to play in the bars anyway,” she said.
  
  Corbalis studied music and history at Westchester Community College before earning a full scholarship to attend New York University. A trip to Greece a year after she started teaching at Manhattan West cured her of stage fright, as she fell in with another singer-songwriter, Pat Kelly, and along with urging from a college pal, Cynthia Sakofsky, Corbalis began to sing her own songs on stage to vacationing tourists.
  
  Once back home, she decided to form a band, Jules and the Family, with her friend Jonathan Lloyd, a guitarist and another Yorktowner, who enlisted drummer John Madden and bassist Marc Osborn to bedrock the rhythm section. The group put out two CDs, the last of which, “Border Radio,” came out in 2007.
  
  Two years ago, Corbalis received her Master’s degree in education from Hunter College, and noted that the first thing her students do is look on the Internet “to see who I am,” when they discovered their teacher’s musical career. Along with a few other teachers at her school who are also part-time musicians, she has performed at fundraisers and assemblies. In December, Corbalis and two other colleagues will perform together at the midtown Manhattan bar Desmond’s.
  
  “This way our colleagues can catch all of our playing on one night,” she said.
  Corbalis creates her songs by playing chords on the guitar and making up a melody and lyrics at the same time, she said. Compiling only three albums worth of material in eight years would not categorize her being prolific, but Corbalis does have a good excuse.
  “Songwriting doesn’t come easy when you’re busy for nine years teaching social studies,” she said.
  
  Julie Corbalis will perform on Saturday at the Golden Apple Coffeehouse, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church Parish Hall, 85 East Main St., Mount Kisco. The music begins at 8 p.m. She will also perform at a domestic violence vigil on Wednesday, Oct. 29, at Yorktown Town Hall in Yorktown Heights at 6:30 p.m.
  
  Upcoming Gigs
  
  Catch Julie Corbalis at upcoming shows in our area
  
  Saturday, Oct. 25
  Golden Apple Coffeehouse
  St Mark's Episcopal Church, time to be announced
  Mt. Kisco
  Wednesday, Oct. 29
  Yorktown Town Hall
  6:30-8:30 p.m.
  Yorktown Heights
  *This is a domestic violence vigil
  Friday, Oct. 31
  The Peekskill Coffeehouse
  Hope Machine & Friends
  Peekskill
  Price: Suggested Donation

• Review [+ Show ]
  

  If you don't like great music, don't buy this CD. This CD is the real deal, and I highly recommend ...If you don't like great music, don't buy this CD.
  This CD is the real deal, and I highly recommend it. It’s currently being worn out in my CD player and my friends' CD players. If you're a fan of "classic rock, neo-Folk" music, you should definitely have this CD, baby. (sorry) More importantly, if you're not a big fan of that genre, you should really give this CD a listen because, seriously, you’ll soon be a fan. The music on Jules and the Family screams honesty, sincerity, and frankness while at the same time impelling a really, really fun vibe. Make sense? No? Give it a listen. You’ll see what I mean.

• TAXI FEEDBACK for [+ Show ]
  

  "I really liked this track, from the very beginning you had me grooving right along. Solid performa..."I really liked this track, from the very beginning you had me grooving right along. Solid performances and clean simple production present the song and its message most effectively. The rhythmic syncopation of the verse lyric delivery was really cool, it reminded me of the way Alanis Morrisette and Nickelback sort of wrap the lyrics around the melody of the track, sometimes breaking up the phrasing of the lines in unexpected places."
  
  Check List:
  Melody: Good music in verses
  "Strong, contagious melodies throughout - I wanted to hear the chorus again!"
  Structure: Well-written structure
  "Solidly structured, nice range of dynamic variations - chorus really opens up!"
  Lyric: Engaging, rhymes well, vocal does help to sell song
  "I like the use of alternating lines within each chorus. Vocal quality give the track a timeless quality, clear and strong."
  Overall Rating: (From 1 to 10, 10= Best)
  Music, Lyrics, Marketability: 9
  Arrangement, Production, Engineering: 8

• Review [+ Show ]
  

  The Starving Artist Cafe is a family of overlapping circle of friends. This is good. This is very go...The Starving Artist Cafe is a family of overlapping circle of friends. This is good. This is very good. Friday, April 18, Jules and some of the family came to visit. Julie Corbalis is a fine singer-songwriter whose lyrics betray a gentle, tender sensitivity, while her delivery reveals brass balls, if you will. She is charming to boot! She was joined on stage by her great guitarist JL (Jonathan Lloyd). She is many things at once and generous is one of them. She gave the stage to her Irish friend now living in Belgium, Pat Kelly. Kelly's songs were a treat. Witty and insightful. His voice is good, and his stage manner is humorous. It was a surprise fun evening and the family grew and the circles overlapped. Elliott Glick - The Starving Artist (May 19, 2008

• Review of Border Radio [+ Show ]
  

  This is real feel good music! This track just keeps on groovin. It makes you want to get up and boog...This is real feel good music! This track just keeps on groovin. It makes you want to get up and boogie, I play bass in 5 Below Zero and as a fellow musician I can aprreciate the work and great vibe they have, saw them @ Alive @ Five with my good friend Frank F. and we both agreed they were smokin!
  
  

• Review of Border Radio [+ Show ]
  

  Magnificent. Jules has a voice that was meant for singing, and the heart to match. On this album s...Magnificent. Jules has a voice that was meant for singing, and the heart to match. On this album she and her band have hit their stride, and each track is truly enjoyable. I can't wait to hear what happens next.

Setlist

Classic and Original Rock and Roll. Anything from a 4 hour ALL original night to an acoustic gig (solo, duo or trio). Julie also does classic pop and rock covers from the 50's thru today, including tunes from The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Beyonce, Janis Joplin, Van Morrison, Dolly Parton, Elvis Costello, Johnny Cash, Tom Petty, John Prine, Sheryl Crow, Sam Cooke and MANY more.

Basic Requirements

Calendar