Julie Corbalis

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. - CD Baby

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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 he - North County News

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 - Elliott Glick, The Starving Artist

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!

- Rob Santoro

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. - Jeremy

"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 - TAXI