Billie Joyce

Billie Joyce
One Willing Heart
G.I.G Records
In the liner notes for One Willing Heart, Canadian singer/songwriter Billie Joyce describes the album as 'an honest glimpse into the past three years of my life'. She could have saved the ink because that sentiment is ingrained into every moment of a wonderful album. In fact, the only thing you could take issue with is the use of the word 'glimpse' because One Willing Heart is an exercise in deep-cleansing, soul searching.
Far deeper and darker than its excellent, and as yet undervalued, predecessor Love Tone, Joyce has raised the bar both with her writing and in her multi-layered performance of her own songs. She takes the tales of her life to places that few would have the imagination or bravery to attempt. Joyce is one of those singers who steadfastly resist categorization. Like Bonnie Raitt she is as much a blues singer as a country artist. The only thing that can be said with any certainty is that everything on One Willing Heart has been dug from the very depths of her soul. As if to underscore their intimacy, Joyce's songs are an open book and she goes for the jugular right from the off, the all-consuming sadness surrounding Season For Being Alone could quite easily have seen it descend into self-pity but, while it's heartfelt, there is a tender but firm defiance running through it. It may well be the Season For Being Alone but it's not open season on Billie Joyce, she is not about to offer herself up as some helpless victim. On Heart Of A Fool she uses her voice as an assassin would a stiletto, only in this case she turns the blade on herself. It is a harsh, unforgiving song, perhaps too unforgiving. Like the very best of musicians she draws you into the web of the songs and then makes you feel slightly uncomfortable about being there. Musically Bring Him Back and Won't Hold On may be polar opposites, the former steamy and raging while the latter is vulnerable and delicate but they were hewn from the same rock of bitter experience that is the theme of One Willing Heart. As if in need of the familiar, Billie Joyce hangs her songs on people and places that are obvioulsy dear to her but the sentiments of Thunder Bay are universal, scorned love is a feeling we have all felt.
And that is the key to One Willing Heart's huge appeal, it may well be an 'honest glimpse' but it's an honest glimpse into all our hearts.


- MAVERICK MAGAZINE/MMEE

Billie Joyce
The Meadow House Berwick on Tweed Friday, July 30.2004
The song says that the luckiest people are the people who need people. I would suggest that music fans run them a close second. At least those who managed to catch the current tour of Billie Joyce and Shawn Jones. It never ceases to be a pleasure and a privilege to watch artists do what they were born to do and Friday night in the Meadow House was both.
On her return visit to the First and Last Venue (don't worry it's the same place, it's on the Scottish border and I mean ON the border) we were treated to a more restrained i.e. seated, Billie Joyce, although when she seared her way through Love Alarm it wouldn't have mattered if she was seated, standing up or hanging from the rafters. I know it's supposed to be about the music but this lady doesn't radiate sexuality she explodes with it. Lob in some steamy bottleneck blues and it's little wonder good men lose their heads over beautiful women. I'm not convinced that Billie Joyce's choice of Peace as her opening song was a good one, after all that was the only thing she could guarantee we wouldn't get in a night of unstoppable country blues. The audience were also given a tantalizing taste of Joyce's new album (as yet untitled). And on this evidence it promises to be the album that finally makes the world sit up and take notice. Where her debut Love Tone was autobiographical these new songs are wrenched from sometimes bitter experience. The beautiful Season For Being Alone needs little explanation. But its performance was as painfully personal as the title suggests. There is absolutely nothing protecting Billie Joyce from her audience, she is a feisty, gutsy singer but she reveals a heart and soul that have been hurt. Mississippi Romeo was an epitaph to a shattered love, before it hope, after it nothingness. You could hear the lifeblood of the relationship drain away as the song progressed. It is undoubtedly a gift to be able to express feelings as clearly as Billie Joyce can but it must also sometimes seem like a curse to be compelled to do it in front of strangers night after night. Billie Joyce doesn't just tug the heart strings she manipulates them like a master puppeteer and Wind Child was as good and as evocative as I remembered it. Basically it's the story of her early life and it should be subtitled 'how to make grown men cry'. It would be far easier and profitable for Billie Joyce to sit down and use her undoubted skills to write a song for some 'name' to record. However who could sing Hard Not To Fall and Real Good Men the way she did and does. Billie Joyce doesn't just write songs she lives them as well and as her voice soars all those elements combine to make an unbreakbale bond between singer, song and audience. The more established country/blues singers should look worriedly over their shoulders and start scouring the situations vacant columns. The torch wasn't passed to the new generation at The Meadow House night it was wrenched unceremoniously by one of the brightest talents in the game. Discoveries come in the strangest of places but in a pub on the border ( and I mean ON the border) it was obvious that, Billie Joyce is destined for great, great things.
- Michael Mee

I want to give you an example and a challenge. I received a CD for review from
Billie Joyce, a young lady who now resides in Nashville, who was born and raised
on a farm in Saskatchewan. She worked day jobs as a guard at a maximum security
prison for men in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and as a councilor at a battered women's
shelter. She learned things there about human emotions that really give her
special insights.

But she never forgot her love of singing honed on the prairies of Canada, and after
an opportunity to open two shows for George Jones, she knew music was her only
true love, and left her two jobs to move to Nashville. She writes her own material,
and formed her own band, and in 2002 she took them into a studio and cut a CD.
That CD is called "Love Tone" ... and I have NEVER heard it on the radio, or seen it
on ANY playlists.

And ladies and gentlemen (you know which you are) what bothers me about this is
Billie Joyce's "Love Tone" is the best, most complete, most musically sound, and
best produced album I have heard in a year. This girl SINGS! And is one hell of a
great writer. And Billie Joyce SINGS! She wrote or co-wrote every song on the album.
And Billie Joyce SINGS! Forget that she is beautiful (I don't hold that against her).
Her writing convinces me that she is also very intelligent. Her band is the one on
the CD, the same musicians who side her at her gigs. I would like to know why it
isn't on radio. You can see Billie Joyce on her biography homepage at:
http://www.billiejoyce.com/biopage.htm or better yet you can hear samples of her
CD at: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/billiejoyce

Now the challenge is this for radio people. If you don't have this CD, go to the website
and sample her music. Or send her an email and she will send you the CD, or send me
an email and I will see that you get one.

What's in it for me? Nothing but sharing the best music I have heard in a year. I have
never met Billie Joyce. I have talked with her by email, and was very impressed by her
modesty about her talents. And did I mention? Billie Joyce SINGS!

Have a good new year! Email me at: txrootsmusic@aol.com or through our contact mail
at: rmr@rootsmusicreport.com ... I'll get it either way.

remember, Nuttin' Grows Without Roots!

@Darrell Harkins//Texas Dateline//Roots Music Report//Jan 2003 - Darrell Harkins

Billie Joyce is modern Nashville in the best way, writing meaningful songs from her own experience, singing with a voice that has surprising strength and a subtle country twang. More than anyone, she reminded me of the underrated Bobby Gentry, the female side of country soul. Billie has quality songs – Yotin Awasis, based on Indian ancestry, was beautiful; Peace was a hook-laden country rocker, Elixir and Love Alarm solid, hooky soul grooves.
Both performers expressed the desire to return to the UK with their own bands – this was a bit of a scouting mission – and we certainly hope they do. Of the two, Billie Joyce would benefit most from letting the spolight linger, establishing an uninterrupted mood with her arrangements, her band, letting her voice and songs take us away. - Charly Dunlap

Billie Joyce - "Love Tone "
FIVE STAR RATING
ISWM INDIE PICK OF THE MONTH -
(Independent Songwriter Web Magazine)


“ Billie Joyce’s debut album is totally reflective of a life well lived....not in the years sense..but in the details of making the most of every day, and learning from every turn you take. The lyrics move you, Billie sings her ****off, and the band rocks!”
David Bendeth
Senior VP of A&R
RCA Records


“Billie Joyce is a highly gifted woman. She’s a singer, a songwriter and a producer and used all these talents on her debut CD “Love Tone”. Billie Joyce is our guide to a warm, soulful, bluesy roots world, which is presented to us with insight and descriptive talents, showing most clearly in her rich and vivid imagery. That’s indeed one of the most intriguing aspects of her songwriting: the skillful way she led us into her reflections about love and relationships. All songs are about love. And I love it!!!! “

JOS VAN DEN BOOM
CROSSROADS -BRTO RADIO
THE NETHERLANDS


Billie Joyce
Love Tone
She looks nice, but plays dirty with blues and blues rock that's sure to surprise. Billie Joyce is a woman driven by passion, love, and truth, and it shows in her debut album "love tone."

Don Madsen
DWM MUSIC COMPANY
Iowa City, Iowa



“The soul runs through Billie Joyce’s her veins. Powerful voice en extraordinary songwriting about the real life and an environment where the truth rules. “
Jan Janssen
Real Roots Cafe Holland
Billie Joyce// Joyce is a sultry, husky-voiced blues-rocker in the Bonnie Raitt mold, only swampier. She also has a decidedly philosophical and spiritual bend, at least judging by several of the originals on Love Tone, her new CD. The album also features a bunch of crack session players.

Bill Friskics-Warren
Music Editor
Nashville Scene

“This woman writes and sings from a real place and I believe what she is saying. Billie Joyce tackles subject matter head on most artists in a lifetime won't touch (Original Sin & Elixir) and talks about 'what really matters', finding what makes you happy and finding it in ourselves. She is full of passion, from the fun-loving sexy “Love Alarm” the confessional “Mad” to the sultry “Turn It On”, it is obvious she is someone who knows how she feels and isn't afraid to sing about it. Seeing this strong, beautiful lady sing live puts the bow on the present and wraps it all up. Billie Joyce truly lights up the stage. Don't miss her if she comes your way.”
Carolyn Dawn Johnson
Recording artist/songwriter
Arista Records
- Various peers