J4
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J4

Bluff City, Tennessee, United States

Bluff City, Tennessee, United States
Band Country Pop

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This band has not uploaded any videos

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"And The "Singing Family" Winner IS..."

(CBS) Before they learned who'd won, both finalists in the long-running Early Show "Singing Family Face Off" competition proved to be winners, performing together.

"J4" and the Peay family did a rousing rendition of "Dancing in the Street," by Martha Reeves and the Vandellas.

Then -- the big announcement by CBS Records Executive Vice President and General Manager Larry Jenkins, who said viewer voting was very close.

The winner of the competition, and its top prize -- a CBS Records deal -- was "J4."

After whooping it up, J4 launched into "I Think I Love You," originally from David Cassidy and The Partridge Family, and the song they performed in the finals last week.

"J4" is made up of four siblings, aged 7 to 15, all with names beginning with the letter "J," from the Smith family of rural Bluff City, Tenn. The oldest two have played for a couple of years for services at the church across the street from their home, where their dad, Mark, is pastor.

The Peay Family band consists of four brothers from Greensboro, N.C., who frequently sing a cappella, with their mom, Joyce Peay, behind them all the way. Whether in church or at local 4-H gatherings, the Peays have sung, together and often, most of their lives. Joyce acts as their manager. Their father passed away when they were younger, but remains a big influence in their music.

The competition's judges were on hand when the winner was announced. They were singer, actor and songwriter David Cassidy, singer/songwriter Kathy Sledge, performer and producer Jermaine Dupri, and choreographer-stylist Tanisha Scott.

All lauded the talent of, and offered advice to both the Peays and J4.

The "Face Off" began months ago, when roughly 700 videos of family bands performing were submitted by Early Show viewers.

We narrowed the field to six and, after weeks of head-to-head performances, viewer/voters got it down to two the families, the Peays and "J4."

Both did their thing on the show last week, in the competition's finals.

And then viewers had their final say, by voting on The Early Show Web site. - CBS News


"Meet J4"

Q: Can you please introduce yourself to our readers, and your role in the group?
Well, we are J4 because of our first names start with "J" and there are 4 of us. I am Jessi, the oldest at 16. I play the violin, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, and sing.

I am Jedidiah, but everyone calls me Jeddi. I am 14 and play the keyboard, drums, and sing. My little brother is Josiah and he is 9. He plays the violin, electric guitar, bass guitar, and sings. My little sister Josephine is 7. Everybody calls her Sophi and she plays the keyboard, acoustic percussion, and she sings too.

Q: How did you get started in the music industry?
The music industry found us, really. My oldest brother and I have performed at Coffee Houses and church, but we knew we wanted to do more. The CBS Competition came up and we took the chance.

Q: How did you first come together as a group?
Of course, being brothers and sisters, we've been together our whole life, but we formed our band the day of the competition deadline in January of this year! We had never sung together like that before then. It was pretty cool.

Q: What has influenced you musically?
We've been influenced a lot by our classical training. We've also grown up listening to a lot of different genres such as classic rock, country, and music in the church.

Q: What’s your favorite song to perform?
We have an original song that we really like to perform a lot called "Out of My Brain". We love this song because of the driving beat and the lyrics. It's a really fun song and our fans really get into it.

Q: If you could tour with anyone who would that be?
Well, I (Jessi) would like to tour with Taylor Swift, I really like her sound and her songwriting.
We (Jeddi & Josiah) would love to play with the Jonas Brothers & Frankie, we think we'd have a lot in common.
I (Sophi) really like Selena Gomez, she's fun to watch and listen to.

Q: What does the next year look like for you?
Completely unpredictable, we really have no idea. We love to perform, and hope to have a lot more opportunities to reach young audiences. We are ready to go wherever the path takes us.

Q: Where do you see yourself five years from now?
Five years older? lol... We can only hope to see ourselves still singing and touring together. Since we are just 7yrs to 16yrs, we can grow with our fans for a long time.

Q: Is there anything you’d like to say to your fans?
Our fans are awesome! They have constantly supported us by downloading our music and coming to our concerts. They continually surprise us with love and support everywhere we go. We hope to have lots more fans just like them. Thank you fans!

Q: You just released two new songs “I Think I Love You”, and "Don't Stop" how’s it going with that?
The release of our new songs has been awesome. Live on CBS, we sang "Don't Stop", a great classic hit. "I Think I Love You", was originally performed for David Cassidy during the competition. That was a little overwhelming, but a great honor. We were so glad when CBS Records chose that song as one of our singles and we would love to sing it with him one day. I think it is the fan favorite, and so many people couldn't get the tune out of their head after the performance. It was funny to hear people humming the song in random places around town.
Since the recordings, we released a music video of our hometown favorite, "Back Home" on our website, www.j4fans.com. That was tons of fun and hard work too. The video shows how beautiful it is here in Tennessee.
Jeddi and I are very passionate about music, so we decided to launch a Music4Kids program. (www.j4fans.com/music4kids) We wanted to teach kids about music beyond the performance, something they could learn at school or with their parents. We present the background of songs in a fun and memorable way, so kids can learn more about the culture and history surrounding a song.
We are excited about what we are doing and hope to do lots more. - Katie & Karleigh.com


"J4 wins 'Singing Family Face Off'"

It's official: Family band J4 sang their way to victory Wednesday in the "Singing Family Face Off" on CBS-TV's "The Early Show."

The group from the Bunker Hill section of Bluff City, Tenn., has now won a record deal with the network.

"And it's a little overwhelming and a little surreal," said Mark Smith, the father of singing siblings Jessi, Jedidiah, Josiah and Josephine.

Fifteen-year-old Jessi Smith, in a separate telephone interview from New York City on Wednesday, said, "I really don't know what any of us are going to be doing for awhile."

WHEW!

Rewind just a few weeks, and you'll find there wasn't even a group called J4 at the start of the year.

"It's been so fast, quick and in just a matter of weeks," Mark Smith said. "It's a whirlwind kind of thing. ... We're not overly excited, but we're really proud of the kids."

The band – formed, essentially, to take part in the national contest – takes its name for each of the four Smith children who have a name starting with a J. Jessi, the oldest, plays violin and was named for Jessie, King David's father. Jedidiah, a 13-year-old piano player better known as "Jeddie," took his name from King Solomon's given name. Nine-year-old Josiah plays violin and was named for a king in the Old Testament. Little Josephine, 7, a piano player and cello student, took her name from Joseph, the father of Jesus.

"There's no leader, really," Jessi Smith said. "Mom and Dad are the leaders."

Lori Smith, Mark's wife and the children's mother, came up with the J4 moniker. Mark Smith, the minister of the 180-member Bunker Hill Christian Church, helps manage the band by always scouting for instruments and outfits.

"It takes a lot of shopping for clothes to be on live TV," said Mark Smith, a 1983 graduate of Elizabethton High School.

"REAL U'

At the advice of a family friend, 39-year-old Tracy Taylor, of Bluff City, the Smiths got started in the contest when making a video of the children singing an original song, "Real U," written by Lori Smith.

"Jedidiah was the primary arranger," Mark Smith said. "He wrote the musical arrangement for the kids."

But, at first, Mark Smith said, young "Jeddie" wanted to play basketball.

"I had other things planned for that day," Jeddie Smith said Wednesday. "But the rest of my siblings kind of wanted to do it. So I said, "I'll just do it for fun.' "

With their recording complete, and just minutes before a midnight deadline, Lori Smith uploaded the video to a CBS contest site. In all, about 700 videos were submitted to the competition, according to CBS News.

"I don't know what caught their eye, but they chose our kids to be part of the top six," Mark Smith said.

Jeddie Smith figured, "There [were] a bunch of bands that they could have chosen that were a lot better than we were. But we are just happy that they chose us for this competition."

After a surprise visit by "The Early Show" crews at their house a few weeks ago, the Smiths began making a series of weekly visits to New York City studios, as J4 hit the airwaves on "The Early Show." After each performance, fans got to vote for their favorite on the network's Web site.

The band appeared again on TV Wednesday, this time victoriously crooning The Partridge Family's "I Think
I Love You."

"CLASSICALLY TRAINED"

For years, the two older children, Jessi and Jeddie, have performed music with their parents, Mark Smith said.

"The two younger ones had never performed with their older siblings until this competition," he said.

But all of the Smith children have learned about music as part of their homeschool education, Mark Smith said.

"They have to practice every day and several times a day. They're used to it. They love it," he said.

The Smith kids, too, dig various sounds.

"They like classical music, Broadway show tunes, classic rock," Mark Smith said. "They don't have a particular kind that they listen to all the time."

Mark Smith credits Taylor's suggestion to audition for the group's success: "We blame her. We keep telling her it's her fault we got this far," he said, laughing.

Taylor, the family friend, said she recognized the talent of the singing Smiths when she met the family two years ago.

And now? She congratulates them on their win.

"They have been very humble about this whole experience," Taylor said. "The way you see them is the way they are." - Bristol (Va.) Herald Courier


Discography

Back Home
Don't Stop
I Think I Love You

Photos

Bio

Genre: Country/Pop
Because of various musical influences, these 4 siblings were able to perform various genres, 4 weeks in a row, on national TV and win the CBS Singing Family Face-Off. Growing up on a farm and now living in East Tennessee, J4 has been surrounded by Country Music. Yet, due to their classical training and parents that introduced them to many styles of music, they enjoy listening to classic rock, pop and gospel music. All these musical categories make J4 unique in that they not only write various styles of music, but their concerts can be tailored to the event.