Julie Clark
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Julie Clark

Norfolk, Virginia, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2015 | INDIE

Norfolk, Virginia, United States | INDIE
Established on Jan, 2015
Solo Folk Pop

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This band has not uploaded any videos
This band has not uploaded any videos

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Press


"This will soon become your favorite album!"

This will soon become your favorite album! What makes this album stand out is Julie’s ability to translate the personal into universal and make it sound so fine. A real beauty of an album...ready for your discovery. - Dish Miss


"Can be summed up in one word: Charisma"

One of the challenges for musicians who like to draw from their own lives for material is writing songs that share personal details but still convey universal emotions. Julie Clark is a master of that tricky art.

Her second CD of acoustic pop, “Change Your Mind,” is one of the year’s best, and as I learned at her concert last night at the Art House in Provincetown, she’s just as good delivering her songs in person as she is on CD. Right from the start, Clark demonstrated a type of low-key self-assurance that can be summed up in one word: charisma.

Perhaps Clark got a big boost of confidence when one of her new songs, “Courage of Our Convictions,” was chosen as the theme song for the National Equality March a week ago in Washington, D.C. She’s also overcome some major self-esteem issues, something she addresses in “If It Weren’t for That” and “Change Your Mind” (“Did you know I used to be twice the size I am currently?” goes one line). It all adds to a confidence that allows her to deliver songs with inspirational lyrics without becoming sappy or preaching.

Clark opened the show with a pair of covers. She kicked things off with Julie Miller’s “I Need You,” which had a swampy folk sound, thanks to some slide guitar by Larry Berwald, who played a key supporting role in the show. Next up was Kasey Chambers’ “A Million Tears.” Released on her 2002 CD, “Barricades & Brickwalls,” it’s one of my favorite songs of the decade, yet it took me a solid minute to recognize it, because Clark’s voice is so different from Chambers’ (Clark’s voice at times recalls Alanis Morisette’s or Kris Delmhorst’s).

Most of the other 10 songs were Clark’s originals, including “Dangerous,” which addresses an attraction to someone you know is bad news, and “Your Wings” ...One of the highlights was “Growin’ Up,” in which she tells about the ups and downs of growing up with an older brother. It’s a prime example of how the specifics might not match everyone’s experience, but the feelings she conveys certainly do.
Based in Norfolk, Va., Clark is building a solid reputation, winning, among other things, a first place award in the Great American Song Contest and the award for best audience response at the Cornucopia Music Festival. Based on last night’s performance, I’d expect she’ll be winning plenty more awards in the future. - Bill O'Neill Writes


"Music that's insightful, polished and heartfelt"

"Best of 2009. Clark makes music that’s insightful, polished and heartfelt.”
- The Daily Press


"Most Every Cut Belongs on the Radio"

Most every cut belongs on the radio. Each song carries a narrative guaranteed to reach down into memories you'd long forgotten, to spark up a smothered sense of freedom and future, and to overturn apathy and dispiritedness while pondering the heartaches of the past. - Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange


"Catches your attention"

Catches your attention with the first line of every song and doesn't let go.
- Provincetown Banner


"A gem worth checking out"

Change Your Mind is a gem worth checking out. And while music is often used to change minds, it's good to remember that music can also change hearts. Clark has that gift. - Wildy's World


"Positive attitude shines through"

The simplicity of the arrangements and the crystalline production give the album a luminescence that lets the positive attitude of her lyrics shine through. - Portfolio Weekly


Discography

"Change Your Mind" - Released January 13, 2009

"Feel Free" - Debut CD, 2003

2006: IndieMusic for Life compilation includes "One of These Days"

2005 SBS Records Indie Music Sampler Compilation includes "Precisely (What You Need)"

2005 GoGirls Music Compilation includes "Precisely (What You Need)"

2004 Mid-Atlantic Song Contest 21 Winner's Compilation CD includes "Your Wings", recipient of the Gold Award (Folk/Acoustic category)

Photos

Bio

~ AWARDS ~

- WINNER: Kerrville New Folk Competition

- WINNER: Great American Song Contest: 1st Place, Folk/Acoustic Category

- WINNER: Cornucopia Music Festival - Best Audience Response

- WINNER: Virginia Music Awards: Folk/Acoustic Artist of the Year

- WINNER: Mid-Atlantic Song Contest: Grand Prize

- WINNER: Mid-Atlantic Song Contest: Gold Awards, Folk & Adult Contemporary Categories

- WINNER: Rocky Mountain Folks Festival – 2nd Place

- WINNER: OMA Song of The Year

YOU'LL KNOW IT IN AN INSTANT.
Whatever it is that gives certain singer/songwriters real promise and broad appeal, Julie Clark has it.

It’s her voice that wins you first... remarkably expressive, sincere and somehow comforting. A captivating sound that leads you willingly into her memorable folk-pop songs.

Clark’s second full-length CD of all-original material, Change Your Mind, is crystal clear – both in terms of Clark’s vivid lyrics and the pristine sonic quality of the recording itself. You can see straight to the bottom of its sparkling pool of widely diverse emotions. From the ebullient hopefulness of the opening track “Change Your Mind” to the raucous fun of “I’d Do ‘Em All (if I could),” Clark’s songwriting addresses a broad range of human experience with surprising honesty and insight. Throughout Change Your Mind, Clark sings of love in its many forms, such as the poignant hope of restoring closeness with a sibling in “Growin’ Up” and the longing to be desired romantically in “Jacket.”

“Despite the different tones and themes,” Clark says, “all the songs on Change Your Mind share an underlying theme of hope. They all speak to the strength and resiliency of our dreams and desires.”

Some songs in this new collection reveal extraordinary vulnerability. “If it Weren’t for That” is a crushing firsthand recollection of the shame of growing up with a weight problem – shared in stark, unadorned simplicity. Clark'’s risk is your reward, though it may come as a bit of a shock to realize you’ve entered into completely unprotected reaches of her heart. The experience of hearing Clark’'s songs is both powerful and intense – stirring yet soothing.

Change Your Mind was recorded with a distinct reverence for the songs themselves. Production assistance from Robert Ulsh and John Toomey focused on supporting the words and meaning of each story with no unnecessary elements. Clark invited renowned musicians such as Stephen Bennett, John Toomey, Bill Gurley, Jimmy Masters and Tom Jones to help illuminate the significance of each song.

Clark first committed her songcraft to disc on her debut CD Feel Free (Great Big Records, 2003). Despite the many songwriting awards bestowed on Feel Free, her continued development as a songwriter is evident throughout Change Your Mind, proving that the intervening time was very well spent. The disc is rich in wordplay, such as the darkly ironic humor in her song about the death of Superman: “The funeral was today / The Super Friends were all super-busy / and though they couldn’t come / The Super Friends were super-bummed.”

Clark has garnered considerable acclaim as an emerging artist. Her many accolades include winning the Kerrville New Folk Songwriting Competition (adding her name to a list of luminaries that includes Lyle Lovett, Steve Earle, Nanci Griffith and Shawn Colvin); winning 1st Place in the Great American Song Contest; and being named Folk/Acoustic Artist of the Year at the Virginia Music Awards.

From her home base in Norfolk, Virginia, Clark maintains a busy national touring schedule of performances at premiere festivals and clubs such as The Barns of Wolftrap in Vienna, Virginia and The Rocky Mountain Folks Festival in Lyons, Colorado.

“I love it when people are moved by songs I’ve shared with them,” Clark explains. “That human connection is what keeps me going. It keeps me driving long distances and striving to reach my true potential as an artist, and as a person.”

Band Members