Time to step-up your career

Page 7

George Jones and Patty Loveless performed for more than 150 people at the 'Tribute to Country Artists of Yesterday and Today' concert in the Sices school gym in Edmonton on Nov. 22.

Well, not the real Possum or Patty, but sound-a-like singers (as they like to be called) Wil Houle and Candice Howse.

The event was organized by JCD productions, a husband and wife operation out of Sherwood Park.

Debra and Clarence Patenaude say that this is their first step in providing Aboriginal people with an opportunity to promote their talents in the field of entertainment. Too many times, said Debra, Aboriginal people are not represented in mainstream music. She and her husband hope to see that situation change.

The evening's performances included Creative Harmony, who sang as Sweethearts of the Rodeo, Kenny Pruden, who sang as Hank Williams, Sr., and Kevin Ward, who sang as Keith Whitley.

"It was really a lot of fun. Everyone was really impressed," said Debra. "This was our first show. There were some glitches, but we overcame them and it is only going to get better. Everyone who attended gave us good reviews, and they were asking us when we were going to have another show and where. All the performers were coming off stage and you could see that they were on cloud nine. That was really good to see. Everyone could not believe how much Wil sounded like George Jones. Everyone was clapping until he was about half way through his song. He was the showstopper."

Debra said she would like to see the show travel to different communities. She said this would give the performers a chance to gain experience in singing in front of an audience and in the process be exposed to the public as entertainers. She said that having a good voice and stage presence is important, but being comfortable on stage is also integral to a performance. Debra works with the performers until they are confident enough to sing in front of an audience.

"We would not want them to sing in front of 1,000 people right away, because it could be really intimidating for them. So we try to do these smaller concerts to make them comfortable and to get them exposed and then we start to move them onto bigger audiences. We film everything in our studio, so they can see their moves and the things they have to change. We also do this so that they can get used to being on television," she said.

All potential performers get two auditions. They have go into the studio and sing for both Debra and Clarence. All the auditions are taped

"We try to generate who they sound like and as soon as we pick up on who it is, we then give them a couple of songs from that entertainer to take home for a week to practise on. Then they come back and sing those songs to us. At the end of the show, people were coming up to see if they could also audition," she said.

Debra said the entertainers are people who've been jamming and spinning their wheels in the industry. She said she would like to see them go somewhere with their music.

And if singing isn't someone's "thing," how about the field of acting? JCD productions is looking into creating a branch of the operation that focuses on acting and modeling. Debra said they also critique people who would like to get on the comedy circuit.

"If anyone is interested in doing a comedy show, they come in and we give them feedback on what they could change, if anything needs changing. The same for singers. I do voice training as well. I help them with their voices, because a lot of them still sing from the throat so they do not use the whole potential of their diaphragm. After I teach them how to use their voices, they go 'Oh, I did not even know that I could do that,'" Debra Patenaude said.

Debra and Clarence insist that their shows are held at non-drinking establishments. They believe that musicians do better without the aid of alcohol. They also insist that entertainers abstain from drinking while they are performing and let them know, up front, hat those who join the show are expected to be sober and drug-free.

For years, Debra and Clarence had the dream to set up a shop like this, but it didn't become a reality until Debra confided to a close friend about their ambition.

"She put up a Web site and said 'You are in business,' so Clarence and I began the process right away," she said.

Clarence was in the music industry for many years and toured most of Canada in the 1980s, and Debra sang jazz and traveled with blues singer Big Miller in the late 1970s.

"We are both musically inclined, so we thought 'Well, this is right up our alley.' Any one that joins us...we believe in family aspects. You can ask any of our singers and performers. We are one big family, and that is how we treat them. We don't treat them like we are the boss and they work for us. We are all equal, and we all work together and that is the way Clarence and I want it so they feel really comfortable with us so they could do a great job. So far we've met a lot of wonderful people," she said.