From: owner-canadian-music-digest@smoe.org (canadian-music-digest) To: canadian-music-digest@smoe.org Subject: canadian-music-digest V2 #111 Reply-To: canadian-music@smoe.org Sender: owner-canadian-music-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-canadian-music-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk canadian-music-digest Wednesday, July 7 1999 Volume 02 : Number 111 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Alexandra Sleightholm [Paul Schreiber ] Re: Alexandra Sleightholm [Tabassum Siddiqui ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 6 Jul 1999 00:54:42 -0700 From: Paul Schreiber Subject: Alexandra Sleightholm anyone here heard of her? seen her live? i see stuff about C'est What and Free Times :) Paul http://www.canoe.com/JamMusic/jul4_lilith2.html Hot child in the city Alexandra Sleightholm has Hip managers, Lilith Fair and film interest By SUZANNE ELLIS Toronto Sun TORONTO -- Not many local singer-songwriters can say that Hollywood power producer Jerry Bruckheimer is a fan. But Alexandra Sleightholm can. She auditioned for Bruckheimer's representatives when they were in town last month looking for an actress-singer for Coyote Ugly, a movie in the pre-production casting stage. Over 100 showed up, and Sleightholm made an impression, although she didn't have enough acting experience for the role. However, Bruckheimer's staff agreed that they would be hearing more about Sleightholm and passed that view on to Bruckheimer, he who produced Armageddon, among others. Others in the music industry agree. Meanwhile, the folk-pop songstress has a great deal to learn -- like her songs. "I've left out big chunks of lyrics before," says 18-year-old Sleightholm, who is gearing up to play Lilith Fair at the Molson Amphitheatre Aug. 21-22. "I'd begin playing the intro and realize I didn't even know what to sing. Now I always make sure I have a lyric sheet with me when I'm playing." Sleightholm and her introspective lyrics created a big-time buzz at this year's Canadian Music Week in March. Shortly after a showcase at Holy Joe's, she was signed to The Management Trust, which also represents bands The Tragically Hip and Big Wreck. By all accounts, she's on the verge of a major career burst. Just two years ago Sleightholm performed her first shows at Second Cup coffee houses around Toronto. Those were the days. "I remember one time this old guy told me to keep it down," she says, smiling at the recollection. And who can forget the night Sleightholm played to an audience of one on the Seinfeld final-episode evening. Now Sleightholm feels at home playing regular gigs at Free Times Cafe and C'est What?, where they actually listen to her sing. In April, she performed for 500 people at the Fourth Annual Camp Trillium benefit alongside guitarist Rik Emmett and ex-Glass Tiger frontman Alan Frew. Sleightholm was so serious about developing, she had taken a year off from a local high school to focus on her music. "I just wrote and wrote and wrote, and played and played and played," says the teen. "It was a really good starting point to be able to do whatever I needed to do for my music and not have to worry about school." She's decided to finish her secondary education at Interact, an alternative institution designed for actors, musicians and athletes who have busy schedules. "I think it was being in a setting where you were told what to do all the time, and if you did something different, you'd get yelled at," Sleightholm says of her mainstream school days. Obviously, she prefers to do things her own way, although she does remember attending a couple of guitar lessons at age 10, then quit. "It was like, 'Play this note,' and I had no idea how to read music," she says. "I didn't want to have to think about stuff like that. I just wanted to play." After a few years, Sleightholm picked up the guitar again after hearing the band Green Day on the radio. She tried to play along with the tunes on her tape machine but found she couldn't keep up. Eventually, Sleightholm tried her hand at songwriting. She wrote her first tunes with older sister, Stephanie. "I tried to write the lyrics and music at the same time and just shove them together, but that never worked. The words never fit right," she says. "Then I started to write the music first and write the lyrics after. At some point, that began to work." Just after her 16th birthday, Sleightholm released her first CD with three original songs. Since then, her songwriting has matured. "The older you get, the more life experience you have to write about," she says. "That doesn't go for everyone. I'm sure there are some 10-year-olds who have experienced more than I have and some 50-year-olds who have experienced less." She usually comes home after a night out with her friends, retires to her basement bedroom and writes. "It depends. Sometimes I'll write about what I did that day, or I'll write about a problem I'm having," she says. "I just want to get rid of the thoughts in my head. Sometimes it'll take 20 minutes, or sometimes three days." Sleightholm still plays the scratched Yamaha acoustic guitar she first learned on. The six-string belongs to her mom, who used to play children's songs for them. Sleightholm says both her parents are supportive. "I don't know what I'd do without them," she says. "I know a lot of kids my age who want to get into music and their parents won't let them. It's horrible because their parents are crushing their dreams." Next step? She wants to establish a fan base and record a full-length CD. And she recently added two more musicians to the fold. Keyboard player Jason Wilson and sax player Rob Carli now join singer-guitarist Sleightholm. And despite her ambitious career objectives, she plans to finish high school. "I thought about going to university or college, but music is all I can ever think about. I'm a little obsessed with it. Doing anything else would be completely wrong. I would betray myself." - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Alexandra Sleightholm File Funny gig: Sleightholm sang on a Sharon, Lois and Bram record when she was eight years old. Fave cover tune: Sleightholm loves to play a cover of Where Did Our Love Go? by Diana Ross. She usually closes her set with that tune. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 Jul 1999 18:48:40 -0400 (EDT) From: James McGarry Subject: Have _You_ Hugged your CBC Today? +------+----------------+-----------------+---------------------+ |Date | Session |Listening Booth |Concert | +------+----------------+-----------------+---------------------+ |Jul 10| R&MWainwright |Tricky Woo |Afro-Cuban All Stars |* |Jul 17|JaymzBee&theRJO |Fred Eaglesmith |Colin James | |Jul 24|Tricky Woo |The Wooden Stars |The Smugglers | |Jul 31|Hayden |TBA |Joe Jackson | +------+----------------+-----------------+---------------------+ Not too be missed Rufus and Martha Wainwright!! A brief Session _this_ Saturday from them will be worth every second of listening. Next Sat (17) the song-stylings of Jaymez Bee and the Royal Jelly Orcehstra for your Lounging pleasure. The Wooden Stars, I caught them last year with Julie Doiron, coool. The Smugglers! 10. Ten! Years of Smuggling! You'll want to be as Minty as they are for this one! And even a short bit of Hayden is a good bit! Take Care! James.. ========================================================================== James McGarry | jmcgarry@UoGuelph.CA - -------------------------------------------------------------------------- What sets worlds in motion is the interplay of differences, their attractions and repulsions; life is plurality, death is uniformity. - - Octavio Paz ========================================================================== ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 06 Jul 1999 21:03:54 PDT From: Tabassum Siddiqui Subject: Re: Alexandra Sleightholm Paul wrote, re: Alexandra Sleightholm... >anyone here heard of her? seen her live? Yes, I've been hearing about her for about a year now. I've only seen part of a set, at Canadian Music Week earlier this year, but what I did hear sounded good. Obviously she has a ways to go yet, but she has a very sweet voice and kind of a Jewel-esque style of music (and she even looks like a younger Jewel!). I recommend checking out an actual hard copy of this article if anyone is interested in her, especially since she is playing the Village Stage at the Toronto Lilith - there are some really cute photos of her - it was the *cover* story of the Sunday entertainment section of the Sun. Pretty impressive for such a young singer-songwriter! Yet another up-and-coming Canuck gal to add to the bunch... :) Anyone know anything about a CD? I've heard there *is* one available, an EP, I think, but it's not in the stores, and I couldn't find it during CMW... - - Tab :) ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ End of canadian-music-digest V2 #111 ************************************