Janelle Donovan: Press

Janelle Donovan Has The Holiday Spirit

By Don Wilcock  for The Record, Troy, New York             Merry Christmas!

          “Should I be politically correct about this,” asks Janelle Donovan who’s just put out an album called Christmas Eyes? On the cover she smiles like a Cheshire cat dressed in red and surrounded by mistletoe and snow flakes. The packaging is all politically correct and generic, but the message is Christmas with a capital C. “Happy holidays” may be all encompassing, but the Janelle’s heart is bursting with a very specific Christian message.

      “There are a lot of traditions going on this time of year,” explains this former Capital Region performer who now lives in California. “We have a huge global audience right now. So I certainly want to be as inclusive as I can, but I do love to say Merry Christmas.”

          The album does just that. Half the songs, including “Christmas Love,” were recorded in 2001 with guitarist and bass player Joe Mele and keyboardist Tony Perrino at Perrino’s studio. The other half was recorded on the West Coast with violinist Mark Cargill and keyboardist Greg Cook.

          One of the new songs, “Dancing Around the Tree with Santa” was inspired by a little girl in Janelle’s family. “She was two years old last Christmas and just the song in her heart made her prance about like a little reindeer. From her prancing is where I got the rhythm for the song. I just thought about how much fun she’d have if Santa actually showed up and could join her.”

          “Christmas Eyes” offers a yuletide answer to the pain and suffering in a world reeling from economic hardship. “I was looking around me and noticing that everybody was feeling financial stress, and my hope was I really believe people in their hearts already know this about what’s important and about what’s really something worth treasuring in their life. That is their loved ones and the times they have together.”

She was inspired to write the song by watching the news on TV which has become a blame game. “I can’t feel very spiritual or very loving or connected if I’m embroiled in resentment and in trying to find people to blame. To be honest with you one of the people I was thinking of who seemed to get a lot of heat from the blame was President Obama. I was thinking about him and just how difficult it must be to hold up under all of that pressure from the first minute he walked into office.”

Janelle is a multiple Northeast Country Music Association award winner locally for her collaborative efforts with Tony Perrino and Joe Mele.  She’s just as proud of her relationship with Mark Cargill and Greg Cook, pointing specifically to her scatting performance on “Good King Wenceslas.” “I looked at Mark with the headphones on my head, and he said, ‘Try some scatting at the end.’ I looked at him and said, ‘I can’t do it. Last time I did it, people laughed at me. People made fun of me.’ He said, ‘No, no, you can do it. I believe it. You can do it.’ It was very powerful to have him believe in me.”

Janelle’s Christmas spirit is pervasive and not merely a seasonal smile she turns on but rather a gift for the entire calendar. Past efforts have included Monahan’s Old Truck, a CD featuring interviews with fire fighting vets of 9/11 where proceeds went to the fallen firefighters’ families. She’s also does private tutoring for children with cerebral palsy and brain damage. “I get really enthusiastic responses. Music doesn’t feel like work to them suddenly. Just like for myself, it feels like a hot fudge sundae.

“Despite some of their many limitations they put a tremendous amount of effort forth working with a melody line or to use an old familiar melody and create lyrics to it. I’ve had some great moments in my life with those kids doing that.”

Janelle plans to put out a jazz album in the spring. Again, half of the project is with Tony and Joe and half with Mark and Greg. Neither pair has actually met each other, and Janelle feels like she’s got one foot in the east and one in the west. She admits she’s homesick for the northeast and says it’s her brother who works in TV in California who convinced her to move out there. As a child she used to follow him around everywhere.

“When he and his friends were playing Army, I wanted to join him and be a soldier, but he told me to go sit in the barn and be the nurse and wait for the wounded, but nobody ever showed up. I fell asleep in that barn waiting for the wounded.”

That should have been a clue right there.

“I guess so,” she laughs. “I used to try and play football with him and his friends, and I was so little the only thing I could do was jump on his friends’ back and hang there.”

See the video for “Christmas Eyes” on YouTube.

 

Callout:

“We have a huge global audience right now. So I certainly want to be as inclusive as I can, but I do love to say Merry Christmas.”

 

 

 

Don Wilcock

Editor-in-chief - BluesWax

Editor-in-chief - FolkWax

Contributing Editor - Blues Revue

Music writer - Troy Record

2008  The Blues Foundation's Keeping The Blues Alive in Print Journalism Award

 

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Pete Smith, UK, FAB Radio on December 10, 2010, 11:09 pm

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“The Advertiser”  (UK) 3 December 2010 

As Christmas gets ever nearer I have a couple more seasonal albums for your consideration.

“Christmas Eyes” (Comstock) by Janelle Donovan may not be entirely country but I do love it because it is different. “Dancing Round The Tree With Santa” features a hot fiddle player and there is a bluegrass version of “Go Tell It On The Mountain” but it is the jazz version of “Good King Wencelas” that caught my attention. Also included are two versions, vocal and instrumental, of “Silent Night” and a rare cover of the old standard “Count Your Blessings”. www.cdbaby.com/cd/janelledonovan Remember there are stars in the southern sky.