Joyce Cooling Happy Being a Marketing Hook
June 16, 2004 - It's no secret that Smooth Jazz is mostly a boys club but Joyce Cooling says that didn't hurt her a bit, "I think the only reason I got signed was because I'm female. It did not work against me," says Cooling. She told Smooth Jazz Now that if she was a man her first album would have never been released, "Being female in Smooth Jazz lets face it is a marketing hook and that's ok I could care less. All I know is I have to play." Cooling is currently charting with the hit 'Expression' from her latest album 'This Girls Got To Play' and she is our artist of the month for June. The guitarist says the whole girl power thing in music it's usually "very valid but then some is not so valid it's just too cutesy. You know cutesy women getting by on other stuff. Read our updated interview with Cooling.

Joyce Cooling On Her Adventurous Teenage Years
June 9, 2004 - Let's face it, we all acted out during our teenage years. Maybe it was drinking lemon gin in between classes or getting that daring tattoo or piercing. Joyce Cooling probably has you beat in that department though - she hitchhiked across Canada! "We were sixteen or seventeen," says Cooling, "Our parents to this day had no idea. I told my mom I was just going to my friend's house." Cooling who has just released the album 'This Girls Got To Play' said they saw as much of Canada as they could, "We hitchhiked right through the country to Montreal and my friend had a brother living in Toronto so we visited him and we went to Calgary but we didn't get to Vancouver. I think we ran out of money." The guitarist says she was, "a little nuts" back then adding, "If I had a daughter I would be terrified by this." Cooling is our 'Artist of the Month for June. Read our interview.

Joyce Cooling - 'Artist of the Month' For June
June 1, 2004 - Joyce Cooling doesn't know if it was a weird twist of fate or simply bad luck that her last album 'Third Wish' was released on one of the darkest days in recent memory - 9/11. Living in San Francisco the former New Yorker could only think about her family that day, "I was terrified," says Cooling "I was glued to the TV like everyone else and I forgot all about the CD being released." The guitarist told Smooth Jazz Now that the period following the World Trade Center attacks had her contemplating leaving the music industry all together. Cooling says, "I felt like a big pink puffy wad of cotton candy like what am I going to do play guitar?" Well, that's exactly what she did but not before a lot of soul searching. "You come right back home to where you started realizing that you know what? This is what I love, this is something I have to do. It's in my bone marrow." The result is her new album with a title that describes an artist with fortified conviction, 'This Girls Got To Play." Joyce Cooling is the Smooth Jazz Now 'Artist of the Month.' Read our interview from April, 28th 2004.

Joyce Cooling Returns March 23 on Narada Jazz
February 24, 2004 - Joyce Cooling is making big changes. The guitarist has a new album on a new record label. The CD on Narada Jazz is called "This Girl's Got To Play" and will be in stores March 23. Narada Jazz is very excited about the project calling it, "sassy, sexy, and savvy." Cooling says, "The time leading up to the album was, musically speaking, a very restless one for me. I was anxious to experiment with new ideas." The guitarist did experiment and it paid off, "For me, it's a good thing to be on the edge. It keeps me focused and looking forward to the next project." The title song looks back at her own life, "As a kid, I just had to play music. All I wanted was to be in a band." says Cooling, "No, I wasn't a cheerleader in high school."