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Tammy
Weis December
5/01
For most of her life Tammy Weis seemed destined to
sing hurtin' country tunes. Growing up in Alberta Tammy followed in her
mother's footsteps as a singer who was looking for an audience, but like
her mother she always seemed one step away. That all changed when Weis
relocated to Vancouver and found a new style and purpose in Jazz. John Beaudin - Were you surprised when you heard that no one in Vancouver was awarded the Smooth Jazz License? Tammy Weis - Absolutely. Jazz music especially Diana Krall and the recognition it gets plus the sales I was just shocked. John - I found that 95% of the musicians I talked to were supportive of the format. Tammy - Well for the most part. It's Jazz and certainly anything that is Jazz related would be beneficial to Jazz musicians. I think once people were educated on what it really represented, people bottom line knew that it was going to effect and support them and it certainly would have opened a lot of doors. With Smooth Jazz to a certain degree you think of Kenny G but looking at the bigger picture it affected a lot more than just the Kenny G's of the world. John - Of course. I'd say Smooth Jazz to a few musicians during the time I was trying to get support for CHUM's bid for the format in Vancouver and they would gasp in horror and say, "you don't mean Kenny G, please not a Kenny G station !" Tammy - I can imagine John - But as a programmer I've played alot of Kenny G and I can't say I'm a big fan of his music but he has acted as a bridge for the format. I know no one wants to admit it but Kenny G has brought fans to Smooth Jazz who have in turn gone on to different genre's of Jazz. Tammy - Sure I can see that. John - Tell me about the Jazz scene in Vancouver. Tammy - Per capita there are a lot of Jazz musicians in this town. There are limited opportunities to perform but each person is so different and has their own little niche it can vary. For me, I can do voice overs and jingles so there are opportunities to make some money and do it here. I think making it in any town is about relationship building. You have to get out there and build those relationships. I also have sales experience so I feel more comfortable and naturally I'm a people person so that helps. John - When you were doing sales was that before you looked at music seriously? Tammy - Yes, that was before. I had actually worked at Z-95 (a highly rated CHR Format) here in Vancouver selling radio advertising for a couple of years and before that I sold newspaper advertising at southam in Edmonton. It was interesting to get the different aspects of sales and getting into the music industry from a different angle. I can't imagine what it's like for musicians without that sales experience, it must be a huge struggle because even with that it's still a lot of work for me. John - How many generations are we talking here when it comes to music in your family? Tammy - Well, my great great grandparents on both sides were singers and musicians, that's as far back as I know. My great grandfather on my mom's side played the fiddle and the banjo and he was in a bluegrass band. My great grandmother played piano and sang and I found out that there's a huge musical background on my father's side as well. John - Do you stand a little taller knowing that is part of your foundation? Do you get a sense of satisfaction knowing you are carrying that on for the family? Tammy - What I found from making the Legacy CD, it's exactly what you said. There's something amazing that this CD was not only for me but it was for everyone in my family as well. It was for my great great grandparents who were singing in church choirs. Let's face it, everybody who is a musician has the dream, they have this grandiose picture of where they want to be and for whatever reason each generation never had that chance. My mom was very close, she in fact became a professional musician and had a dream of recording a record but never had that chance. With my mom actually having her voice on the CD I was able to help her with that. John - I loved that about your CD actually having your mother on there. Was that you singing "Country Roads" on the CD? Tammy - Yes and my mom was playing piano. John -You're just a little girl singing, that's magical and a nice bonus touch. It's sort of like a musical photo album but it's a hidden track. Tammy - Yeah, I'd heard so much about hidden tracks and wanted to do something special. I have this CD of my grandmother and her two sisters singing Andrew's sisters tunes and I transferred all of it from cassette to CD. I've got my mom, her brothers and sisters as little kids doing performances so I have all these old performances. I was going through these with my boyfriend and we came across me doing "Country Roads" and he said, "there's your hidden track." I thought it's perfect, with that track I can end where I began. I was seven and in grade two when I performed it and I won the talent show at school. John - Do you actually remember that performance? Tammy - Oh yes, I was in front of about three hundred people. Actually, I did my first performance when I was three. John - You're very fortunate, most people do not have recordings of their past. Tammy - My grandparents taped everything. I was very fortunate and I've got years and years of video. At Christmas to open our presents we had to sing songs (laughing) there were 30 or 40 of us in there in Killem, Alberta. John - As I was reading your bio and listening to your album I kept wondering why you didn't record a Country album. Tammy - Everyone says I have a Country voice and I grew up with Country but I don't have the passion for it that I do for Jazz. I first found Jazz when I heard Sarah Vaughan singing "Over The Rainbow" and there was something so pure there. John - Since we're talking genre's what were you listening to during your twenty's? Tammy - Stevie Nicks. I used to spend hours in my room with the big head phones on imitating Stevie Nicks, getting her vibrato down or scratchy vibrato. John - With the new album do you have a direction yet for it? Tammy - A good friend of my mom's told me, "I'm so proud of you for doing this and I can't wait until you do something for yourself." I don't have a specific title but I have an idea of the songs and the material. I'll probably have one original song but mostly I'm focusing on being true to myself and true to Jazz music. I'm sorry, I'm not giving you too much information. John - Actually you're bringing up interesting points. I notice when I interview musicians for the second, third or fourth time how they seem to stand a little firmer on both legs with each album. Although it doesn't happen to everyone, a lot of the players who try to be more true to themselves with each release are the ones getting to that next level. Tammy - A lot of this first CD was because of my mom and that past generation. Certainly it was for me as well, but the primary focus was not on me. This next project is me, it's me in the raw. John - So you were named after Tammy Wynette? Tammy - I was John - And you did 'Stand by your Man' on the album? (laughing) Tammy - (Laughing) You know it was a really interesting story there. In growing up, there was a time I had boyfriend problems and I wanted to know what to do. My mom's actual advice was (laughing) "You know Tammy, you need to stand by your man," and I said," Mom, life is not a Tammy Wynette song." So, I thought I just had to have the song on the album given the history behind it. John - Well you know, our own mothers and most mothers of that generation said and heard that a lot. Tammy - One thing I guess with the song "My Baby Just Cares For Me" that is kind of my mantra or desire on how I want my relationship to be, so I have the two different perspectives on the CD. John - Interestingly, those stand by your man beliefs were alive not that long ago. Ten years ago when I first filled in to do "Lovesongs" on CFUN here in Vancouver, a lot of the calls I got in the studio were of the make it work no matter what belief mentality. In doing Lovesongs now, let me tell you the whole attitude has changed a lot. I think a lot of us are miles away from our parents. Tammy - We really are and I'm very happy that relationships are coming from more honest places. There's more communication and equality so we're really blessed from other generations and we're able to have our independence. My mom, she was so young, she married young and had kids at an early age. It wasn't until my parents divorced when I was sixteen that she decided that her life was too short and she needed to follow her dream and go where her passion was. John - Did you only know then that your mother was that serious about music? Maybe you always knew? Tammy
- I always knew. For years I saw my mom do weddings and people would come
over, have dinner, a couple of drinks and listen to my mom play. As the
years went on it became me and my mom and then my sister joined in years
later. So that was a typical evening at our house, if you came over you
knew you were going to be entertained. For my dad and his upbringing I
think it was hard for him to fathom my mom pursuing that and being a mom
and his wife. The same goes for myself when I was young I had opportunities
to go to another level and my dad felt a bit uncomfortable with that and
wanted me to wait until I was really old enough to fully understand it
and it's turned out okay. Jazz music is about experience and emotion and
probably twenty years ago I wouldn't have had the maturity to do that. Tammy - It's almost like it's a purity with Jazz. It's like opening up that door, you open up your voice and it's a bigger channel to your soul. I think more than any other type of music it helps you project and allows the listener to share in that it's not only about the beat and the music, it's about what the voice can project and that's through all the things you go through in life, the experience. John - Well, Jazz is coming along. The Ken Burns Jazz series on PBS didn't hurt. Tammy - That's great. That's actually high from what I've heard. John - As far as I know the genre's of Jazz, Smooth Jazz, New Age and World add up to about a five share of the market but it's going to grow. Tammy - You know I can understand that with Diana Krall selling so many CD's. John - Tell me the story about your dad coming back to consciousness after a stroke and singing your song. That's one of those stories you open or close a book with. Tammy - Yes, it's been an interesting life. My dad grew up in a typical strict german family. I realized when that happened how much he supported me and sometimes people have a hard time verbalizing that. For him to be lying there coming out of his coma singing "All Of Me" something I just recorded, it got to a point that we had to get him his own private room because he was driving everybody crazy. So, I was with him for the majority of the first few months of his recovery and we'd sing together. John - Your mother passed in 1994 did your whole life go topsy turvy? Tammy - Absolutely. My mother had a house and all these thing that I had to deal with. My mom passed away so suddenly. She was 44 and she had heart disease and she had a couple of previous heart attacks earlier, but you never really expect it. My mom and I weren't really close growing up but we had started going though a lot of our healing and we were becoming close and we were looking forward to the years ahead, then boom she's gone! My grandmother had passed away nine months before my mom and I was very close with my grandma. Six months before my mom died I had this dream that she died so I wrote her this letter saying listen, life is too short and I really want to be closer to you and she responded with a six page letter and basically telling me everything that I ever wanted to hear. John
- There's something that hardly ever happens. What a gift! Tammy - That true. John - I guess life's not about getting through the easy stuff were always dancing around potholes. Tammy - That's exactly it. No one can tell you how it's going to effect you or how you are going to feel when you lose a parent or a sibling. That dream I had of losing my mother didn't even come close to the actual emotion that I felt when she actually died. So yes, you have to make that decision at that point on whether you are going to wallow in self pity or make a difference and make a change. John - So was that the catalyst into music? Tammy - Well four years later, my Dad had a massive stroke and the priest is called in and were told he's not going to survive. He was in the hospital for thirteen weeks and in ICU for six weeks. So here I am thinking I'm losing my second parent and my Dad was the final kick that I needed to do my music. He survived and never in my life have I been so grateful to be able to come home and remove myself from his care and just play and perform and be the best that I could be and appreciate that fact that I have that opportunity. Music saved my life while he was in the hospital. Music was my counsellor. John - Do you feel guided? Tammy
- I really felt that in the process of doing this CD I really felt my
Mom and grandma were there as part of the process. When you look at my
career I've had an incredible amount of success with magazine covers and
the 'Divas for Life' thing. I
have also had national exposure on Canada AM and Star TV. Recently I was
in New York and I don't kid myself for a moment and think it's all me,
I know that I have to keep on doing what I'm doing. I also know that I'm
on a mission and I know I have supporters on the other side. Tammy - When my mom passed away I was living in Vancouver and I had some friends over visiting and their little boy who was three was sleeping on the floor. All of a sudden out of the blue this little boy start screaming, he's has a terrible nightmare. My friend runs out of the room in a panic and I look at the clock it's 4:30am. Well, fifteen minutes later I get a phone call that my mom had passed away at almost the exact same time this little boy had this nightmare. My brother and sister at the time lived together and they had one of these old Christmas mugs with the battery that hadn't been working. Well, as they were just about to run to the hospital to go see my mom the mug started playing. John - These are like campfire stories. Tammy - Oh, it get's better. My mom loved Christmas and she passed away on January 10th so all of her Christmas decorations were still up and we had to move the Christmas tree from the the main floor to the spare room upstairs. At five in the morning my sister and I were sitting on my mom's bed and the Christmas tree had been sitting in the spare bedroom for about 10 hours and I talked to my sister and said this is an opportunity for us to make a change since we don't have these people in our lives anymore. It's time to make a change and I swear to you that no sooner did those words come out of my mouth the Christmas tree fell over and my sister and I start screaming. I strongly believe that she is with me and my grandmother is with me too. John - I hear you do work for the Heart and Lung Foundation. Tammy - Yes, I'm a spokesperson. John - Do you practise what you preach? Tammy - Sure do. You know I can even look at certain people and know they are at risk. John - Is it hot in here or is it just me? Tammy
- (Laughing) There are some musician's that I know that I've had to have
heart to heart talks with for them to change their lifestyles. If you
get ill or die this doesn't only effect you it effects everyone. Some
kid will know his life will never be the same because his dad didn't take
care of himself the way he should have. MORE ON TAMMY WEIS
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