Julie Doiron & the Wooden Stars

On her own, Julie Doiron plays an intimate folk music that threatens to disappear in the corner of the room. A former member of the indie-rock band Eric’s Trip, Doiron has rarely sounded comfortable in the company of strangers — or other band members for that matter. Her music requires a calm, steady quiet. So it’s with a bit of shock that her collaboration with the Ottawa-based Wooden Stars comes together so naturally. The band never comes close to overpowering her and her unassuming persona blends right in with the smooth haze cast over the appropriately titled “The Longest Winter,” where she warms up with mildly amplified electric guitars and a beat that nearly brings things to a crawl. “Dance Music” isn’t exactly as its title implies, though it does pick up the pace, much like “The Best Thing for Me” where there’s an actual *jab* to the instrumentation. Doiron isn’t for everyone. But for those who enjoy hunkering down and sitting patiently, her music provides a meditational pull.

Will You Still Love Me? and Julie Doiron and the Wooden Stars are the two much-acclaimed albums that Julie Doiron released on Tree Records in 1999 (the latter was also released on her own Sappy Records imprint in Canada, where it won the 2000 Juno Award-the Canadian equivalent to the Grammy-for best independently released record of the year). Having been out of print for the greater part of two years, Jagjaguwar is proud to reintroduce them to the record buying public in newly packaged form, with upgraded booklets that include lyrics for the first time. Also, the Julie Doiron and the Wooden Stars CD will include a compressed version of her video for the song "Dance Music", accessible to fans with personal computers. After a solo album on Sub Pop (her home for the previous decade with Eric's Trip), Doiron found a good home in Tree, for whom she first released Will You Still Love Me? As the inaugural EP, it was also a creative spring-board for Doiron, a mini-album that has endured as a fan favorite. Adored for its sparse, no-nonsense demeanor, the EP offers a first glimpse at what has become Doiron's signature style, the moody union of vocals and guitar whose unified tone both expresses and evokes a timeless longing for a comforting, primal maternalism. From that understated gem she launched right into her most critically-acclaimed and accessible album, Julie Doiron and the Wooden Stars. Ottawa-based quartet the Wooden Stars played as the back-up band and helped Doiron step out of her solitary, introspective robe and venture into a more urgent and upbeat, albeit still relatively spartan, direction. Combining elements of rock and jazz-a la Joni Mitchell's early '70s work-Julie and the Wooden Stars somehow translated the coldness of the Canadian winter into one of the warmest and most tender records to be produced in the Eastern province in years. Julie Doiron began her career in music in 1990 at the age of 18 in Moncton, New Brunswick Canada playing bass in Eric's Trip, a folky yet psychedelic band that was to become the undisputed underground darling of Canadian Music. Eric's Trip were the first of many maritime Canadians signed to Sub Pop and found international recognition releasing several albums and touring widely. Following 1996's Purple Blue, Eric's Trip announced their breakup and Julie Doiron embarked on her solo career, first releasing songs as "Broken Girl" but then under her own name. Since then she has worked with a veritable Who's Who list of independent rock giants, including Dave Shouse (Grifters), Howe Gelb (Giant Sand) and Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie, to name a few. She is now a recording artist for Jagjaguwar, and her notoriety as an "indie-diva" or "chanteuse" of the highest power is at its highest peak in the wake of respective releases of the critically acclaimed set of records, Desormais and Heart And Crime, both on Jagjaguwar.

The most produced of her records, Julie Doiron and the Wooden Stars' self-titled record maintains that minimal style inherent in Doiron's previous releases.