Blue Water Woman--Spring 2020--ONLINE

MUSICALLY
talented
BY DALE HEMMILA
Life, like a good book, sometimes it takes a chapter or two before the real
story -- the good stuff -- really begins.
Just ask award-winning singer and songwriter Julianne Ankley.
The Jeddo-native did not start singing in public until she was in her 30s.
Since that time, she has spent the past decade-plus tearing up the country
music scene from the Blue Water Area to Nashville and back again, racking
up 46 nominations and seven
wins for Detroit Music Association
(DMA) awards.
Along with her band, The Rogues,
she is the 2019 DMA Outstanding
Country Artist/Group.
Ankley, a Port Huron singer and
songwriter, has been named Blue
Water Woman Musician of the
Year. She was nominated by Trista
Bourdeau-Kolcz of Port Huron.
Not a bad track record for
someone whose high school band
director told her she wasn’t choir
material.
“I took that to mean I wasn’t any
good,” she said.
She played flute in the high school
band, but she is a self-taught guitar
player and vocalist.
“From the time I was very little, I
had a voice,” she said. “And I could
play the piano, and my parents really
wanted me to go into singing early
on. I couldn’t stand the thought of
being in front of people. I didn’t
want to be the center of attention.
But I would sing everywhere I went:
on the school bus, riding my horses,
at school. I was singing all of the
time. I just did it because I loved it.”
Going through an illness and
recovery in her 30s, however,
changed her point of view about
performing.
“I started thinking about everything. About my life: what am I doing?
What do I really want to do, and what’s important to me?”
She loved art when she was younger, so, after a 10-year hiatus, Ankley
began to paint again. Bourdeau-Kolcz began taking her to local karaoke bars
to sing. That led to entering and winning vocal competitions, which led to a
recording session and photo shoot. She joined a Detroit-area band, which led
to some time in Nashville. She decided to start writing her own songs. That
led to cutting a solo demo. She launched herself as a solo artist in 2009.
JULIANNE ANKLEY
She has since released three albums of original country music. And country
music is where she feels comfortable.
“I grew up listening to country music,” she said. “It’s where the stories are.”
Ankley has added to those stories with songs and music videos of her own.
There is the story of a single mom living with her kids in her car called, “No
Place for a Lullabye,” and the song she wrote for her sister-in-law about her
nephew leaving for military service
called, “He’s Still My Boy.” Her most
recent video, “Why,” is about leaving
and good-byes. It was recorded at
the Lexington Village Theater.
Currently, she is finishing her
fourth album, which includes a
new song she co-wrote with Caleb
Malooley of the regionally-known
rock group, The Gasoline Gypsies.
While recording sessions in
Nashville with top musicians such
as, “Reba McIntire’s band drummer,
Willie Nelson’s guitar player,” add
high quality to her recordings, it
doesn’t make it any easier to make a
living singing and writing music.
“No one is buying music,” Ankley
said. “The majority of people
listening to music are not purchasing
music; they are streaming.”
Music streaming services such as
Spotify, Apple Music, and Pandora
do not pay musical artists very well.
Ankley shared that on her Pandora
account for the fourth quarter of
2019, she had 643 “spins,” which
paid her a grand total of 13 cents.
To counter that, Ankley is signing
sponsors for her next CD, which
she also plans to also release on vinyl
later this year.
Fortunately, Ankley has a day job,
where she works as a pediatric dental
hygienist.
And while making money with her music would be great, it is not the total
end-game.
“I have several artists who are cutting my music, that I have co-written, or
written solely, and hopefully it will provide an income for me,” she said. “But it’s
more about the journey than anything: when you sit in front of people, and you
play something you wrote from your heart. When you see that you’ve touched
somebody, they send a vibration back to you. It is selfish and selfless at the same
time. When you can make someone feel something, it’s fabulous and there’s
nothing like it.”
10 SPRING 2020 BLUEWATERWOMAN.COM