The Not-so-serious Jay Webber: Leelanau Songwriter Grabs an Upbeat Groove on New CD

March 20, 2002

These are hopeful days for Jay Webber. With a new CD hitting the shelves this week and a mainstage appearance planned for the Blissfest this summer, listeners throughout Northern Michigan will be hearing much more of a singer-songwriter who‘s long exemplified the acoustic soul of Leelanau County.
If you get out much, chances are you‘ve already seen Webber perform at venues such as North Peak and Scott‘s Harbor Grill in Traverse City, the Dilworth Inn in Boyne City, and O‘Keefe‘s in Suttons Bay. He‘s got a vocal and fingerpicking style reminiscent of James Taylor and is similarly thoughtful in the outlook of his songs. But it‘s not a style that extends to imitation, since 90 percent of the music Webber performs is all his own.
“I‘ve never been interested in doing covers of other person‘s songs,“ he says, noting that his songwriting career began in the sixth grade when he performed his first original song, “Day After Day“ at a school talent show. Even back then Webber showed considerable promise as a musician: one of his teachers used to pull him out of class to help tune his guitar.
Webber moved to Leelanau County 12 years ago from Royal Oak where he was a regular at the Four Green Fields Irish bar at 13 Mile Road and Woodward. Back then he had a day job as a salesman which took him all over the country. With him went his guitar, and while on the road he performed at clubs and open mikes at most of America‘s musical capitals: Nashville, San Francisco, Miami, New York, Chicago and more.
He and his wife Julie and daughter Lindsay (now 15) settled outside Cedar on 20 acres. But country life can be a bit lonely, and with his wife‘s blessing, Webber sold the property in part to finance his dream of going full-time as a musician. The Webbers moved to a smaller home across from Sugar Loaf ski resort a few years back, and Jay said farewell to his sales job to pursue a place in the spotlight as a singer-songwriter.
As any musician will tell you, performing all-original tunes can be a tough sell on the bar circuit, yet it is also the only way to achieve artistic success. So give Webber credit for hanging in there. Six years ago, he released his first album, “Innocent Child,“ a moodful meditation on some of the injustices of the world (the title track is about the death of innocent children, so often reported on the TV news).
His new album, “I Can See“, goes the upbeat route with 14 songs. “It has what I call a Latin pop feel,“ Webber says. “It‘s more fun, toe-tapping music. I realized that my music doesn‘t have to be so heavy as involving the death of innocent children.“
The mood of the CD goes back to Webber‘s fascination with the music of songwriters such as Antonia Carlos Jobim, who wrote “Girl From Ipanema. “That beautiful, Brazilian music has always affected me. You can find traces of that sound in the work of people like Dave Matthews and Sting.“
Don‘t expect to hear Jay Webber transformed into Ricky Martin on his new CD, however. “I Can See“ offers a melody-driven collection of 14 songs, musing on our place in life with an assist from some of Northern Michigan‘s ablest musicians, including Zack Light on bass; Kohn Kumijian on percussion and electric guitar; Norm Wheeler on flute and trumpet; Paul White in synth strings; Pat Niemisto on keyboards and Elizabeth Rivers and Justin Trapp on harmony vocals.
Webber‘s greatest asset is his voice and his viewpoint. His vocals are compelling enough to make you strain to listen for the lyrics, and once there the quality of his thoughts keeps you on station. Stand-out tunes include the title “I Can See“ and “Dance With You,“ with Webber‘s superb fingerpicking style deftly applied on songs throughout the album.
He plans to send the new CD to the major labels in hopes of national distribution, and wouldn‘t be averse to hitting the road for a gypsy tour of concerts across the nation. Closer to home, he expects to increase the number of concerts he performs in Northern Michigan and work on local sales. “I don‘t have any delusions of grandeur about being a star, but I love making a living at what I do.“