Janice Keegan’s Fiery Return

Sept. 18, 2015

Janice Keegan is a quarter-century musician, a rare achievement in these days of overnight sensations and one-hit wonders. She started singing as a teen, acquired vocal coaches in both Traverse City and New York City and started gigging in Traverse City in the early ’90s.

By the mid-’90s, Keegan had also garnered a Northern Express cover. “Star Power… Janice Keegan’s Got It!” said the caption.

That prediction rang true, as the singer would become a local jazz favorite, performing with everyone from Glenn Wolff to Jeff Haas, Don Julin to Claudia Schmidt.

Now – while it might be difficult to believe she doesn't already have one – Keegan is returning to the local limelight with her very first album.

COOL KICKSTARTER

“I’ve been asked about an album for years, but I just never got around to making one,” Keegan said.

She spent roughly a year and a half writing original material for the album, stepping back from some of her regular gigs (at places like Old Misson’s Chateau Chantal Winery and Traverse City’s Park Place Hotel) for a while so she could focus more clearly. Last October, she launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the recording.

“The Kickstarter ran for 30 days and met my funding goal of $15,000 in time,” Keegan said. “But the next surprise was that I had to wait until January before I could get into the recording studio!”

LIGHTING THE MATCH

Interlochen Public Radio’s Studio A was Keegan’s recording facility of choice. Here she worked with sound engineer Jack Conners and a roster of seven local musicians, among them Steve Stargardt on piano, Laurie Sears on saxophones and flute and David Collini on drums.

“The first trick was trying to get seven busy people scheduled!” Keegan said. “Once we figured that puzzle out, we put some long hours in over just a few sessions.”

Hiring professional musicians was a boon to Keegan’s project; they arrived prepared and ready to record, so once the match was lit, all of the instrumentals were complete in only a few weeks, with Keegan’s rough vocals over the top.

“I’ve spent many sessions since then redoing the vocals, and finally wrapped in August,” she said. “We’ve been mixing and mastering since then, and focusing on the sequencing, so the order of the tunes makes sense.”

The album, which Keegan dubbed Firedance, is essentially a journey through much of Keegan’s life to date.

FLAMES OF SOUND

“It deals with everything from falling in love to betrayal and the heaviness of life in general – every major milestone,” she said.

The set showcases a variety of genres, tapping into the experience Keegan has acquired from her musical performances to date. The tracks play out in a way well suited to the album’s title, shifting and changing like flames.

The title track begins with bossa nova on the chorus and is driven by a cello, while “Until Then,” a track Keegan explained is about unrequited love, is influenced by her jazz and blues background, but is essentially a pop single of the older tradition.

A Western blues shuffle called “On the Seney Stretch Again” was inspired by an Upper Peninsula trip that got Keegan musing about what it takes to bridge the distances between family and friends while watching miles and miles of lonely scenery go by.

“The album is an eclectic mix because I didn’t choose to make it fit any one thing,” she explained.

CONCRETE HEAT

Keegan is releasing the album herself, on her own terms (“it’s nice not to be dependent on a label to do what you want to do,” she said), and will be promoting its release with a concert in Traverse City.

Yes, she may be a little nervous about this very concrete, long-term addition to her repertoire, but she feels that now is finally the right time.

“People have been asking me for an album for years and I’ve never had one,” she said. “So it feels wonderful that it’s almost complete, but I have a lot at stake, so I feel anxious at the same time. I don’t have delusions of grandeur, although I’d like it to be successful.”

It’s the long wait that she said has made the album even more valuable to herself and, she hopes, to her listeners and fans.

“If I’d done this years ago, I may have just ended up doing an album entirely of jazz covers,” she said. “But, by waiting this long, it’s turned into something much more personal than it might’ve been.”

Songs from Janice Keegan’s Firedance will be performed at a CD release concert event at Milliken Auditorium at the Dennos Museum in Traverse City on Saturday, Oct. 10 at 8pm. For tickets and more information, visit dennosmuseum.org