January 9, 2011

Rock Star: Julie Corbalis juggles two careers

Linda Lombroso
llombros@lohud.com

Sometimes a Rock Star Resident really is a rock star.

But singer-songwriter Julie Corbalis, who lives in Port Chester, has more going on than a music career: She's a middle school social-studies teacher who squeezes in rehearsals and gigs during her off hours.

"People always ask me, 'If you got a record deal, of course you would stop teaching right away, wouldn't you?' " said Corbalis, 32, who's been working at the same school in East Harlem since 2000.

The answer is a definite 'No.'

"Teaching is something I love so much,'' she says. "The kids are amazing, the schedule suits my life, and I get so much pleasure out of it."

Corbalis, who grew up in Yorktown, began writing songs during high school. She played her first gig at a small club in Manhattan when she was around 20, then spent six years in a band called Jules and the Family, which put out two albums.

In 2008, Corbalis released a solo CD titled "Old Flames & New Names,'' recorded in musician Fred Gillen Jr.'s home studio.

Right now, she's in the midst of preparing for a show on Jan. 29 at Crystal Bay in Peekskill, featuring the band Backwoods Jupiter. The group, which includes 11 other musicians from the Hudson Valley, will present an homage to Bob Dylan called "The Desire Project" — a tribute designed to coincide with the 35th anniversary of Dylan's "Desire" album.

Although it's just Corbalis and her guitar during solo shows, she's hard-pressed to label herself a folkie. "I'm much more comfortable playing upbeat originals and covers in a bar, where the crowd is a little rowdier than in a coffeehouse,'' she said. "That's more rock and roll than it is folk."

As much as Corbalis enjoys performing, she won't be going the rock star route in her classroom any time soon. "It's such an intimate audience, I think it scares me,'' she said.

You can learn more about Julie Corbalis on her web site, www.juliecorbalis.com.

In the meantime, here are some things you may not know about this Port Chester singer-songwriter:

1. She is left-handed, but uses her right hand to play the guitar. "Most lefties learn how to play righty because left-handed guitars are not as abundant and they're more expensive."

2. She has a master's degree in history. Corbalis, who got her undergraduate degree from NYU, went to graduate school at Hunter College in Manhattan, attending classes at night while performing with Jules and the Family.

3. It is imperative that she catch every episode of "CSI: NY," which airs Friday nights. "I'm addicted. I have to tape it. I definitely don't stay home, but I have to watch it at some point."

4. She watches a lot of cooking shows. "I watch them for enjoyment, not instruction. I don't cook. My boyfriend is an amazing cook."

5. She is currently obsessed with Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones. Corbalis just finished reading "Life," Richards' memoir. "When you're reading it, you really feel like he's sitting there talking to you."

6. Her first real solo gig was in third grade at Mohansic Elementary School in Yorktown Heights. Corbalis sang "Send in the Clowns."

7. During her senior year at NYU, Corbalis was Jamie-Lynn Sigler's RA (resident assistant) in the dorms. This was when Sigler was starring on "The Sopranos,'' but Corbalis had no TV — and no idea who Sigler was. Fellow students were starstruck. "I didn't really get to know her, but she was very nice."

8. She taught preschool in California for three months after graduating from college. "It was the hardest job I've ever had. It's way harder than teaching middle school, way harder than music. I would work from 8:30 to noon, and then during my lunch break I would go home and take a nap."

9. Her days as a Yorktown saxophone player are long gone. "I don't know how it would sound if I blew into it now. Probably pretty bad."

10. Her favorite band in middle school was Aerosmith. Corbalis spent much of her teen years listening to "Pandora's Box,'' a three-disc set featuring the band's music from the '70s and early '80s. "I had a huge crush on Joe Perry. Who doesn't?"

MATT TURK @ THE LIVING ROOM
New York City   January 7, 2011
Reviewed by Ben Robinson

Matt Turk, long a New York City club favorite, brought his 6-person band of musical wonder workers to the Living Room last night for a sold out 9pm set. The instrumentation was quirky as it was effective: sax, flute, accordion, piano, drums, acoustic and electric guitars, and Turk's trademark mandolin. Accompanied by the attractive Julie Corbalis, her country twang provided a soft edge to some of Turk's wailing hard rock vocals. But, his voice is the star of the show. Belting blues, softly breaking your heart with a range that is worthy of Aaron Neville, Turk can, and does, it all.

Kevin Hupp provides a lock step beat on his kit behind the star and his solos brought rambunctious applause for his masterly interpretation of soft brushes on tom toms, a softly punctual bass drum and the gunshot precise sticks on metal.

Fred Gillen Jr. is a marvy bass player who rocks out and provides a wondrous image in his superhero aluminum glasses, shag hair and solid vocals. The accordionist is also the piano player and the melody that accompanied Turk's broad range was as if a string section invisibly hovered over the set.

Old favorites ("Broadway", Bette Says", Silver Ring") mixed with new tunes in this nearly 60-minute set that had the audiences stomping, singing and clapping along. Having followed this artist for nearly twelve years, his voice has only grown to even greater heights and become one of the rarest of the breed now playing club dates: intelligent rock'n roll. Given that Turk enunciates and we can actually understand the lyrics in even his most wailing of renditions, the feat leaves the viewer wondering what will come next?! He never disappoints.

In the words of the great booking agent for The Doors, the late Marty Hoberman, Turk is now "a refined national act" and New Yorkers showed their appreciation for his return to the Big Apple after so long an absence.

Port Chester Vocalist Teams With Local Musicians to Recreate Bob Dylan's 'Desire'

Port Chester resident Julie Corbalis revisits Bob Dylan's 1976 album Desire.

 

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As a local singer/songwriter playing weekend gigs in the Hudson Valley, Julie Corbalis is no stranger to playing cover songs. From Otis Redding's "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay" to John Prine's "Angel from Montgomery" she maintains a solid arsenal of proven crowd sing-a-longs.

But she is no juke-box. With three albums of original music under her belt (both as a soloist and with a band), as well as performances in Europe and South America, Corbalis is not solely reliant on other people's music.

Her most recent project, Backwoods Jupiter, is a band comprised of 12 Hudson Valley musicians. Corbalis assembled the group to recreate Bob Dylan's album Desire.

While she handled all of the scheduling and vocalists requests, the product was a truly collaborative effort. The album was cut over three recording sessions– each lasting about six hours – during August and September of 2010. Even with near 100-degree heat, Corbalis said she recalls no disputes.

 "There was no fighting, it was a beautiful thing," she said. "People picked their songs to sing and there was no cattiness, just lots of positive energy."

Growing up a Beatles fan, she heard Bob Dylan for the first time as a senior in high school. A friend's sister gave her a mixtape full of classic rock. One of the songs was "Hurricane" – the opening song on Desire. The song chronicles the conviction of boxer Ruben "Hurricane" Carter for a triple murder offense in 1966.

 "It was deep and meaningful," Corbalis told me over a beer at Q restaurant in Port Chester.

"The lyrics were amazing. You think you know a lot at 18 years old, and then you get exposed to Dylan. He had a lot of bravery in writing it," she said. "Just the fact that you can tell a story like that to mass audience in the '70s is remarkable."  

After hearing "Hurricane," she bought the album for a dollar in a used book store. It remained on her dresser until, after repeated listens, she decided to put her own twist on it.

"Whenever I say I'm covering a Dylan album, everyone asks are you doing Blonde on Blonde or Blood on the Tracks?" Corbalis said of Dylan's more well-known albums.

The reason for doing Desire, she says, is simple: "It was the only Dylan album I owned for a long time."

Covering a Bob Dylan song, let alone an entire album, is no easy task. Musicians often fall into the trap of trying to sound like Dylan, and Corbalis said she was wary of that pitfall as she crafted her own versions of the folk legend's songs.

"How do you cover 'Like a Rolling Stone' and not sound like a poser?" she wondered aloud. "People who try to sound nasal sound ridiculous. He makes it so much his own and that is what you need to do."

To take ownership of the songs, Corbalis and her musician collective spent time finding their own sound and experimenting with different arrangements. While the original version of the song "Isis" features a piano, Backwoods Jupiter's version renders those piano riffs with electric guitars.

"Some voices are more reminiscent of Dylan, others are very different," Corbalis said.

Much has been written of Dylan's music and cultural significance, but Corbalis said her main objective was to showcase local talent.

"I wanted to get these musicians some kind of notoriety," she said.

While creative energy is vibrant in the local music scene, small bars and restaurants are less likely to pay money for live music due to the economy. But these people are still hard at work. Between the band members there are 25 independent albums, and two of the band members are full-time musicians. Corbalis is a part-time musician, admitting she is too practical to make it a full-time endeavor.

Her other passion is teaching.  Being a middle school social studies teacher in East Harlem fills out her weeks. Her appetite for history is evident in the band's name. Backwoods Jupiter is a nickname an aide gave to Abraham Lincoln, she discovered, while reading a biography on the 16th president.

When asked to give a favorite line from the album, Corbalis pondered for a bit before deciding.

"Time is an ocean, but it ends with the shore."

"The vastness floors me," she said with a smile, "but I'm still not sure I know what it means."

Backwoods Jupiter is holding a CD release party in light of the albums 35^th Anniversary on Saturday, January 29th in Peekskill. The show will take place at The Cove (formerly Crystal Bay) from 8pm -11pm. A $15 dollar cover charge includes live music and a copy of the CD. 

For more on Backwoods Jupiter including pictures and band member bios visit: http://backwoodsjupiter.com

For more on Julie Corbalis including upcoming tour dates, original music, and contact info visit:  http://www.juliecorbalis.com

Yorktown Musician Brings New Songs Home By Thomas Staudter


Singer/songwriter Julie Corbalis feels lucky to have two passions.
By day, the 30-year-old Yorktown Heights native teaches sixth and eighth grade social studies and environmental action at Manhattan East Middle School in Harlem, a magnet school that brings together a diverse group of 270 students from around New York City’s five boroughs.

“The kids are awesome,” she said, adding that the energy and enthusiasm that greets her each day in the classroom is infectious.
After school, however, Corbalis tends to her budding music career. Until recently, she has been performing in a quartet called Jules and the Family, playing originals songs and select covers of Beatles, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Elvis Costello. With her first solo CD, “Old Flames & New Names” set to be released this week, though, Corbalis has been busy with the logistics of spotlighting her new work.
click below to read the full article!

Concert on the Green: Jules and the Family entertain Sunday
Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Jules and the Family will provide modern folk rock at this Sunday’s free concert on the town green. The music starts at 6 p.m.
Jules Corbalis, who heads the group, is a singer, songwriter and guitar player. She started out on her own, but during a trip to Greece, she met Pat Kelly, an Irish musician, and the two went on a tour of Belgium and the Netherlands in spring 2005.
She returned to the U.S. and eventually formed her own band, including Jonathan “JL” Lloyd on guitar, John Madden on drums and Marc Osborn on bass.
The group plays modern folk rock, and it encourages audience participation at its performances.
The co-sponsor of Sunday’s Concert is The Redding Pilot.

The Starving Artist Cafe is a family of overlapping circle of friends. This is good. This is very good. Friday, April 18, Jules and some of the family came to visit. Julie Corbalis is a fine singer-songwriter whose lyrics betray a gentle, tender sensitivity, while her delivery reveals brass balls, if you will. She is charming to boot! She was joined on stage by her great guitarist JL (Jonathan Lloyd). She is many things at once and generous is one of them. She gave the stage to her Irish friend now living in Belgium, Pat Kelly. Kelly's songs were a treat. Witty and insightful. His voice is good, and his stage manner is humorous. It was a surprise fun evening and the family grew and the circles overlapped.

If you don't like great music, don't buy this CD.
This CD is the real deal, and I highly recommend it. It’s currently being worn out in my CD player and my friends' CD players. If you're a fan of "classic rock, neo-Folk" music, you should definitely have this CD, baby. (sorry) More importantly, if you're not a big fan of that genre, you should really give this CD a listen because, seriously, you’ll soon be a fan. The music on Jules and the Family screams honesty, sincerity, and frankness while at the same time impelling a really, really fun vibe. Make sense? No? Give it a listen. You’ll see what I mean.

I meet Julie for lunch at a small café down the street from my apartment. In the interest of full disclosure, I have to say that we’ve been friends for 6 years. That means that there’s a lot of small talk and gossip before the interview gets going.
When it does get going, however, when I finally break out the paper
and pen and prepare to take notes, I’m surprised. “You’re going into reporter mode!” she says. “I’m so shy!”
Odd for a woman who voluntarily picks up a guitar and plays for a crowd full of people, often by herself, almost every weekend. One who has fronted her own band for the past 4 years. But maybe that’s just it. The guitar is like a security blanket and now, without it, she’s naked. Or maybe it’s just something to say because it’s odd to have a friend start grilling you about where you see your musical life going over the next six months.
Jules first picked up that security blanket the summer before ninth
grade. “I was looking to hang out with dudes with long hair,” she says. Then she confesses, “I also wanted to learn how to play [Extreme’s] ‘More Than Words’. I never learned it.”
What she did learn was [Pink Floyd’s] ‘Comfortably Numb’ from Dennis Voyez, a Westchester local who was “playing guitar to pick up chicks. “ Jules recalls that he was a great musician with a passion for Metallica. “He knew them all.”
Around 18, she started writing her own music. By the end of college, she had about 10 songs finished, but she didn’t know what
to do with them. “I just thought you had to get a band to play out,”
she says. There weren’t a lot of singer/songwriters out yet. She remembers Jewel and that’s it. Her brother played the local Westchester scene, but he always had a band. So she sat on her songs for a while until a trip to Greece in 2001 finally pushed her to get moving on them.
THE BAND Jonathan “JL” Lloyd was a friend from Yorktown, where Jules grew up. “He’s been playing guitar longer than I’ve been alive,” she
jokes. “He’s in his late 30s now, so he was listening to the songs I love as classic rock when they were just rock.” Jules and JL started working together. Soon JL brought in John Madden on drums and Marc Osborn on Bass. JL, John and Marc had all worked together before, as part of Liquid Boy 7, the Westchester band fronted by Jay Gisser, currently working on his solo career. “Jay kicked Johnny out of the band and Mark and JL quit over it 5 years ago,” Jules tells me.
“Marc knows his music theory better than anybody else,” Jules tells me. “He has the most technical prowess.” He’s a studio musician and he’s starting to expand into digital music. Marc’s background is in Jazz piano and he wanted to learn bass, so he joined the band and picked it up. “He’s a talented musician,” Jules says. “I want him to come down to the city and start playing in those piano bars down here.”
John Madden comes from a big musical Irish family. Growing up, Van Morrison showed up at their house for one Thanksgiving dinner. His sister, Joni founded "Cherish The Ladies", a Celtic band. “She’s an idol of mine,” Jules says. “You see her out there having fun, communicating with the audience … she’s a true entertainer. She’s
fucking amazing.”
John’s no slouch either. “He has the greatest ear for rhythm,”
Jules says. “He wrote the greatest song any of us will ever hope to play.”

She’s talking about “Dolores", a song on their first album.
“Dolores” is the tale of an elderly woman whose family is preparing her to die. The song’s simple folk tune belies some of the haunting
words of this tale. “I am a color too beautiful to look away,” Jules recites with a sigh. “I am flattered and honored that he would want Jules and the Family to play that song, that he would want us to put
it on the album. Every time he wants to play it, I’m flattered. I don’t feel that I do that song justice. I feel nervous playing the
song.”
John’s other big project right now: He’s a new dad. James is about
5 weeks old now. “John was made to be a dad,” Jules says. “He comes from a big Irish party all the time.”
The band is working on their second album right now and Jules says to expect changes from the band and from their sound. “The first album was more blue-sy, midtempo classic rock,” she says. “This second album will be more … neo-folk, I guess is the word for it.”
The biggest changes have come in how that music is written. With the exception of “Dolores", Jules wrote all the songs on their first album. “We had to do that if we wanted to stay together. It’s hard
because they’re not my babies any more. It’s teaching me humility.”
She continues, “Marc comes up with chord changes I would never
think of. He has that jazz background that I don’t have and I’m sure that’s coming through.”
It’s all part of the compromise Jules is learning to be part of a
band instead of a solo artist. “I’ve never been part of a successful group project in 12 years of grade school,” she says. Sure it’s
easier to yell, but, “The finished project is going to be better than anything you can come up with yourself.”
“It used to be my way or no way.” She laughs. “The guys will tell you that’s still true, but it’s not. You have to compromise or the
band breaks up. It’s my first lesson in compromise … it just feels so good.” It definitely is her biggest challenge right now though, she says, letting go of that control.
So where is Jules and the Family going? “To hell in a hand basket,” she exclaims gleefully. But seriously. “We want to get to the point where we’re an original band playing original music. No covers. We want to get to the point where people buy our CDs and come to see us for us, not just because we happen to be playing at the local bar that night.”
They’re focused now on getting the second album out. Originally slated for a summer release, they’re looking more towards something within the next six months. And after that? “I would love to go on tour. Sell CDs out of the trunk, meet some cool people.” A tour would take them up and down the East Coast, most likely. Jules is also considering a return to the Netherlands and Belgium, where she toured as a solo artist back in April. “I would love to take the guys over there, play a few gigs.”
“Shouldn’t you be asking me what’s in my CD player? Things like that?” she asks. So I do.
“Paul Weller. He had 20 hits in Europe, never heard of them here.
Elvis Costello. I fucking love that guy. I always thought he was
dorky and I was into Aerosmith and guys I thought were cool. He is so rock and roll to me.”
“Can I approach your obsession with Brian Setzer?” I ask.
“I’m so jealous. He just got married to a girl named Julie and it’s not me.” What’s behind the obsession, though? “He’s such a great performer. I saw him at the Westbury Music Fair [in Long Island] and the fact that I could get so close [to the stage], I love that.”
“Audience participation is a must for us,” Jules says. “The other
weekend, we were playing a wedding and this little six-year-old boy is watching us set up. So I asked him what his name was. He’s like, ‘Joey.’ I said, ‘Joey, take this,’ and gave him a shaker. ‘And shake it when we play. Really shake it.’ Joey shook that thing for like 15 songs. And his mom came up afterwards and told me they tried everything, swimming lessons, soccer lessons, you name it to get Joey out of his shell. Now they’re going to buy him a guitar. It
made my day.”