Jan Purcell and Pine Road Band Bios

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Jan Purcell

Jan is hooked on the sweet, soulful harmonies of bluegrass and gripped by its rhythm and spirit. As a fiddler and vocalist, her passion for singing while weaving intricate sounds with her instrument creates lively and expressive experiences for the musicians on stage and the toe-tapping audience.

A gifted performer, the stars were lined up for Jan at an early age. Starting at age six at the piano, she moved to classical violin at eight, and took up the flute in high school. Joining a youth choir brought her to the world of singing and Jan had found her groove. Not one to miss out on the fun, she joined the folk scene, guitar in hand. Jan’s strong, clear voice (her mother joked that she could be the ‘town crier’) proved to be an asset when she studied Performance Theater at York University in Toronto.

 

Jan and Jon got married, raised a family and taught school, and music became ‘second fiddle’ for a while. But a second fiddler still plays, and Jan always found time for music—whether teaching students to sing in English or French or play ukulele, performing in classical ensembles, playing in country bands or singing in folk groups—she was never very far from melody, harmony, rhythm…and fun!

Jan’s first appearance on the bluegrass stage was in 1982 at the Pinnacle Hill Bluegrass Festival where she placed second in the talent contest. A love of bluegrass was born and she never looked back. Jan Purcell and Pine Road was formed in 2005, and the band continues to evolve, recording albums and playing at numerous bluegrass festivals and events. They have made several appearances at the Central Canadian Bluegrass Awards in Huntsville, Ontario, where Jan was twice nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year (2010  and 2011). One musical highlight occurred during a bluegrass jam when Jan found herself unexpectedly harmonizing "Roses in the Snow" with Rhonda Vincent!

 

                Jon Purcell

Jon has been playing guitar and singing since 1970 and was introduced to bluegrass music in 1975.  He spent ten years with the Lylo Family Band and has been playing on Friday afternoons at the Black Sheep Inn in Wakefield, Quebec since 2001.  Jon has always been a writer and lately has been focusing on performing his own material and recording his work at his Pine Road Studio.

    Bill Henry

                       Bill Henry

Bill’s path has always been a musical one. As a teenager he taught himself finger-style guitar and emulated the acoustic singer/songwriters of the time. He was first exposed to bluegrass when his friend Bill Blance (banjo - General Store) played him the classic “Flatt & Scruggs: Live at Carnegie Hall” album.  Although he was impressed, bluegrass remained on the back burner until he saw Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver play. That’s when the bluegrass bit hard. Bill joined the Ottawa Valley Bluegrass Association and began attending the monthly jam sessions, learning the nuances of the music by playing it. He spent 12 years on the Valley ‘Grass board of directors including several as President.

Bill has played professionally with Highwater, The Mountin’ Weasels and The Northern Sons before joining Pine Road. He lives in Woodlawn Ontario and is married to his high school sweetheart, Judy.


                           Marty Coney

                              

Music has always been a big part of Marty’s life.  His father, Tom was an accomplished classical fiddler, jazz tenor sax player and church singer so live music was always front and center.  At age of eight Marty was introduced to country music when he heard a live band at a family friend’s wedding.  He was hooked!  His main influences are Haggard and Jones.  He took piano lessons as a kid and learned to play guitar (poorly) in his teens.        

From 1978 to 1985 he was heavily involved in barbershop music where he learned the fundamentals of harmony singing.  In 1985 he got together with the Gardiner brothers and formed Northern Sons.  The Sons had a great run for the next 25 years, performing from South Carolina to Timmins and Connecticut to Nashville.  They recorded four CDs and were widely acclaimed for their vocal presentations.  Although Marty sang mostly harmony vocals, his occasional lead numbers were always crowd pleasers.  Throughout most of this time he played electric bass but has now switched to the doghouse full-time.  His emcee work as front man for the band has earned him five nominations for Entertainer of the Year and a job as co-host of the annual Central Canada Bluegrass awards.

He is married to his childhood sweetheart, Cathy, has two sons and two grandchildren.

 

 


Here is Garry Greenland, a great banjo player who has played with us on many occasions.

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OUR ALBUMS

Look for our new album coming out in the spring, 2011!!!

Bluegrass Gypsy  2008


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This second album includes a variety of bluegrass songs; standards such as Blue Kentucky Girl, The Old Home Place, Bile’ Em Cabbage Down, a French Bluegrass song, Coeur Glace, new bluegrass sounds in Sweetheart of the Pines and Kentucky Borderline, and two originals written by Jon, Last Night and the title track Bluegrass Gypsy. It was recorded and mixed at Pine Road Studios, Wakefield, Quebec, by Jon Purcell, produced by Jon and Jan, and mastered at Ottawa’s Soundmasters by David Cain.  This record was released in May, 2008. Jan  Purcell and Pine Road have worked toward bringing forth the energy of their live performances to this latest album, Bluegrass Gypsy.

Jan Purcell and Pine Road   2006

Our self titled album is our first.  It was recorded, mixed and mastered at the Pine Road Studio.  This album has an original, You've Crossed The Line that Jan wrote, and has our much requested Roseville Fair, Can't Let Go, Workin' End Of The Hoe, and the gospel Clinging To A Saving Hand. For the French bluegrass fans, you'll find Les Ravages Du Temps.

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In this next section you can see photos and look back through the years
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HIGHLIGHTS OF 2011


RED CLAY BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL IN TIGNISH, PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND
Russel Sawler joining us on banjo














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Jan with Janet McGarry,  and Jon, Jan, Dickson and Russell




But the best part was all of our friends from Ontario who came down for the festival!!!!

Greetings Folks!

The summer of 2011 has flown but we’ve been blessed with great weather and wonderful music.  Jan and the band want to share a couple of things with you from this summer.  First, our furthest away gig was 18 hours to Prince Edward Island to the Red Clay festival in August.  We were not alone!!  As you can see in the photo there was a large group all from Ontario who also made the ‘pilgrimage’; Don from Orleans, the resident Valley Grass photographer who also loves to jam, Dwight and Laura, and Albert from Oshawa, and Adrian and his parents Cliff and Mary, as well as Barb and Gerry from the Morrisburg area.  What a time we had, and we really want to extend our thanks to these wonderful friends for their support.  The P.E.I.ers are a welcoming and special people. They even took us on a tour to Stompin’ Tom’s home and school (Jan’ cousin)!  Although Prince Edward Island is a small province in Canada, it has a big bluegrass following as well as quite a few bluegrass festivals each summer.

Secondly, we are happy to finally release our third album.  It’s a ‘live’ project featuring Jan (vocals and fiddle), Jon on guitar and vocals, Garry Greenland banjo, Bill Henry on mandolin and vocals, Dickson Raynard on bass and vocals, and Steve Piticco on guitar.  The album offers 14 songs and is available for only $15.00.  Contact us at Pineroadbluegrass@gmail.com or 819-459-3362 for your own copy.  Jan Purcell and Pine Road’s season finishes at the Upper Canada Bluegrass Festival in Morrisburg, but of course the finale of the season is at the Canadian Bluegrass Awards weekend in November.  Thanks for your support this year, and make sure to catch us at the showcase in Huntsville!

Love to all,

Jan




HIGHLIGHTS OF 2010


There’s Bluegrass in the Caribbean!

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Half of the Jan Purcell and Pine Road band had an awesome experience in the Dominican Republic, March, 2010.  Jan and Jon were hired to play two shows at a the Pomodoro restaurant/lounge in Cabarete, near Puerto Plata DR.  They put on their best and met a lot of new bluegrass friends.

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One of those friends, Sara, is a teacher at the Mariposa School, and after hearing Pine Road play, asked them if they would please come and share their music with her students. She told them that in around the 1960’s music were very discouraged in the Dominican Republic because the dictator felt that music and the arts led to alcohol and debauchery. (!) Consequently, although today’s Dominicans love rhythm and sound, they are not very knowledgeable about music.  Furthermore, most Dominicans are very poor and cannot afford to attend school in the afternoons.  Mornings are free.  This would be a very exciting and unique treat for the children. We gladly agreed to share a morning of music.

So we arrived at the school and had one of the most precious times we’ve ever had playing!  The children were happy and so sweet.  They shared a few songs in English; we told them about our instruments and played some tunes.  It was a morning we will never forget.

As we reflect on that March morning, we see that we are so blessed to have bluegrass music as part of our daily lives. 

And in our next life, we’ll open a bluegrass music school in the Dominican Republic that costs nothing for music lovers to attend.




                                       







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HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SUMMER OF 2009 


We kicked off with a show in June at Ottawa's Westfest, a 3 day event that was attended by thousands of music lovers. They treated us very well and the audience was fantastic!
  


Then we moved on to pure 100% bluegrass at the Valley Bluegrass Festival in July.

 
 
Many thanks to Bob, Julie and the other organizers for being so hospitable and providing us with great sound.

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Celebrating River Valley's 30th Anniversary, 2009!!  See Dickson in the back?  He's on his new baby, upright bass.  Man, we had fun,  and met a great group of new folks and caught up with old acquaintances from way back!

                                               Poltimore, Quebec

                                
This was at the fastest growing small town festival in Quebec, The Poltimore Fair. Great folks, fabulous food.
                                                                                                                         
                              
  SUMMER OF 2008

This gorgeous scene is from our trip down east where we went fly fishing before the New Richmond  Festival in the Gaspe.







Nothin' like a little fishing to get you in the mood for playing!

And here we are in New Richmond at a late night jam. Check out the bass player here; none other than  our talented sound man John Cameron.







And here's Jan lovin' playing with Charlie Louvin on stage at the Palmer Rapids festival in July.


             

 


     Orno  Bluegrass and Old Tyme Country Jamboree, May of 2008.


               


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                               HIGHLIGHTS OF  2007


This is us havin' a blast at River Valley in northern Ontario in 2007. We were pretending to be in the tropics...

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Looking back to 2006


Exerpt from 'Grass Clippings



The Year 2006 will likely be remembered by Jan Purcell and Pine Road as one of excitement and major acomplishments. During the winter months, the Band spent countless hours at Pine Road Music Studios recording their first album, including learning to do their own mixing, mastering, etc.  Then in the spring, they entered the Ottawa Folk Festival’s “One Fret Less Award” contest for up-and-coming artists.  Of the 20 acts that auditioned at Rasputin’s in Ottawa, they were selected as one of the top three, earning them a performance at the Fourth Stage of the NAC.  To everyone’s delight, Jan Purcell and Pine Road were declared the winners. 

The $1000 Award prize was donated by long-standing Ottawa music supporters, Louise and Harvey Glatt, and was presented to them in August 2006, at the Ottawa Folk Festival’s main stage in front of thousands of Festival-goers.  It also gave the group the opportunity to perform at a couple of the Folk Festival venues, a tribute both to the Band and the Bluegrass community.


During the summer Jan Purcell and Pine Road had plenty of work and the chance to promote their new CD while performing at a variety of Bluegrass Festivals in Ontario and Western Quebec. One of their frequent requests, and the first song on the album, was "You've Crossed The Line" (a song that all couples can probably relate to!).  Penned by Jan Purcell, it features Jan on lead vocals and fiddle.
Yes, 2006 has been a banner year; but with the prospect of another album featuring more of their original material 2007 promises to be even better!


Grass Clippings
By Gayle Dumsday
A Publication of the Ottawa Valley Bluegrass Music Association

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          And in the beginning of the new band...2005

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Thank you to all of you who have viewed our site.  We'd love to hear from you and certainly hope to meet up with you sometime soon.

Take care,

Jan

Jan Purcell and Pine Road can be contacted at pineroadbluegrass@gmail.com

or at 819-459-3362.

 

                   


                                        

 

 

 

 



 
 
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