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Julie Reeves

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AboutJulie Reeves has a pure country voice, a sultry alto that conveys
power and conviction, as well as a depth that belies her 24 years
of age.

"I want who I am to come through when I sing," Julie explains.
"I want people to say, 'I relate to her.' I want people to feel
something. Nothing means more to me than when someone comes
up after a show and says, 'You gave me chills.' I want to reach out
to people through my music."

Julie, who was born and raised in Ashland, Kentucky, the same small
town in the Northeast corner of the state that gave the world The
Judds, comes by her passion for singing naturally. In fact, she hails
from coal-mining country that's so rich in honky-tonk singers that the
Kentucky legislature renamed U.S. 23, the stretch of highway that
runs through that portion of the state, "The Country Music Highway."

"Dwight Yoakam, Keith Whitley, Loretta Lynn, Ricky Skaggs,
Patty Loveless, Earl Thomas Conley -- a lot of singers come from
up there," beams Julie. "And every so many miles there's a sign up
with one of their names on it."

Not only that, she says, "every one of those singers has a certain
sound. They all have this accent, this catch in their voice. You just
know it when you hear it-at least I do, because I'm from there."

This quality -- this soulfulness, for lack of a better word-often comes
from growing up around music and learning to sing at an early age.
Julie, whose grandmother and mother sang in church, and whose
father fiddled around with the dobro and guitar, says that she
can't remember a time when she wasn't singing.

"Every day I'd come home from school, pop in a tape, and sing my
heart out," she says. "I'd sing into my hairbrush like I was onstage.
I'd sing until I just wore myself out."

While she was in high school, Julie, her mother, and long-time family
friend Danny Craig sang at county fairs and festivals in and around
Ashland. Then, encouraged by Keith Whitleys sister to try their luck
in Music City, the trio moved to Nashville in 1994. Things didn't work
out as planned, and the group called it quits. Julie, however, stayed
in Nashville and sang demos; she also began working with a broader
palette of musical styles than she had as part of the trio.

Julie's tastes had always ranged beyond the bluegrass, honky-tonk,
and Southern gospel that she heard as a young girl. In addition to
Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, and Tanya Tucker, she also loved
the pop and soulinfluenced records of Linda Ronstadt, Tina Turner,
and Whitney Houston. What unites all of these singers, besides chops,
she insists, is attitude: Each of these women conveys a strong sense
of herself through her music.

Which is precisely the sense one gets from listening to It's About
Time, Julie's debut for Virgin Records Nashville. The album, the
label's inaugural release, is more than just a showcase for Julie's
powerfully emotive singing; it also reveals her effortless command
of traditional and contemporary sensibilities, as well as the ease
with which she blends them.

Take the sassy "Trouble is a Woman," a juking country-rocker that
evokes Emmylou Harris circa 1975. Or "If Heartaches Had Wings,"
a wrenching mountain ballad that shows off Julie's Appalachian roots,
albeit with a distinctly '90s edge. The album's title track, a half-
spoken half-sung meditation on the meaning of intimacy, has a
mile-wide radio-ready groove, while "If I'd Never Loved You," a
soaring, fiddle-and-steel-flecked ballad, proves just how far Julie
is willing to reach inside herself to plumb the depths of a lyric.

Much of 16 About Time finds Julie exploring the nature of
relationships. On such barnburners as "All Or Nothing" and "What
You Get is What You See," she states in no uncertain terms what she
expects of a man. On "What I Need," a mandolin and steel guitar
reverie that's sure be one of the album's singles, she conveys
tenderness and longing without resorting to sentimentality.

Julie's ability to convey such emotion, and to do so with a mix of
youthfulness and maturity, is what induced Virgin Records Nashville
President and CEO Scott Hendricks -- a noted producer who has
worked with the likes of Alan Jackson, Brooks & Dunn, and Faith
Hill-to sign and produce her in the first place.

"Julie's voice has a richness in quality that makes you believe every
word she sings," says Hendricks. "She's what people call a singer's
singer. There are a lot of good singers, but what sets Julie apart is
her ability to interpret the songs.

Even though Julie, since moving to Nashville, has put plenty of
miles between herself and her native Appalachia, she's still mindful
of her down-home roots. She counts her late grandmother, a
spirited woman who wanted to pursue a career in music but didn't
know how-although she did sing on radio-as a primary influence.
Julie is also thrilled that her mother appears on three songs on lt's
About Time, and that she might tour with her. "It's so cool," says
Julie, referring to singing with her mother. "Our voices blend so well
that sometimes you can't tell who's singing what."

Working with her mom is but one example of how Julie embraces
tradition even as she sets her sights on her more commercial career
goals. "If you want to stick around in this business," she muses, "then
I think it's important that you put tradition at the center of what
you're about."

"And yet at the same time," she adds, "as much as I love the old
music, I didn't want to go that route. I didn't want to be some kind
of replica or imitation. I wanted to keep my sound rooted in
tradition, but I also wanted to be able to work with that and do
something that's more modern and mainstream."

Is It's About Time attests, Julie has done just that. An auspicious
debut, one suspects that it won't be long before there's a sign along
Highway 23 with Julie Reeves' name on it.

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