|
|
Joy Burnworth Returns to Aqua Gardens While Singing Up A Storm in L.A. |
|
Joy Burnworth
sat down with us recently and talked about her own career, the duo
Anderson and where it all started for her. “I write all of the lyrics and it all starts
with me. I start with the
lyrics and I usually have some type of a melody, but sometimes I will
not have a melody and Howie will start playing things to give me ideas.
I take the lyric and the partial melody and I go to his house and we
hash it out. We figure out if it is going to be in 3/4 or in 4/4 and
figure out the tempos and all of that.
He comes up with the harmony and helps me to take the melody in a
different route based on what he is playing,” says Burnworth. Take for
instance the Anderson song “Aqua Gardens,” a mid-tempo song with a nice
easygoing melody that plays like a film, as Joy Burnworth’s vocals sets
the scenes accompanied by Howie Anderson’s sterling guitar playing. “Aqua Gardens is a place that my mom and I used
to walk to and like the song says we walked to the end of Crystal
Street. My street ended up
in a park. We would walk through the park and we would get to Aqua
Gardens, which was a gravel pit that they threw water into. There was a
fishing section and there was a swimming section. My mom and I went
there almost every day in the summer. We could bring our dog and
actually my dog saved my life when I almost drowned.
My brother, Bob (who is older) was going out to the diving boards
and this was in the day when you could have the high dive at a public
place. He went out there to
jump off of the diving board and I wanted to follow him. I just kept
following him and the next thing I knew there was nothing under my feet
and I don’t swim. The lifeguard was busy flirting with the gals in the
bikinis. I started going under and my dog started barking like a maniac.
He was with me. He was off the charts and it got my brother’s attention.
Bob could see my head going down and he swam back like a crazy man. He
was yelling and trying to get the lifeguard’s attention and he just got
to me in the nick of time. My dog and my brother saved my life. I loved going
there, because I got out of the house and I got to spend time with my
mom. It was fun. There was a slide and there were tons of kids. There
was a snack shack. Like the song says there were all of the hot rods and
every muscle car known to man. All the teenage girls were there and all
of the guys were driving by in their hot rods trying to pick them up. It
was quite a quintessential time when you would do drive-thrus with
people cruising and flirting. It is a lost art. I don’t see that anymore
with teenagers. I don’t see a place where kids hang out, not out here in
the suburbs. There might be something in the city. Kids aren’t even
driving, because they want to text from the backseat, while somebody
else drives the car. Aqua Gardens is
long gone. They closed it down. The fishing part was closed down,
because of the liability insurance and Aqua Gardens closed down because
of the upkeep and you can’t have high dives anymore. It was probably
just too expensive for the city to keep it up. I can still go by there.
The shack is falling apart and there is a gate around where we would
swim. It’s nice that
the song keeps that alive. I find with the songs that I write, even if
it is not a happy song or it is about a bad time in my life, every time
that I sing it heals that and it helps me to get through it. I have a
better forgiveness and understanding about some of the things that I
went through. “Aqua Gardens,” is just about fun memories, but it helps
to keep it alive,” she says. Anderson TV, a
public television entity that is a joint venture of the City of
Anderson, Anderson University, Anderson Community Schools and the
Anderson Public Library plans on using the song “Aqua Gardens,” in its
programming. “Middle of Chaos,” grew out of a completely
different set of circumstances, the housing market crash of 2007 and the
stock market crash of 2008, but this is a song of encouragement, not of
despair. “I wrote
“Middle of Chaos,” after the crash of 2007, about a year or two later,
because I noticed things were not getting any better. It seemed like the
black cloud was never going to be lifted. I (thought) this isn’t getting
any better and people know it. I could feel the heaviness. I wrote it
like a ‘Me and You,’ kind of a thing. We’ve got to hold on to each other
through this, because it is going to try and tear us apart. That is kind
of what happened to my husband and me, because of the stress and with
the kids and other things that I won’t go into. It was weighing on me. I heard on NPR an interview with a gal and she
said it was like there was a constant in the middle of chaos. I thought
oh remember that. I wonder if I can do something with that. For the
longest time I had three lines. I kept trying over As for the song
“One Mistake,” it originated with a telephone conversation that Anderson
was having with a friend, during a pause in a recording session. Burnworth
relates the story, “He got a call and his friend was going through some
tough times. He said I have to take this and I said sure no problem. He
got off the phone and he said, he (his friend) is getting a divorce and
it is so sad. He is sitting in an airport in Denver. There is a blizzard
and he can’t get out. He is thinking that what he did was really wrong
and he can’t take it back. He made this terrible mistake and he can’t
take it back. I was wow. Part of it (was inspired) by a song by Shawn
Colvin “Shotgun Down the Avalanche.” I devoured all of her music. I
thought of a big blizzard with a snowstorm and she is by the Rocky
Mountains and what happens, an avalanche.
I was thinking an avalanche leads to more things, you know how
one lie leads to more lies. Howie’s friend’s whole life tumbled down on
him and he lost everything. That is where that song came from.” Joy take us
back to where it all began in Anderson, Indiana. “There was just my brother (and me) and he is
actually my half-brother. It was a small family and when I came into the
world my dad actually wasn’t with us. He was taken to Marion to a
hospital. I came into the world with just my mom and shortly after they
divorced. He never came home.
I would go up to Marion to visit him. There was just my brother,
my mother and myself until I was seven. Then my mom remarried and it got
crazy. There was a lot of love in the house until I was seven. It was
beautiful. My brother took me everywhere and we got along famously. I
would annoy him like any sister would, but for the most part I knew all
of his friends and he would drag me along and find something for me to
do. It was really good and then our lives took a really bad turn when
she remarried. That was her fifth husband,” she says. Joy Burnworth recalls, “The first time that I
got to sing in front of the school I was in third grade and I did an R&B
song called “You Little Trustmaker.” Again that was my brother who gave
me two 45s, one was Chicago, “Just You and Me,”
and I told my brother it has the word damn in it and I don’t
think that I can sing that for the school (she bursts out laughing). So the other song was “You Little
Trustmaker,” by The Tymes. My grade three teacher Mrs. Wise held
auditions and I came and sang. I had this big voice and I was singing
with men and (my voice) was deep. Kids don’t have a deep voice in the
third grade. She said dang I wouldn’t have known that voice was in that
little person. When I was to sing in front of the school, my
mom decided to take me to the hairdresser and poof up my hair like one
of those big bouffants. It was totally over the top. Then she got me a
long dress that had French polka dots, red, white and blue. I was
dressed very formally and I walked out and all of the kids started
laughing at me. I was like what do I do with this? I thought to heck
with them and I started singing. When it was over all of those kids who
were laughing got up on their feet and started clapping for me.
They gave me a standing ovation. They loved it. That was the
turning point and I realized wow, this vocal thing can really get you
somewhere.” Joy Burnworth’s
performing did not stop with grade three, because she was also in
marching bands in middle school and high school. “I played saxophone. I remember my friend Kara
played the flute and when we would walk to school in the snow I
would think why didn’t I choose the flute?
I had to carry my books and I had to carry this crazy saxophone
and she would put her little flute on top of her books and walk to
school. I think the sax is cool and it was worth the aggravation. During the
marching season there were far too many woodwinds and a marching band
needs to sound big and loud, so they took some of the woodwinds and they
put them in the drum line. All the cool people were in the drum line and
I was ‘pick me.’ I carried a bass drum and it was part of a set. It was
smaller, but it weighed twice as much as what the big guys were
carrying. The marching bass drums are made of lighter material and they
had it fitted for someone small like me, but oh my God, I thought what
did I get myself into? It was worth it, because all of the guys in the
drum line were so cool. In Indiana marching bands are as serious as
basketball and we would practice in August when it was incredibly hot
and humid. We would march
from nine to noon and then have an hour off and then come back and march
from two to five. Then we would go home for dinner and come back and
march from seven until nine.
I was like geez this is like an Olympic event! I was getting my P.E.
(Physical Education) credits in there. The coolest part was I was the first on the
field at a Cincinnati Reds (baseball) game. I walked out first from our
drum line. That was mind blowing.
It was little old me. I think I was a sophomore in high school.
The other great thing that we did was to go to the Kentucky Derby and we
did that show too.” In addition to
band and playing saxophone, Burnworth also had several musical classes,
was in a couple of choirs and then when she started participating in
madrigals she dropped band. She also performed in many a cappella
concerts. Burnworth’s
brother also had a big influence on her musically. He played the organ
and performed in plays and musical. “Bob is almost ten years older than me and he
brought me music that he was listening to. I got turned on to all kinds
of music. I remember I loved R&B and Jazz and I also loved Rock,
especially Progressive Rock. He brought me
This Is Niecy, Deniece
Williams’ record where she is wearing a dress and she matches the
background. I thought this is too cool, her dress matches the wallpaper.
He got me into music like Zeppelin and Cream and Hendrix, as well as R&B
and Jazz,” says Burnworth.
Not many
fourteen year olds have to make major life altering decisions, but Joy
Burnworth did. “When I was
fourteen my brother helped me get a lawyer and I left home. I went to
live with my brother, because my step-dad was a horrible person. I was
like if you want to do that to my mom and she’s signing up for it, fine
and dandy, but I’m not going to do that.
He couldn’t get
any work other than Kmart, so he moved to Denver to try and get work.
They left and I didn’t want to leave, because it was towards the end of
my junior year and I wanted to spend the last year at my high school.
They left me in the hands of these folks who were pretty well off, but
they wouldn’t let me sing. I don’t think that they really liked what I was
listening to (she starts to laugh)
and they didn’t like the fact that I was singing in a bar, which
probably wasn’t a great thing (she
is barely able to keep herself from laughing again), but I was doing
what I loved. I remember calling my mom and I said mom this isn’t going
to work out here, because they aren’t going to let me sing. They want me
to be home on the night that I sing, because they decided that was
family night. I asked if we could make it a different night and they
wouldn’t. There was a lot of friction
and I was a very strong willed girl,” she says. During Burnworth’s sophomore year a new musical
partnership and romance dovetailed, “A new kid came into town and his
name was Matt Hyde. He is an excellent guitar player and he (became) an
excellent producer. He has produced No Doubt and Jonny Lang. We became
boyfriend and girlfriend. We did all kinds of music together, so we
formed this group. (I sang) and we did some Heart, and a lot of old
music from Paul Simon to Led Zeppelin and Buffalo Springfield. There was
a place that hired us (she laughs).
It was called Wertz’s Place. It is not there anymore. It was almost like
a barn. We were just these kids and I remember a lot of the regulars who
were probably over forty loved us. When we were going on our breaks we
couldn’t stay in the place, because we were too young. I was sixteen.
It was really fun and I learned a lot in those days. We did a lot of things at school. I remember us
doing a Latin version of “Come In From The Rain,” which is a Melissa
Manchester tune. My friend played saxophone. We played it for the school
and I remember my history teacher said afterwards, Joy that was
fabulous, but it went over all of their heads. They just didn’t get it.
You were too sophisticated. That was always kind of my thing, just a
little too sophisticated for the crowd.
If it was Rock it had to be the experimental Rock, like Rush. I
played Led Zeppelin, because I loved Page and I loved the Blues, but
more of their experimental music.” While things
were blossoming on the musical and romantic fronts, the tyrannical
approach of the family she was living with became too overbearing for
Joy Burnworth. “I phoned my mom and I said, I will stay out of
Jim, my step-dad’s way, but I want to come home for my senior year and I
did. I went back home and I
stayed out my step-dad’s way. I was very busy with singing, so I didn’t
see him very much and I got through it. I had a job in April, before I
graduated and I went to King’s Island. It is like the Disney Land of
Cincinnati, Ohio. I was in a Country show of all things. I had to
audition and dance. It was a lot of fun and I met cool people there,”
she says. After high
school Joy Burnworth also toured with Taft Attractions performing at
large conferences, corporate events and King’s Island Christmas shows,
as well as touring worldwide with the USO (United Service Organizations)
performing for America’s military. It was during this period of time
that she honed her dancing skills. “I loved all of
the dancing that I learned. It was great. I had taken tap when I was a
kid. I just remember my linoleum floor at my apartment was wrecked. I
was afraid they would find out that I hadn’t danced in quite a while. It
all worked out. I saved up my
money and then we did another USO tour, but this time I did it with my
boyfriend (Matt Hyde) and we did it as a Rock band,” remembers
Burnworth. Hyde eventually
moved to Boston to attend Berklee College of Music and after a brief
stint in the corporate world, Burnworth joined him in Boston and she
also attended Berklee. “Matt and this
other guy started writing songs and we recorded this record, but it was
Pop tunes and kind of a George Michael thing. It was late eighties and
we were doing these really cool Pop songs,” she says. They started to attract a lot of interest from
the west coast, so, “We packed our stuff up, we put it on a train and we
took a plane out to L.A. I remember flying over Los Angeles and going
what the heck, this town never ends. I had never seen anything like it.
We went and stayed with Matt’s aunt who lived in the hills of Echo Park.
At the top of these hills it was beautiful. It was just above the police
academy. The homes were made in the twenties and the King Tut influences
were huge. The home looked like an entrance to a pyramid. There was all
of this Mexican food and quesadillas and I was what’s a quesadilla? It
was culture shock (more laughter). Our band was called Life, Love and Pain and we
played clubs. Our first gig was At My Place in Santa Monica, which was a fabulous venue in L.A.
Sheryl Crow, had played there and it had all of the good Jazz music. Eventually,
Life, Love and Pain broke up and soon after Hyde and Burnworth also went
their separate ways. Along the way there have been some interesting
adventures for Joy Burnworth as she began to establish herself as a
highly respected singer that today brings a huge vocal impact to the
songs that she sings, whether they are her own, songs that she has
co-written with Howie Anderson or songs that she covers. The
seventy-five dollar a week band gigs have long since disappeared from
the rearview mirror. The five nights a week steady gig playing to
cassette tracks early in her career is also a distant memory, but it was
her diligence in pursuing her singing career and making those early
sacrifices that cemented a solid music career for Joy Burnworth. She can do it all from the original up-tempo
Country Rock song “Finish What You Started,” to the cover of the Pop
tune “California Girls,” and the Rihanna hit dance song “Don’t Stop the
Music,” (written by Tawanna Dabney). Joy Burnworth is equally adept at
delivering a scintillating performance with Jazz songs like Harold
Arlen’s “A Sleepin’ Bee,” (Truman
Capote also contributed lyrics) and she romantically coos the Jimmy
Van Heusen and Johnny Burke song “Polka Dots and Moonbeams,” reminiscent
of Sarah Vaughan. Joy Burnworth brings new energy to songs like Kelly
Clarkson’s “Since You’ve Been Gone,” and Janet Jackson’s “Together
Again.” Seldom does a
singer arrive on the music scene that can perform in numerous genres of
music and do it at such a high level. There have also been few times in
the history of Riveting Riffs Magazine when we have unabashedly waved
the flag of fandom and said this is an artist we completely endorse and
believe in, but today we are doing just that with Joy Burnworth. You can visit
the website for Joy Burnworth here and you can listen to her music, both
original and cover tunes here. You can visit the website for
Joy Burnworth here and you can listen to her music, both
original and cover tunes here.
|
Anderson
is the name of a city in Indiana and it also happens to be the name of a
very good musical duo of the same name. The duo comprised of Joy
Burnworth and Howie Anderson draws its name from both Howie Anderson’s
last name and the fact that Joy Burnworth grew up in Anderson, Indiana.
The American duo boasts a ton of experience and talent, as Burnworth has
worked with producers David Foster, Gerry Gallagher (Led Zeppelin, ACDC)
and Matt Hyde (Jonny Lang, No Doubt). She has performed at both the
Academy Awards and the Emmy Awards and Burnworth has opened for artists
such as Buffalo Springfield, Pat Benatar and Juice Newton. Joy Burnworth
is also the first call sub for Jefferson Starship. Howie Anderson is the
lead guitarist for The Strawberry
and over and I wouldn’t give up on it.
Then
General Motors decided to just leave town and people with nineteen years
seniority were laid off. Anderson is like the Flint, Michigan of
Indiana. I remember they took the car. They took the couch, they took
the refrigerator and they took everything (from my brother). They were
young and twenty-three. They had a baby and they took me in. I couldn’t
believe it.