Joni Delaurier is a small-town girl with big music dreams.
Music was always part of life for Joni Delaurier, a small-town girl from Swan River, Manitoba, Canada. Her mother had a whopping fifteen(!) brothers and sisters, most of whom played guitar and sang old country songs at family gatherings. "I definitely learned the art of harmony at a young age from my family," she recalls. "We'd be half asleep listening and the grown-ups would keep singing until dawn."
Delaurier remembers combing through her mothers records and playing Tom Jones, George Jones and Don Williams while singing into her hairbrush. On Saturday mornings, she would read through her mom's old country songbooks with her sister. "We would sit behind this old recliner and sing all morning. I remember making up tunes when we didnt know the song," laughs Delaurier.
As she got older, she started to write more seriously and by fifteen was winning honorable mentions in songwriting and composition contests. As a performer, she started to develop and performed at several community events, including an exhibition hockey match for Team Canada. At 19, she had her first writing cut on a Canadian album with the song Now I Can Live Without You performed by Kerry Kingsland.
Delaurier moved to Calgary, AB after high school and pursued a career in public relations. "I worked really hard at school and then at various jobs in PR, but I always wrote music. I could never really give it up - I just didnt know what to do with it," she said.
Thats no longer the case. Delaurier has re-emerged as a serious writer in the past four years, winning third in Calgary's Road to Nashville contest and garnering publisher interest in Nashville with songwriting partner Nancy Laberge. In 2006, Delaurier and Laberge received an Honorable Mention in the Nashville Songwriter's Association NSAI Songwriter Contest.
In late 2005, Delaurier co-wrote Pickup Truck with partner in life and music, Troy Kokol. The song will be featured on Canadian up-and-comer Shane Yellowbird's debut album in 2007.
When not songwriting, Delaurier performs throughout Alberta in Pretty Penny, an original bluegrass/folk/pop duo. Delaurier plays guitar, bass and some percussion while bandmate Corry Schmelter offers contemporary banjo and guitar stylings and percussion.
Delaurier's musical influences range from Bryan Adams, Jann Arden to Conway Twitty and George Jones. "It's hard for me to describe my sound or my writing because I love so many artists and genres. But I would place myself as a sort of Jann Arden meets Tammy Wynette. Think wounded folk-country girl," she laughs.
Delaurier's songs include Old Martin, a touching ballad about a father and son; I Know Youre Gone, a stalkers lament; and Goodbye Texas a song about leaving at any cost. Live show favorites also include the touching When You Go and the hilarious I Used to Call Him Jimmy (Now I Just Call Him Dick).
