Val LeRoy

Val LeRoy Biography:Val LeRoy is an artist whose time has come. With her first full-length CD garnering rave reviews, she has truly become someone to watch.Val started working as a professional musician in Saskatchewan, and then moved to Alberta early in her career to continue touring the Western Provinces. She has tried her hand at many musical styles. "I've been in bands that have played everything from Hard Rock to Dance Pop and R&B, so I’ve had a lot of different influences.”Val settled in Calgary and began to concentrate more on her songwriting, winning the Southern Alberta Songwriting Competition for the pop song, “Call On Me”. In 1995 she entered and won the Alberta Theater Project’s ‘Spirit of Patsy Cline’ Contest, which gained her national television exposure and a trip to Nashville. She was twice invited to showcase for the Canadian Country Music Association. In 1998, Val released a four song CD produced by British Columbia’s 1996 producer of the year, Tony Rudner (Farmer’s Daughter, Rachel Matkin). Three of the four songs on that CD charted on the Canadian Country Music Charts (Country Music News), demonstrating her radio appeal. Meanwhile, Val was busy songwriting with her husband, Rick Mizzoni. The two hooked up with Blue Leaf Music and began work on Val’s follow-up CD, “Waiting for the Sun”. With Mizzoni as the producer, there were sessions in Vancouver, Calgary and Kitchener, Ontario, using the top players in the country. An exciting development was the involvement of J.Richard Hutt (2000 CCMA’s producer of the year) in the completion and mixing of the CD. “Rick Hutt is a much respected producer in the Canadian music scene, and rightly so. He has an amazing track record, having produced Lace, Jamie Warren, The Northern Pikes, and Tom Cochrane, to name a few, and he is truly a pleasure to work with.” Most of the songs on the CD were Val LeRoy/ Rick Mizzoni co-writes, a fact that Val was very happy about. “It’s an exciting point in an artist’s career when the songs you write are deemed strong enough to record”. One of the songs they wrote, “ Next Time”, was advance- released as a single and hit the top 50 on the BDS chart in Canada. The single “Radio Up, Windows Down” was accompanied by a CMT video, produced by award winning director, Joel Stewart (Blue Rodeo, Terri Clark).Since the release of the CD, Val has been a featured artist at many profile venues. Along with a Jann Arden and Paul Brandt, Val performed at the Say Hay Benefit Concert, to aid drought-stricken Alberta farmers, in Calgary at the Saddledome, as well as the Skyreach Centre in Edmonton. She also appeared recently on the Mainstage at Dauphin Countryfest with Jimmy Rankin and Blue Rodeo and performed at the Big Valley Jamboree in August 2003. In 2003, the CCMA invited Val LeRoy to perform at the much- coveted “Fanfest” and “Songwriter’s Café” during Canadian Country Music Week in Calgary, where she also took part in a tribute performance to Canadian Hall Fame Inductee, Sylvia Tyson. She was also invited to showcase at Canadian Music Week in Toronto in 2003.She was a featured vocalist on Sean Hogan’s “ It’s Christmas Time” single and video, and on George Canyon’s single “ A Good Day To Ride”. She has been busy playing with her band and is currently writing new, more pop oriented music for her next CD.Expect to hear more from Val LeRoy!