EDMONTON EXAMINER/Gina Racine
2009-05-13

Singer-songwriter Jay Anthony Willis is ready to wow the world with his debut CD.

"Everybody has a passion. Some guys build furniture, some guys build cars, I build songs." — Jay Anthony Willis

A local singer/songwriter has released his debut CD and set his experiences in Canada free for all to hear.

Jay Anthony Willis has travelled far to get where he is today. Growing up in Edmonton, he joined the military at the age of 24 and has been writing his story ever since.

“I joined up for the navy but ended up at the army for seven years,” he says. Willis then completed university and returned to the military as a navy officer.

He wrote Proud Canadian Soldier when he retired from the military, a song performed by Jill Younghusband.

“When I did that, CBC picked it up and broadcasted it in 1999,” Willis says of the piece that was used to commemorate Canada’s 2005 Year of the Veteran.

“I did a number of performances around the city, but the highlight was at the Winspear during Remembrance Day in 2005. We (performed) with a 120-piece orchestra and Jill was the only one who got a standing ovation that night. If I died then and there, I would have died a happy songwriter.”

Willis says he has been writing songs since high school.

“Everybody has a passion. Some guys build furniture, some guys build cars, I build songs,” he says.

Willis says his self-titled debut CD is a mixture of Latin, jazz, folk and blues. His Hello Alberta is currently in the running for this year’s Calgary Folk Music Festival’s song contest.

The festival will take place on May 9 and Willis says people can expect more of his work to be released in the near future, including a CD with songs about Canada.

“It sort of explains who I am. I’ve lived and worked in every part of Canada. I’ve sailed up and down the west coast in the navy,” he says.

“It’s basically the ideas I have about this country, what it takes to be Canadian and why I’m proud to live here.”

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