Saturday night, after my signing at the Langley Chapters, I had the pleasure of going to a friend's CD release party and concert. I haven't heard Julie sing since September 2003, and since then she has become someone I am so honored to call 'friend'. What a beautiful person--inside and out.

Julie Blue is a film composer, performing artist, recording artist and music facilitator, who was born in Calgary, Alberta, and now lives in North Vancouver, BC. At 5 years old, she started playing the piano and she hasn't stopped since. At 17, she began singing professionally, and later trained at Capilano College, Vancouver, BC. She has toured and performed with many bands, mainly jazz and R & B. She has performed on stage with numerous singers and musicians, and has traveled to Africa, Australia, Mexico, Spain, the Caribbean and Japan.

In 1989 she founded the Singspiration Creative Empowerment Programs. She also writes music for and directs a 50-voice gospel choir, 'The Singspiration Singers'. I had the pleasure of hearing this wonderfully group of amazing people sing at Julie's release party. They made me want to jump up and join them. I had a blast!

Julie has written and composed musicals and film scores, including the award-winning documentaries Close to the Heart and Stolen Lives. Some of her past projects include a performance as Musical Keynote Performer for Goldie Hawn's Bright Light Foundation 2005 fundraising event, as well as a Musical Keynote Performance at Matthew Fox's Earth Revival Cosmic Mass, Vancouver 2005 event. She also performed at the Minerva Foundation's Life in Balance forum 2004.

I met Julie at T. Harv Eker's Enlightened Warrior Training Camp in Squamish in 2003. And she has been a valued friend and a promoter/supporter of my work, as I have been of hers. We are both determined that one day she will be composing the music score to one of my movies. If I have any say, she WILL be. I can SEE it.

After Julie's release party, my husband Marc and I were invited by her friends to join them for the "after after party". We went dancing! That was a bloody miracle in itself. My husband doesn't like dancing. While chatting with these lovely people, I ended up selling my books (literally out of the trunk of my car...lol) to Sandy and Julia...and I couldn't resist giving Jody a copy of The River for her birthday, since that was the book she was interested in. One fellow sitting across from us asked us if we were part of a book club. HA! Marc and I got home at 3 a.m. Good grief! I can't tell you the last time we did that, but I was wide awake and still feeling rejuvenated from Julie's performance...a performance that I must say made me feel deeply connected to my brother Jason who was murdered last year.

If you enjoy bluesy, soulful, inspiring music that makes you want to sway, dance or just feel glad to be alive, please visit Julie's site. You can download some of her songs and listen to clips. I invite you to check out this marvelous, talented, gifted, spiritual human being who has uplifted hundreds of thousands of people worldwide with her amazing voice, sensational skill and generous spirit.

Please visit Julie Blue at http://www.julieblue.com and I highly recommend that you pick up her new CD One of a Kind Woman.

~Cheryl Kaye Tardif, bestselling author of Whale Song

http://www.whalesongbook.com

http://www.cherylktardif.com