JJ SHIPLETT
“It’s been a pretty crazy year,” JJ Shiplett said, sitting and sipping a pint in the Wild Rose Taproom as December was coming to a close.
“You need somebody to help you in this industry. You can’t do it on your own. You need somebody that’s gone before you and can kind of pull you up. “And that’s what it’s been like.” It’s notable that the helping hand that was extended to him came from one of Canada’s most prominent and successful country musicians, one Mr. Johnny Reid.
The acclaimed and heavily awarded artist is now Shiplett’s manager, mentor and biggest champion, having heard the local roots musician singing on another act’s track.
Reid hunted him down and quickly offered to bring him along in the biz.
It came at an interesting and somewhat fortuitous time for Shiplett — he had just finished recording an album on his own in Kelowna and was in the middle of mixing it at Ontario’s famous The Bathouse Recording Studio when he got the call.
“I was done on the Friday and on the Sunday, I flew from Toronto to ( Reid’s home in) Nashville and started another record with Johnny,” Shiplett said. “So it all happened pretty quickly.”
For him, it was a no- brainer to shelve that record he’d just completed, and the album which he’ll release later this spring — likely, with Reid’s help and push, on a major label — will be something of a greatest hits record, featuring six new songs that were on that release and five songs from his 2012 debut, Drifter.
He’s looking forward to people hearing that material because, as he admits, it was released with little fanfare and less followup.
“Like so many local acts, I had no bloody clue what I was doing.”
Fans can get a taste of that full- length release by picking up a four- song sampler titled The E. P. that was rushed so that it would be ready for the start of Reid’s extensive cross- country tour, for which, of course, Shiplett and his band are acting as the openers.
Shiplett understands how great the opportunity will be to reach a whole new, larger and more mainstream audience, and hopes that his old one — which has followed his career — will stick with him.