Jane Siberry

The fiercely independent Canadian singer and songwriter Jane Siberry was born Jane Stewart on October 12 1955 in Toronto. After learning piano and guitar as a child she wrote her first songs as a teenager. While studying microbiology at the University of Guelph she began performing, eventually being part of the short-lived group Java Jive. Her folk influences were on display on her 1981 self-titled indie debut, and it caught on enough to get her a record deal with A&M. Three years later, her sophomore album, No Borders Here, abandoned folk for electronic inflected art pop. She had her first chart success with the seven-and-a-half minute “Mimi on the Beach”. 1985’s The Speckless Sky continued the same sonic approach and gave her the number 27 single “One More Colour”. She signed with major label Reprise and released The Walking, an album informed by a difficult personal break-up at the time. For 1989’s Bound by the Beauty she moved away from art-pop and returned to more folk and even country elements. She scored her first top 10 hit on the Adult Contemporary chart with 1992’s “Calling All Angels”. 1993’s When I Was a Boy celebrated her overcoming her alcoholism and leaned toward R&B, hip-hop, and funk. The album fizzled, as did 1995’s jazz heavy Maria. After leaving Reprise she formed her own label and relocated to New York where she recorded a number of live albums. 2000’s Hush explored traditional folk songs. In 2006 she sold off most of her possessions and changed her name to Issa, a new personality that resulted in the albums Dragon Dreams, With What Shall I Keep Warm?, and Meshach Dreams Back. She raised money online to fund 2016’s Ulysses’ Purse.

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