A long time coming, Berna-Dean released her debut CD "Fledgling" on April 8th at the Ironwood Stage and Grill in Calgary Alberta. Her songs are rich and honest in a fusion of Canadiana / Folk / Roots and Bluegrass styles. Her calming and effortless voice compliments her beautifully crafted songs in which she expresses her deep love of nature and the complexity of the human condition.
Berna-Dean's journey to becoming a songwriter and performer has been unusual, beginning with a rather unique childhood. Born in Red Deer Alberta and raised in small prairie towns and rural areas across western Canada and overseas in Great Britain, by the time she graduated from high school, her family had moved some 18 times. Although this transient lifestyle primarily due to her father's main line of work in the Oil Patch did not allow for music lessons, Berna-Dean always sang and also began expressing her creativity as a visual artist and writer of poetry at an early age. During these years there were sometimes pianos in the home that her mother played and Berna-Dean would plunk away on when she thought no one was listening. Then when Berna-Dean was about 13 years old and her family was living in England, her father noticed her ear for music and took her to the city of Norwich to buy her first guitar. It was a brand new Fender F35 steel string acoustic and within days of owning it, Berna-Dean had taught herself enough to start making up songs. By grade 11 and now back in Canada, a friend convinced her to perform at their high school variety show. She found the experience terrifying, but received many encouraging compliments about her singing and songwriting. Ironically, not long after that it was her father who discouraged Berna-Dean from pursuing music with any kind of serious notion or ambition. Undoubtedly as a father will, he was only thinking of the risks of a young girl going off to pursue something so unpredictable.
Over the next few years, music served to help Berna-Dean navigate through a series of personal challenges and an associated clinical depression. Other than a few house parties and later a couple of performances at very early "South Country Faire" music festivals and the "Oldman River Expedition", Berna-Dean did not play in public or even much at home. Instead she was focusing on her other passion in life, animals and nature and the completion of her BSc. at the University of Lethbridge. Post graduation, Berna-Dean worked as a Natural History Interpreter in both the Alberta Badlands and at the Calgary Zoo. Following this, she worked as a Zoo Keeper also at the Calgary Zoo. During this time Berna-Dean met and married Brian and music began to creep back into her life. As a Natural History Interpreter, she used music as a teaching tool, writing and performing songs about Wildlife Conservation and began collaborating with several local musicians including Cellist Alana Luft who is featured on her CD. Berna-Dean eventually left her job at the Calgary Zoo to work on a wildlife conservation research project of the critically endangered Vancouver Island Marmot. Following completion of this she found herself with a lot more time on her hands for writing songs and networking and jamming with other musicians such as Marti Smith and members of the Foothills Acoustic Music Institute and Foothills Bluegrass Music Society. She also returned to drawing and began doing illustrative pastel renderings of wildlife she had photographed. The cover art on her album is an example of this.
In 2008 Berna-Dean began to consider recording a CD and as luck would have it she met Jack Loree at a music jam in Calgary. She was very impressed with his beautiful dobro playing and later contacted him to see if he was interested in doing studio work. Jack responded by suggesting they get together with musical instruments in hand to see what they could come up with for her original songs. They began meeting weekly and soon Berna-Dean was hearing Jack's beautiful arrangements with dobro, lead guitar, banjo and keyboards. A few months later after performing at an open mic, good fate resulted in Berna-Dean being approached by upright bass player Norm Rooke, who inquired if she was looking for a bass player. Berna-Dean recruited this fine player immediately and with both Norm and Jack providing vocal harmonies too, "Wheelhouse" was formed. They debuted at the Back Yard Music Fest in Calgary in June 2009. At the end of July 2009 Berna-Dean and the fellas got to recording a first CD of 13 of Berna-Dean's original tunes with Rob Smith at Rocky Mountain Recording Studio in Calgary.
So far Berna-Dean's fledgling album has been very well received. Her songs are honest and genuine; her voice is clear, strong and full of raw emotion. When you see Berna-Dean perform, it is obvious that she is a songwriter's songwriter and was meant to take that leap out of the proverbial nest to glide on to the stage.
