By Jay Scott Kanes

CHARLOTTETOWN, PEI, Canada -- A stickler for working hard at the music she loves, bluegrass-country singer Janet McGarry has the pleasing habit of issuing a new CD every year.

Love and Learn, her seventh release, appeared in 2007. As the year ended, it earned her an East Coast Music Award nomination in the bluegrass category. Her eager fans look forward to what 2008 will bring.

Janet plans more albums. “We have lots of ideas,” she said. “There’s so much good music out there. I’m always thinking of what to put on the next album. I’m always listening. People keep bringing me songs.”

For Love and Learn, “we had a theme of love gone wrong. The album has a lot of new things about it. I spent hours listening to old material to come up with many of the songs, but we arranged them differently and had different players. I also got some original material from new writers.”

Among the thematic tracks are “No Expectations”, “What Makes Me Hang Around?”, “Lonely Blows Under Your Door” and “Nobody Home”. One song, “Black Ink, Blue Paper”, came from the American music stars Dixie and Tom T. Hall. “I told them our theme, and they came back with a song that fit perfectly,” Janet said.

With the band Wildwood, co-starring her husband Serge Bernard (banjo), and another married couple, Roxeen (bass) and Ryan Roberts (guitar) of Nova Scotia, Janet appears at bluegrass festivals and events across Atlantic Canada, in Nashville and elsewhere. More than once, her powerful voice has earned her the top-female-vocalist honors at the Eastern Canadian Bluegrass Awards in Truro, Nova Scotia.

“Serge and I feel passionate about our music, and so do Roxeen and Ryan,” Janet said. “With all of us channeling our energies in the same direction, it’s much easier. We’re comfortable and confident in what each of us brings to the band, which allows us to go out and have fun.

“People are becoming a lot more familiar with our music, and we’re always networking. We meet so many people through music, and it all opens new doors.”

Janet favors songs about home, love and faith. In 2000, she launched her first album, My Heart Is a Diamond, at the PEI Bluegrass and Old Time Music Festival in Rollo Bay. Then came: Hills of Home (2001); Looking Toward Sunrise (2003); Christmas by the Fireside (seasonal, 2004); He Will Bring You Home (gospel, 2005) and My Dixie Darlin’ (2006).

Looking toward sunrise, I clearly see,
A love, a light, a promise,
Just waitin’ there for me,
Casting shadows behind me,
There’s a new light before me.
A new day before me now lies,
Looking toward sunrise.
From “Looking Toward Sunrise”, Written by Janet McGarry and Serge Bernard, 2003

“We have so much fun doing what we do,” Janet said. “For whatever reason, the music has worked. When I made my first CD, I had no idea how it would go over. It surprised the daylights out of me when it sold well.”

On Janet’s gospel CD in 2005, Nova Scotia star J.P. Cormier played fiddle, mandolin and banjo. PEI’s Catherine MacLellan sang harmony vocals.

“I called J.P. and told him we needed really good lonesome fiddling,” said Serge. “Sure enough, he showed up. With no rehearsal, he listened to half a song and then the intro before he said, ‘Okay, press that red button, and away we go.’ He put on some of the most amazing tracks you could hear a guy perform.”

With Serge, Janet earned a 2005 East Coast Music Award nomination for Christmas by the Fireside. Starting in 2001, she attracted several other ECMA nominations. She won top-female-vocalist honors at the 2004 PEI Music Awards.

The middle child in a family of nine, Janet grew up in tiny Iona, PEI. Her father Peter, an entertainer at dances and house parties, inspired her to love music. Soon Janet and her brother Raymond performed too.

“I was small, but my brother and I were encouraged to sing,” Janet said. “We went from singing at the house to concerts in community halls.”

When offstage, Janet has worked at payroll and personnel for the PEI Public Service Commission. “Serge and I still work and save our holidays for when we need them in music,” she said.

“I love what we’re doing,” Janet said. “I just couldn’t have imagined that life would be so full. We get to go out on the weekends and play music. We meet so many wonderful people. I can’t ask for anything more. I’m happy.”

For more information: www.janetmcgarry.com

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