Bixby Blog

(Heart)

2009-02-27T09:03:00.000-08:00

Above: Ms. Linda "Aunty Linda" Bixby; Mr. Jaydee.

This is a really nice photo. I might even make it my desktop wallpaper.

Urban Cowboy

2009-02-06T13:48:00.000-08:00

OMG. I found out a few very interesting things from this article.

One: Jaydee lives in Yaletown. Yaletown! We're practically neighbours! Heck, I wonder if I'll run into him in Urban Fare? Or maybe we'll cross paths as me and my boyfriend stumble home from The Republic at 3am on a Saturday. Probably not, as Jaydee's 18, which leads me to..

Two: (Excerpt from article): When playing bars, Bixby still isn't old enough (in most jurisdictions) to stray beyond the kitchen. "I get to know the cooks pretty good," he said with a laugh. "And my band, they kind of feel obligated to hang with me, but I tell them to go have a good time."

I'm trying to picture Jaydee hanging out in restaurant kitchens across Canada, between sets, and it is an uncomfortable picture. I think there should be a special law for teenage country rockers that says if you're legal in your home province (which, if you're a country rocker, is going to be Alberta), you're legal anywhere. Additionally, if one of the songs you're performing contains the following lyrics, I think they should relax the rules just a little:

You like your music loud And your whiskey strong /
Tie one on And let it fly

Three: Jaydee is a lifelong swimmer and lifeguard. My boyfriend is too! In fact he used to win all sorts of championships. He was a lifeguard in his teens and twenties. Which just goes to prove: swimmers are hot.

Four: During his recent performance, he mentioned that before he moved to Vancouver he'd never really seen homeless people. If you were in the Bell Centre that night, you might have head a snicker escape from Row D. That was me. I was like, welcome to the Homeless Capital of the world! In the article it also mentions he's been through Pigeon Park. Harsh. That is one place an innocent young country star should NOT be hanging out. Five minutes in Pigeon Park will corrupt your soul. When I read that, I just wanted to hop in a time machine, scoop him up and carry him away from the DTES (that's short for Downtown Eastside, for all you non-Vancouverites).

Five: (Another excerpt from article): "The poor guys, though. What a rude surprise for them when they realized who was at my shows. They thought it was going to be groupies on this tour, all that, but they didn't realize (that) the fans are 15-year-old girls, and then there's a big gap and it jumps to 30-plus (women). They were joking that it's the 'Kids and Cougars' tour."

Ha! Just a few months till I turn 30 so I guess by the above criteria I'm not a cougar.... yet!

That is all for now.

Feb 3rd Show @ Surrey Bell Centre

2009-02-04T12:33:00.001-08:00

The show at the Bell Centre was pretty good. I must say, I like Jaydee's faster songs better than the slower ones.

It must be a bit unnerving though, to be him, playing lively get-up-and-dance songs and the audience is sitting stock-still. I mean, I'm as guilty as anyone. I'm not gonna lie and say I danced. But when Mr. Bixby comes back this way again (sooner rather than later, now that he lives on this side of the Rockies) I hope for his sake as well as mine that he plays at a livelier establishment, maybe one that allows beer. Not that I'm a hardcore booze-hound, but I mean, if you're gonna sing about whiskey and "buyin' the band a round", it's kind of silly to sing it in a venue like the Bell Centre. I understand that his audience is primarily a family-oriented one but I just think it would be cool if he branched out a little. Okay, he's 18. I keep forgetting. But still.

Jaydee has paired up with World Vision and has even offered a free CD to anyone who signs up to sponsor a child at one of his shows, which I thought was very noble. I have a feeling there is a CTV connection there since they too are plugging World Vision lately. Speaking of CTV, I'm always curious about what the Canadian Idol contracts look like. You know, what obligations there are to CTV after making such-and-such level of the auditions; the things contestants are allowed to say about Idol during interviews; the rules and regulations of the Idol Mansion, and how many of those rules are hush-hush. And how many of those rules are broken.

And now for a random note. His band had the same bar stools as me and my bf have. You can get them at Ikea. I'm not sure if those seats travel with the band or if they belong to the Bell Centre. Careful, guys! I'm sure you've already discovered that if you slide off the chair forward, the metal bar in the back comes unlatched and the chair kinda falls apart. You don't notice it this, of course, until you sit back down again and there's a hard SNAP as it re-connects:

The Bell Centre For Performing Arts. Surrey, BC.

2009-02-03T12:46:00.000-08:00

I'm going to Surrey tonight! Usually going to Surrey is nothing to get excited about (especially since we're taking the skytrain from downtown) but I'm pretty pumped. Jaydee is playing the Bell Centre!

Love Report!

2009-01-26T15:33:00.000-08:00

Jaydee's had a gf for a while but we all know it's not official until it's on facebook. So bad news, screaming 'tweens, and hopeful middle-aged moms of said 'tweens: Mr. Bixby is officially taken. Well, as "taken" as a teenager gets which is... well... you know.

I don't know much about her except that she has attended University, and she is of legal drinking age. (In this photo she is unmistakably drinking some sort of hard liquor beverage. I know a lime wedge when I see one.) I like her already.

Okay, so Jaydee isn't a full-blown celebrity yet, and Ms. Kray is pretty much anonymous at this point, but I'm going to give them a celebrity couples nickname anyway. In the tradition of Brangelina, TomKat, BenJen, et al, I officially declare them......

JayKray.

Mushroom Studios

2009-01-23T15:52:00.000-08:00

As you may know, "Cowboys and Cadillacs" was recorded at Mushroom Studios in Vancouver. Interesting. The two things I know about Mushroom Studios are:

1) It's very close to where I work, and

2) I met a guy once who was an engineer there. It was shortly after my father died and I was in some pub by the ferry terminal in Nanaimo, and I just remember sitting and talking to some guy who said he worked at Mushroom Studios.

Wish I had known about the album while it was being recorded - I would have taken all my lunch breaks in the general vicinity of Broadway and Granville in the hopes that maybe I would spot Mr. Bixby in Starbucks or McDonald's...

Does Jaydee Bixby even go to McDonald's? Who knows. He's from Alberta so he probably appreciates a good burger, which leads me to think maybe I'd be more likely to spot him at Vera's. Although.... if I had just made runner-up in Canadian Idol and was working on an album I'd probably start hanging out at Vij's. High-roller.

"It"

2009-01-21T16:05:00.000-08:00

Do you remember the very first time Jaydee Bixby graced the Canadian Idol stages? I sure do. He belted out a Lloyd Price song and Zack asked him what decade it was in Alberta. (Props to him for not choosing Bon Jovi or Whitney Houston like the other 99% of the contestants.) Then Zack called him Naive. Then he asked Jaydee if he even knew what the word "naive" means. Then the judges told him he was talented, and he was all, "Thanks! And you guys are good judges!" In conversation, as well as in music, Jaydee never misses a beat. If you missed this gem of an audition, then you won't get the hilariousness of it but if you caught it, you are a very priveleged person indeed.

Right then and there, I called it (very loudly, by shrieking and running into the next room to tell my boyfriend because I'm sure he really cares): "J.D. BIXBY IS GONNA WIN THIS THING!" (Back then I didn't know his name was actually spelled "Jaydee") And he won! Okay technically he didn't win, he came in second, but whatever. I mean where did first place get Ruben Studdard? Last I heard he was singing in the subway with an empty guitar case full of nickels. And I don't even remember the guy who beat out Jaydee, really... What's his nuts? Ryan? Byan? Brian? Whatever.

Other notable and exciting Jaydee Bixby moments from Idol include:
~ The time when they showed his parents rooting him on during auditions. And the Bixby's can sure rock the Hawaiian shirt look, I must say.
~ The time when he got his first official Pantene-sponsored Idol makeover and they lopped off his pretty blonde locks.
~ The time in the grand finale when he attempted to sing that cheesy pop song. It's not your fault, Jaydee. It's the song.

He definitely has "it" so it's not a matter of if he'll ever make it big, but when. (And by "big" I mean, of course, the U.S. Billboards.) His voice has matured enough that he can sing mature-person songs, but at the tender age of eighteen I don't think he's had enough heartbreak to really pump out the boozin' cryin' feel like dyin' tunes yet. I think we've only seen the tip of the iceberg as far as Jaydee's talent is concerned.