Julie Durden Music

Some may remember hearing Julie Durden's song "Heaven" from local independent film "Saving Sophie." On July 16, the Jacksonville native will release her latest album, "Free," which is expected to sell more than 1,000 copies in the first two weeks of its shelf life.
"This is a very positive CD," says Durden. "It will be very healing for listeners. It was for me."
The singer-songwriter will play at 7 p.m. on July 16 at Kevin's Grille, 2429 South Third St., in Jacksonville Beach. Sign language interpreters will be provided for the concert, and a celebration party will follow.
"Perfect that Way," which she co-wrote with Nashville's Tim Johnson, will be the first single off Durden's new disc. The song has already gathered attention, receiving air play on four radio stations in Seattle.
"Perfect that Way has a very important subject matter that people need to be aware of," says Durden who wrote the song about her 11-year-old hearing impaired niece Lindsey Senea.
Many of these songs hit close to home for Durden, including "Front Porch" which she wrote as an ode to her father and his musical influence on her as a child. Durden's July 16 CD release party will also be a send-off celebration. Durden will hit the road in August for her first out of state tour. She will make stops in Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina to help promote "Free."
Juggling a tour schedule may be difficult for Durden, a deaf education teacher at Jacksonville's Fletcher High, when September arrives, but she is determined to do whatever necessary to fulfill what she feels is her destiny.
Durden picked up a guitar at age nine and it was then that her dream was discovered.
"When my father taught me to play guitar, I couldn't stop," says Durden.
Her parents have been the constant influence and inspiration that has driven her to realize her aspiration of music stardom.
"I was fascinated with my dad always playing the guitar around the house," says Durden. "And my mom always supported everything I did."
Durden grew up in Live Oak, one of five children. After college she fled to Nashville to concentrate on her songwriting. Nashville wasn't the motivation Durden was looking for, finding herself distracted and withdrawn from the focal point of her move to Tennessee. She re-evaluated the situation and decided to move back to Florida to be closer to family and the ocean.
"I've always been a water person," Durden said. "I just need to be around it."
Durden's relocation proved to be the guidance she needed, admitting she wrote more than she ever had upon her return to her native state.
"My first CD was a product of moving to St. Augustine," says Durden, referring to her 1995 self-titled debut release.
Durden's songwriting is what drives her music.
"My main focus is songwriting; everything else comes second," Durden said. Riding the songwriting wave that flowed from her, Durden released her second album, "Simple Things" in July of 2003. It sold more than 2,000 copies and fueled Durden to continue on the path she had chosen for herself. "If you have a love and ambition for something, it's part of your plan to live it out," Durden said. "I am not stopping until something happens."
For information on Julie Durden including booking information and tour dates, go to her Web site at www.juliedurden.com .

http://www.staugustine.com/stories/070805/com_3189079.shtml

- Compass - By JULIA CALGIANO

Julie Durden, a talented, AAA/pop singer/songwriter based in Jacksonville, FL, has won the SongwriterUniverse “Best Song Of The Month” Contest for October, for her song “Perfect That Way” (which was co-written by Nashville pro songwriter Tim Johnson, who has had hits with Kenny Chesney, Alan Jackson and others). This song is featured on Durden’s second CD Free, which she released independently in July.

“Perfect That Way” is a beautiful, heartfelt ballad which is musically reminiscent of the elegant, piano-based ballads of Bruce Hornsby or Don Henley. The song has a special lyric message, telling the story of a girl who was born with a hearing impairment, but is nevertheless a wonderful, intelligent person who is “perfect” in many other ways. It was inspired by Durden’s niece Lindsey, 11, who happens to be deaf. The recording of “Perfect That Way” features expressive, tender vocals by Durden, excellent piano tracks by Tory Harris, and it was expertly produced by Durden and Harris.

Durden grew up in Live Oak, Florida (near Jacksonville), and her father taught her to play guitar and mandolin at an early age. She began writing songs in her early teens and throughout high school. For college, Durden attended Tallahassee Community College, before moving to Jacksonville and graduating from the University of North Florida (with a B.A. in English). During her college years, she would play solo, acoustic shows at various “writer’s night” gigs and other venues.

She subsequently moved to Nashville for a few years, but Durden eventually returned to Jacksonville, where she wrote and recorded the songs for her debut CD Simple Things (which was released in 2003 and sold 3,000 units). Durden also commuted to Nashville for writing trips, and it was in February 2005 that she met hit writer Tim Johnson at a NSAI (Nashville Songwriters Association International) convention. Johnson liked one of her songs, so he invited Durden to collaborate with him.

When Durden and Johnson got together, she mentioned that she was a sign language teacher and told her about her niece, Lindsey. They decided to write a positive song about her and other people with disabilities. “Lindsey being born opened [my family’s] mind and thoughts,” explained Durden. “It changed my life and perspective. We wanted the song to be very positive, where people no longer judged deaf people, and to open people’s minds. People with disabilities are capable of doing practically anything anybody else is doing in the world.”

“Perfect That Way” is a key song on Durden’s new CD Free, and it is already receiving airplay and drawing attention due to its subject and positive message. In her concerts now, Durden brings a sign language interpreter, Lori Cimino, to sign the lyrics for her audience. “I have a large deaf audience,” said Durden. “They can feel the music, and see my emotions.”

Durden discussed her goals for the coming year. “I’m looking forward to promoting my album, and putting together a band and tour. I also want to write more songs in Nashville and Los Angeles, to place songs with other artists. And I would like to share ‘Perfect That Way’ with deaf associations and communities. [Tim and I] hope that this song trickles down to all deaf organizations and schools, and especially for families with children who are born deaf…because it is a blessing.”


- By Dale Kawashima

They hung over the upper decks and filled the courtyard to capacity at Kevin's Grille on Third Street in Jacksonville Beach July 16.

They were a diverse and unusual concert audience, intimate with and connected to the singer by several strands of love. Family members and her students from the American Sign Language Club at Fletcher High School were on hand to cheer her on.

Friends from the local music community as well as visitors from Asheville, N.C.; Atlanta; Miami; Fernandina Beach; Jacksonville and St. Augustine were there, joined by a large contingent of students and staff from the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind.

Premiering her new CD, Free, singer-songwriter Julie Durden crooned 12 original songs to an appreciative audience of over 300, several of whom were deaf. Interpreters Lori Cimino and Danielle Alexander of St. Augustine took turns signing as Durden sang. Strumming her guitar and singing her lyrics in a rich, clear voice, Durden was accompanied by Ron Rodriguez on acoustic guitar and Tory Harris on keyboard.

"I never heard her sing before," said Jenna Bryant, a Fletcher graduate and Durden's former ASL student. "She's amazing!" Bryant, who admitted she originally took ASL because it was the easiest foreign language credit, noted "Ms. Durden made us not only learn sign language, but love it. Because of her, I plan to make a career of teaching ASL and working with families of deaf loved ones."

Bryant and Fletcher senior Marisa D'Elia brought their CDs to the stage for Durden's signature following the concert.

"I'm really proud of her," said Bryant. "I was fascinated by the number of people in the deaf community here tonight. Her song, Perfect That Way, about her niece, Lindsey Senea, is going to be hit. I just know it."

Perfect That Way, the first single from Durden's new CD, was the final offering of the evening and had the audience on their feet before the final chord was played. Inspired by her deaf 11-year-old niece, Lindsey, and co-written with Nashville songwriter Tim Johnson, Perfect That Way vividly describes the young girl's positive perspective on life despite her perceived disability.
As Cimino signed the words, "That girl grew up not knowing the sound of her mama's voice, God's gift to her was silence in a world so full of noise," Lindsey and her best friend, Taylor, who is also hearing-impaired, sat in the front row, their eyes darting back and forth between the interpreter and the singer.

"I had the song in my heart and Tim Johnson brought it to life," said Durden. "It's an honor just sitting in the room with him, let alone having him ask to write a song with me. That was definitely a gift from God."

Johnson is one of Nashville's top songwriters, with several No.1 hits under his belt, includingThank God for Believers by Mark Chestnutt, Someone You Used to Know by Collin Raye and What I Do by Alan Jackson. Judging by the local and national reaction to Perfect That Way, another No.1 hit may be in the making.

"I was blown away by the crowd that came out to support me," Durden said following the concert. "I don't think there's ever been a bigger CD release in this area. When Lindsey ran up to the stage with flowers for me and I looked around at all the people standing and applauding, with tears in their eyes, that's when I just let my tears flow. It's what happens when the music is from the heart."

- By Susan D. Brandenburg -Jacksonville Shorelines 7/23/05

They hung over the upper decks and filled the courtyard to capacity at Kevin's Grille on Third Street in Jacksonville Beach July 16.

They were a diverse and unusual concert audience, intimate with and connected to the singer by several strands of love. Family members and her students from the American Sign Language Club at Fletcher High School were on hand to cheer her on.

Friends from the local music community as well as visitors from Asheville, N.C.; Atlanta; Miami; Fernandina Beach; Jacksonville and St. Augustine were there, joined by a large contingent of students and staff from the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind.

Premiering her new CD, Free, singer-songwriter Julie Durden crooned 12 original songs to an appreciative audience of over 300, several of whom were deaf. Interpreters Lori Cimino and Danielle Alexander of St. Augustine took turns signing as Durden sang. Strumming her guitar and singing her lyrics in a rich, clear voice, Durden was accompanied by Ron Rodriguez on acoustic guitar and Tory Harris on keyboard.

"I never heard her sing before," said Jenna Bryant, a Fletcher graduate and Durden's former ASL student. "She's amazing!" Bryant, who admitted she originally took ASL because it was the easiest foreign language credit, noted "Ms. Durden made us not only learn sign language, but love it. Because of her, I plan to make a career of teaching ASL and working with families of deaf loved ones."

Bryant and Fletcher senior Marisa D'Elia brought their CDs to the stage for Durden's signature following the concert.

"I'm really proud of her," said Bryant. "I was fascinated by the number of people in the deaf community here tonight. Her song, Perfect That Way, about her niece, Lindsey Senea, is going to be hit. I just know it."

Perfect That Way, the first single from Durden's new CD, was the final offering of the evening and had the audience on their feet before the final chord was played. Inspired by her deaf 11-year-old niece, Lindsey, and co-written with Nashville songwriter Tim Johnson, Perfect That Way vividly describes the young girl's positive perspective on life despite her perceived disability.
As Cimino signed the words, "That girl grew up not knowing the sound of her mama's voice, God's gift to her was silence in a world so full of noise," Lindsey and her best friend, Taylor, who is also hearing-impaired, sat in the front row, their eyes darting back and forth between the interpreter and the singer.

"I had the song in my heart and Tim Johnson brought it to life," said Durden. "It's an honor just sitting in the room with him, let alone having him ask to write a song with me. That was definitely a gift from God."

Johnson is one of Nashville's top songwriters, with several No.1 hits under his belt, includingThank God for Believers by Mark Chestnutt, Someone You Used to Know by Collin Raye and What I Do by Alan Jackson. Judging by the local and national reaction to Perfect That Way, another No.1 hit may be in the making.

"I was blown away by the crowd that came out to support me," Durden said following the concert. "I don't think there's ever been a bigger CD release in this area. When Lindsey ran up to the stage with flowers for me and I looked around at all the people standing and applauding, with tears in their eyes, that's when I just let my tears flow. It's what happens when the music is from the heart."

- By Susan D. Brandenburg -Jacksonville Shorelines 7/23/05

She'll never hear the song her Aunt Julie wrote about her. She'll never hear the way her aunt sings the words or caresses the music with her guitar. But Lindsey Senea, 11, who is deaf, can read the words to the song Perfect that Way on paper. She can see them brought to life in the air through sign language.

She can feel them in her heart.

"It makes me feel special," Lindsey said last week through a sign language interpreter. "It means a lot to me."

The country song that Julie Durden of Atlantic Beach wrote about her niece Lindsey, of St. Augustine, is popular in Seattle and catching on with radio listeners in the Jacksonville area. About 300 fans came to hear Durden perform Saturday night at Kevin's Grille in Jacksonville Beach, when she sang the song and others on her new CD.

Durden, who is also a sign language teacher at Fletcher High School, describes her style as "alternative country" with modern pop overtones. Her roots are bluegrass; her songs tell a story.

She said she is thrilled that people like Lindsey's song, which is about deafness and its impact on families.

"The song is awesome," said disc jockey Ichabod Caine of KMPS (94.1 FM), a country music station in Seattle. "That CD could easily become a hit record."

"We get more requests for that song than most," said program director Roger Henderson of WCRJ (88.1 FM) in Jacksonville, whose station plays the song every three or four hours.

Al Brennan of WAOC (1420 AM) in St. Augustine, who interviewed Durden last week, compares her to folk singer Joan Baez.

"She's folksy," he said. He said he also admires Durden's "stick-to-it-ness," that she's never given up on her music career.

Durden, who grew up in Live Oak, has been singing and playing the guitar since she was 9 years old. She began writing songs at 12
She had four siblings but didn't get lost in the crowd of her large family. Her dad, Larry, recognized her passion early and supported her in every way he could. He was her first guitar teacher.

"He literally sat with me every night and practiced with me for hours," she said. He also worked and supported his kids in sports.

"He was a busy man," she said. "Still is."

The Durden family's lives were changed when Lindsey was born in November 1993 to Julie's sister, Lori Senea. They learned almost immediately that the baby, born by Caesarian section after a long and complicated life-threatening delivery, was deaf. Doctors ordered a hearing test when she was a day old.

"When they said 'no hearing,'" Lori Senea recalls, "I said, 'OK, what does that mean?'"

Faced with a variety of choices, Senea decided her daughter would grow up learning sign language. Even though no one in the family knew anyone who was deaf or knew any sign language.

Larry Durden and his wife, Jessie, made it a rule that everyone would learn. They said: "You will learn sign language and if Lindsey is around, you will sign everything you say," Julie Durden recalls. They didn't want the little girl to be left out of any conversations.

Larry and Jessie Durden they enrolled in American Sign Language courses at a nearby community college then taught the rest of the family and Lindsey.

Larry Durden read books to Lindsey every night. He walked her around the house and neighborhood, pointing to things and signing them.

At the time, Julie Durden was in college in Tallahassee. On breaks, she learned sign language from her parents. After graduation, she decided to pursue a music career and headed to Nashville.

She worked as a waitress and managed a retail store to make ends meet. But her songwriting suffered.

"I didn't get the inspiration I needed there," she said. She missed living in Florida; missed her family and the ocean. After two years, she moved to St. Augustine to be near Lori and Lindsey. The Seneas had divorced when Lindsey was a toddler and Lori was a single, working mother.

"As soon as I moved back here, I wrote like a mad woman. Songs were coming out left and right," said Durden, who took advanced sign language courses at the University of North Florida while she worked in a retail store. She grew closer to Lindsey and became proficient at signing.

Last year, she became a teacher at Fletcher, where she taught about 150 students.

It turned out to be a busier year than she expected. At a songwriters convention in February, she met a successful songwriter from Nashville named Tim Johnson. He invited her to write with him and since the two teamed up, Durden said, her music career has "boomed."

Durden started commuting between the Beaches and Nashville twice a month, driving the 11 hours each way on long weekends. She gained notice in Nashville and a publishing company picked up her expenses.

Durden and Johnson wrote the song about Lindsey in eight hours. Johnson's help was invaluable, Durden said.

"Tim Johnson didn't know about deafness, but he came up with perfect ideas."

During the writing process, sh - By Maggie FitzRoy - Florida Times Union 7/23/05

She'll never hear the song her Aunt Julie wrote about her. She'll never hear the way her aunt sings the words or caresses the music with her guitar. But Lindsey Senea, 11, who is deaf, can read the words to the song Perfect that Way on paper. She can see them brought to life in the air through sign language.

She can feel them in her heart.

"It makes me feel special," Lindsey said last week through a sign language interpreter. "It means a lot to me."

The country song that Julie Durden of Atlantic Beach wrote about her niece Lindsey, of St. Augustine, is popular in Seattle and catching on with radio listeners in the Jacksonville area. About 300 fans came to hear Durden perform Saturday night at Kevin's Grille in Jacksonville Beach, when she sang the song and others on her new CD.

Durden, who is also a sign language teacher at Fletcher High School, describes her style as "alternative country" with modern pop overtones. Her roots are bluegrass; her songs tell a story.

She said she is thrilled that people like Lindsey's song, which is about deafness and its impact on families.

"The song is awesome," said disc jockey Ichabod Caine of KMPS (94.1 FM), a country music station in Seattle. "That CD could easily become a hit record."

"We get more requests for that song than most," said program director Roger Henderson of WCRJ (88.1 FM) in Jacksonville, whose station plays the song every three or four hours.

Al Brennan of WAOC (1420 AM) in St. Augustine, who interviewed Durden last week, compares her to folk singer Joan Baez.

"She's folksy," he said. He said he also admires Durden's "stick-to-it-ness," that she's never given up on her music career.

Durden, who grew up in Live Oak, has been singing and playing the guitar since she was 9 years old. She began writing songs at 12
She had four siblings but didn't get lost in the crowd of her large family. Her dad, Larry, recognized her passion early and supported her in every way he could. He was her first guitar teacher.

"He literally sat with me every night and practiced with me for hours," she said. He also worked and supported his kids in sports.

"He was a busy man," she said. "Still is."

The Durden family's lives were changed when Lindsey was born in November 1993 to Julie's sister, Lori Senea. They learned almost immediately that the baby, born by Caesarian section after a long and complicated life-threatening delivery, was deaf. Doctors ordered a hearing test when she was a day old.

"When they said 'no hearing,'" Lori Senea recalls, "I said, 'OK, what does that mean?'"

Faced with a variety of choices, Senea decided her daughter would grow up learning sign language. Even though no one in the family knew anyone who was deaf or knew any sign language.

Larry Durden and his wife, Jessie, made it a rule that everyone would learn. They said: "You will learn sign language and if Lindsey is around, you will sign everything you say," Julie Durden recalls. They didn't want the little girl to be left out of any conversations.

Larry and Jessie Durden they enrolled in American Sign Language courses at a nearby community college then taught the rest of the family and Lindsey.

Larry Durden read books to Lindsey every night. He walked her around the house and neighborhood, pointing to things and signing them.

At the time, Julie Durden was in college in Tallahassee. On breaks, she learned sign language from her parents. After graduation, she decided to pursue a music career and headed to Nashville.

She worked as a waitress and managed a retail store to make ends meet. But her songwriting suffered.

"I didn't get the inspiration I needed there," she said. She missed living in Florida; missed her family and the ocean. After two years, she moved to St. Augustine to be near Lori and Lindsey. The Seneas had divorced when Lindsey was a toddler and Lori was a single, working mother.

"As soon as I moved back here, I wrote like a mad woman. Songs were coming out left and right," said Durden, who took advanced sign language courses at the University of North Florida while she worked in a retail store. She grew closer to Lindsey and became proficient at signing.

Last year, she became a teacher at Fletcher, where she taught about 150 students.

It turned out to be a busier year than she expected. At a songwriters convention in February, she met a successful songwriter from Nashville named Tim Johnson. He invited her to write with him and since the two teamed up, Durden said, her music career has "boomed."

Durden started commuting between the Beaches and Nashville twice a month, driving the 11 hours each way on long weekends. She gained notice in Nashville and a publishing company picked up her expenses.

Durden and Johnson wrote the song about Lindsey in eight hours. Johnson's help was invaluable, Durden said.

"Tim Johnson didn't know about deafness, but he came up with perfect ideas."

During the writing process, sh - By Maggie FitzRoy - Florida Times Union 7/23/05