Lee Villaire

"Lee's latest CD spotlights excellent songcrafting that features Villaire's sultry vocals as well as an outstanding group of backing musicians"
- Brian Owens - Metronome Magazine

"Lee's fourth and latest CD 'Blonde Intuition and Other Good Voodoo' includes 13 new songs that showcase Villaire's sensual lyrics and emotive vocals"
- Nancy Sheehan - Worcester Telegram and Gazette

WHUS, Storrs CT
WSCW, Worcester MA
WSIN, New Haven CT
WPSC, Wayne NJ
WSUP, Platteville WI
WLJS, Jacksonville AL
WUVT, BLacksburg VA
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KASC, Phoenix AZ
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- CD: blonde intuition & other good voodoo

Tim Qualls Show, Delaware MD
April 2009

Cool Talk LATV,
Leominster MA
August 2009 - Re: CD "blonde intuition and other good voodoo"

The Bull Run
Shirley, MA
October 2009

Bourbon Street West
Montreal, QC Canada
August 2009

Tammany Hall
Worcester, MA
April 2009

Sheraton Gazebo Lounge
Leominster, MA
January 2009 - Large Venues: 100+ in attendance

By Craig S. Semon, Dec 8, 2005

LEOMINSTER _ At last count, Lee Villeneuve has 93 flaws.
One wouldn’t know this by chatting with the Canadian chanteuse or listening to the songs on her new disc, “Clandestiny” but smacked-dabbed in the middle of it on the track “What’s Wrong with Me?,” the Leominster-immigrate seductively coos, “I know my faults/All 93/But I can’t change them all/So forgive me.”

Villeneuve, likes to “write about stuff that takes listeners to the weaker side of people. I think people associate with it a lot. People will say, ‘You don’t know how many times I felt that’ when you’re in that place, when you don’t have somebody in life,” she said.

With a voice and vision that sounds like a cross between Melissa Etheridge and Ednaswap’s Anne Preven, Villeneuve’s blend of cathartic, confessional “sensual acoustic pop” is sung from an intimate, unguarded place and resonates with a warm sincerity and driving urgency that makes it easy for the listener to be immediately seduced by the singer.

Coming from the Great White North before landing in North Central Mass. three years ago, Villeneuve, who speaks French fluently but prefers speaking in English, was born in Quebec City. When she was five, her folks moved to Hartford, Conn. Although she protested, her family moved back to Canada when she was 14. As a result, Villeneuve lived in Montreal until three years ago when her employer offered her a transfer to its plant in Leominster.

Villeneuve, whose early influences include Heart, Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks and Pat Benatar, started getting serious about singing when she was 16. In December of 2001, Lee released her first solo CD titled “The Therapy Sessions.” Her song “Inspire Me” received solid airplay on the CBC radio network and “Still Crazy For You” picked up a Certificate of Achievement in the International Unisong Competition in 2003.

Recorded in her “little home studio” and produced by local musician/studio whiz Jeff Root, the title of Villeneuve’s new disc, “Clandestiny,” came to her when she kept repeating the words “Clandestine” and “Destiny” over and over again and then eventually colliding the two words together.

“The root of the title is you don’t know your destiny and your destiny is a secret even to yourself. Through performances and songwriting workshops, the 12 songs on the disc are tried and tested with a lot rewrites, she said, and is a lot truer than anything she ever released in Canada.

Featuring a sexy and soulful Villeneuve panting and purring like an alley cat in heat, the opening track “Driving Home” is a windshield steaming, curve-hugging, steering wheel-caressing, piston-popping ditty which, arguably has, to be the sexiest tale of a commute ever put on a record.

“I loved writing that. Literally, the thing was written in my car driving from Montreal back home to Leominster with a little pad on my knee,” she said. “I was anxious to get home to see my guy and everything struck me as being sexy.”

The smart and sassy “Dumb Blond” boasts Villeneuve’s self-lacerating wit, especially in the lines, “I got street smarts/A quick wit/A logical mind/And great people skills/So it kills me that when you come around I become a dumb blond.”

“Oddly enough, I was at the office in the persona of a serious business woman and I walked literally into a wall in front of a few people and they had a great chuckle over that,” she confessed. “And, I though no matter how together you think you are there is always this side of you that deep down in you, you can be a stupid blond.”

The sassy, soulful, sisters-in-arms anthem “It’s a Girl Thing” features Villeneuve trading lines with Heidi-Jo Hanson, who she first met at the Singer-Songwriter showcase and was intentionally written as a Hanson duet in mind. The song’s free-spirited, neo-hippie vibe is captured in the lines, “I’m a starry-eye butterfly/Tough as nails if you cross that line/I might cry on a dime/Stand my ground/Change my mind/Don’t waste your time trying to figure me out/It’s a girl thing.”

Villeneuve is performing on Dec. 7 at The Tankard, 13 Central St.; Dec. 10 at the Thunderbird Cafe, 1797 West St., Barre; and as part of the “Root Production CD Show,” performing with Nate Smith, Marty Nestor and Jeff Root, on Dec. 17 at the Gardner Music Hall, Pleasant Street, Gardner.



- Worcester Telegram & Gazette

To first set the record straight, the artist formerly known as Lee Villeneuve now goes by Lee Villaire. For Villaire, the new name just has a better ring to it and is a lot easier to pronounce. The new record features 13 songs that are solely written by Villaire herself with the exception of one number. The singer/songwriter/guitarist originally from Montreal, but now residing in Massachusetts, offers up a little sense of blonde intuition & other good voodoo.

Lee V., herself, considers her music to be of a sensual and jazzy-folk-rock nature. I would have to agree.

The CD opens with a very playful, yet powerful, vocal performance and adds in sensuous emotions on “Ooh La La”. Next on the bill is “Still Love Me?”, which is so seductive and bluesy while showing that Villaire has some real grit backed behind her chops. Many emotions are picked up on right away while listening to blonde intuition & other good voodoo such as: pain, love, straight-from-the-heart feelings and just an overall tender, sentimental quality.

I can’t leave without mentioning the tremendous band backing Villaire on this project. Dave Gaudet is responsible for guitar and harmony vocals, Kris Lucander on bass, Tom Ruckey playing on the drums & percussion section, Adam Bergeron on keys along with a few additional guest artists. The two best examples of an A1-all-around-band-performance would be on “The Good Stuff” and “What A Rush”. “Good Stuff” is just that with each player bringing the best of the best from their instrument(s) of choice. On “What A Rush”, you’re hearing just a cool-to-the-core guitar and bass sound with drums pounding away while coinciding equally with Villaire’s powerful vocal delivery.

For more on Lee Villaire and her new album, blonde intuition & other good voodoo, SKOPE out www.leevillaire.com.

Review By: Jimmy Rae

- Skope Magazine