CARLSBORG — With a little help from friend and recording studio owner Jeremy Cays, Sequim-area singer/songwriter and recording artist Julianne Marie Fry has produced a new album, “Fireside Christmas Classics,” just in time for the holidays.
The 27-year-old Christian contemporary singer who writes her own songs as well as records those of others recently released the four-song set recorded at Cays’ studio off Carlsborg Road.
Own tunes
Saying she has “plinked” out her own songs on the piano since she was 10, Fry, the daughter of Sherry and Steve Fry, owners of Common Sense Nutritional Therapy and the Live Bread Shoppe near Diamond Point, has recorded songs several times with Cays, whom she met at church in the early 2000s.
“It’s his fault, really,” she joked about Cays, who approached her to record a Jenny Owen song, “If You Want Me To,” in 2003 after they met at Olympic Bible Fellowships in Sequim.
She now attends King’s Way Foursquare Church in Carlsborg.
“It’s a small town. I was noticing her as her voice was developing,” Cays responded, sitting down with Fry in his comfortable, attractive control room at the studio west of the Carlsborg Post Office, where he’s recorded everything from heavy-metal bands to voiceovers.
Historic roots
Cays’ family has historic dairy farming roots in the Dungeness Valley with a country road named for it.
Remembering the first time Cays recorded her singing, Fry said, “He’s got me addicted to it.
“It’s like a bath of warm water. You don’t want to get out of it.”
With a voice similar to that of jazz-blues artist Norah Jones, Fry said she wants to further develop her music and write songs as much as she can, be they Christian contemporary or traditional.
Her next goal is to record a full album of her own songs with Cays, who has recorded more than 100 local singers and musicians since he opened his studio.
Songs on Fry’s album are “O Come All Ye Faithful,” with guitar backup by Port Angeles’ Soren Olsen; the 1962 classic “Do You Hear What I Hear”; “Silent Night”; and “The Christmas Song,” originally written and recorded in 1944 by Mel Torme and Bob Wells.
Base price of $8
The album, with a base price of $8, is on sale at The Good Book store, 108 W. Washington St.; Dungeness Valley Creamery, 1915 Towne Road in Dungeness; Sunny Farms Supplements, 609 W. Washington St., No. 10; Gabby’s Java and Gourmet, Business Park Loop on Carlsborg Road in Carlsborg; Hurricane Coffee Co., 104 W. Washington St.; and The Dove’s Nest, 139 W. Washington St.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
