I Believe In You by Jeanette Arsenault

"Believe it or not, "The Hardware Song" includes almost every kind of saw I've ever heard of and then some!"

She also had the great honour to sing at the Canada Day celebrations on Parliament Hill in Ottawa in July 2001, which received national TV coverage, and this has been followed by a single honour indeed:

Jeanette sang her patriotic song from her first album, This Is My Canada, at a special pre-game reception for Canadian athletes at the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City in February of 2002. She was also commissioned to write and performed a bilingual song for the athletes called "Canadian Olympian".

In August 2004, Jeanette was invited to Athens, Greece to sing 3 of her original songs along with the national anthem for the Canadian Olympic Team. She performed This Is My Canada, Canadian Olympian and she was commissioned to write and performed a bilingual song commemorating Canada's 100th year participating in the Olympic Games called "One Dream".

Jeanette continues performing a little closer to home, both as a solo artist and with other Prince Edward County artists in a number of musical theatre productions that she has co-written and co-produced.

One very special project she co-wrote and co-produced is "11 Psalms For September 11" which was performed at an interfaith service for about 500 people in Picton on September 11th, 2003.

"We chose 11 Psalms from the Old Testament and wrote melodies for 10 of them. The 11th one was Non Nobis Domine written by William Byrd in the 1500s. We arranged them into 4 movements: The Attack, The Search, Courage and Hope," she says. "I co-wrote it with singer/songwriter/ Suzanne Pasternak (who wrote/performed and produced the folk opera, Minerva) to honour the Canadians who were killed in New York and to stand side by side with the Americans and the world in their grief," she continues. The service included a Catholic Priest, an Anglican Priest, 2 United Church Ministers as well as the Prince Ed ward County Fire Chief and an OPP Constable. Prayers and songs were also sung/read in Hebrew, Islamic, Latin and French.

"Her second album, I Believe In You, contains heartfelt songs that communicate "soul to soul" as one fan commented. She says: "I wrote "One Step At A Time" for Chris MacKay, a young man in this community who suffered terrible spinal cord injuries in a car accident". Chris has shown tremendous fortitude in the face of adversity and has now established the "Standing Ovation Foundation" to raise funds for spinal research. Part of the proceeds from the sale of this CD will go to His Foundation."

The song "Jesus Walked With Me" is based on a poem written by another friend, who was also involved in a serious accident and recovered. Part of the proceeds will go to the Hotel Dieu Hospital in appreciation for the outstanding care she received there.

Although the CD is spiritual in nature, it reflects many aspects of Jeanette's faith. The haunting "I, Mother Earth" is an anthem to the power of women while "Celebrate" was written in honour of the new millennium. The song, "My Daughter, My Friend" is fast becoming a standard at weddings and "The Way You Love Me" celebrates and honours caregivers for their tireless devotion to those in need.

A departure in style, "Non Nobis Domine" is a beautiful 16th century a cappella piece that features Jeanette on all three harmonies. Sure to find favour as inspirational music, "I Believe In You" nevertheless offers much to the casual listener. As usual, Jeanette's stylings are superb and the production, done by Greg Geeves of Oxford Productions in Ottawa, is pristine.

Jeanette was honoured in 2002 with a Civic Recognition Award and Citizen of the Year Award in Prince Edward County. With about 5 albums worth of material yet to record and an "I'm-almost-ten-now, Mom" daughter to raise, people are not only noticing where she's been, but where she's going, too! Look for her next album due out in the Fall of 2004.

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