Biography

Contact: harperjanis@gmail.com; 604-254-3055; janisharper.ca

Better This Way (11 tracks) is a Canadian independent singer-songwriter folk-roots album.

Janis Harper: vocals, acoustic guitar, dulcimer
Michael Nowak: electric bass, electric guitar, organ, e-bow, synthesizer
Kenton Wiens: percussion
Mark Sullivan: violin
Vania Levans: flute
Kempton Dexter: vocals on "What Can I Say"
Neil Hubbard: bagpipes on "Remembrance Day"

"Sweet vocals, great production, and excellent songcrafting."

Classic singer-songwriter with a strong folk vibe and lyrics that hit home. There's also some country flavour (in Better This Way, What Can I Say, The Ballad of Lily West) added to the folkiness (exemplified in Strawberry Wine), and a dash of harder, stranger stuff (in the political songs Remembrance Day and Shanghai Next). Poetically crafted lyrics are reminiscent of Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, and Ferron (The Kitsilano Cafe, Adam's Song, Letters From Home); vocals are reminiscent of Serena Ryder, Phoebe Snow, and Janis Ian. Comparisons are made to Serena Ryder and Joni Mitchell, among others. The listening demographic is over forty and in the Boomer age range.

Janis Harper is a Vancouver singer-songwriter in the lyrical folk-roots tradition. Janis has been writing songs and playing guitar since she was 9 years old, and when she was 12, she played her original songs on the iconic Kitsilano Showboat and for community events. At 19, she was the house musical entertainer at the Sri Galaxy pub in Penang, Malaysia, and later performed on small stages in Sydney, Australia. By this time she had incorporated the Appalachian mountain dulcimer into her repertoire, having been taught by Rick Scott of Pied Pumkin how to play it in his special style. In her late 20s, she performed at Mac’s bar in Hiroshima, Japan, and some of this music is caught live on her first full-length recording (“Letters From Home,” audio tape, 1990). Her Vancouver duo, The Beautiful Losers (with the late great Neal Foisy), played small stages in the 2000's, featuring at Vancouver coffee houses. Most recently, she has performed on stages in Goa, India, including a regular house gig at the upscale H2O Agonda resort over the 2014 – 2015 festive season. Although “Better This Way” is her first CD, it is really a retrospective album because it brings together an eclectic selection of songs written and performed over Janis Harper’s long career as a singer-songwriter.

Janis Harper is also a writer and former long-time English instructor at Douglas College and Simon Fraser University, recently turned expressive arts therapist. She conceived, edited, and wrote for the successful anthologies “Body Breakdowns: Tales of Illness and Recovery” (Anvil Press 2007)—a “Reader’s Digest Magazine” Editor’s Choice—and “Emails From India: Women Write Home” (Seraphim Editions 2013).

"Better This Way" was recorded and produced by Michael Nowak at Saga Recording in Vancouver BC.

Visit the website janisharper.ca for lyrics and more info.