Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jun 14/99) - Amber LeMouel has some big plans in the works. Having recently begun the preliminary recording for her new CD and making the Dean's honour role at Mount Royal College, LeMouel feels that life has many possible opportunities for her on the horizon.

"Singing is my ultimate goal," LeMouel confided while taking some time out from her busy work day at the GNWT Health and Social Services Department. "But I want to go into law school because there are no guarantees in the music business."

LeMouel, 21, was born in Yellowknife and with the exception of brief stays in Penticton, B.C. and Edmonton, has lived most of her life here. She began her career as an aspiring songstress when she was only 14 years old and little has changed in her dream of singing on the big stage since. Even though she still suffers from the occasional bout of stage fright.

"The first time I sang on a stage was at a Catholic Women's League concert," LeMouel said. "I was so nervous that I wouldn't let my family come."

LeMouel, however, learned to overcome her stage fright and has since went on to play scores of concerts in the Great Slave area and even a showcase at the 1997 Country Music Awards in Hamilton, Ont., where she met some other friendly and supportive faces in the music business.

"I met Terri Clark while I was there," LeMouel said. "We had a big party and had a lot of fun. I also met Michelle Wright, Patricia Conroy, Jamie Warren and my most favourite Canadian singer of all, Lisa Brokop. It was very exciting to meet all these people."

LeMouel has also shared the stage with some noted music celebrities in her hometown at Folk on the Rocks, including Susan Aglukark in 1994 and Buffy Saint Marie in 1996. The road to fame appeared to be well-paved for Lemouel after the shy 14-year-old girl performed for the first time in 1992. The very same year, LeMouel won first place in the Metis Nation talent contest. In 1993, LeMouel was invited to perform at the annual Dreamspeakers Festival in Edmonton. It was only a matter of time before LeMouel's voice would be captured on a demo tape in a recording studio.

"It was a great opportunity to launch my career," LeMouel said, "because with it, I was able to get the showcase at Country Music Week and the further contacts I made after that."

Extra, Extra, the name of her debut CD, was recorded in Yellowknife at Pido Productions in the summer of 1996 and released later that year. LeMouel had handled most of the organizing, budgeting, designing and management for the album. She also felt strongly enough about making the recording that she financed most of the album herself with a little help from the NWT Arts Council and local business support. All this hard work began to pay off for LeMouel.

Doors outside the North began to open up. In 1997, LeMouel was selected as a top 10 finalist for the nationally telecast 1997 YTV Youth Achievement Awards. Things began moving so fast that LeMouel thought it would be a good idea to set up her own Web page, which can be found at http://members.tripod.com/Amber_LeMwell/photo/

It didn't take long for LeMouel's debut CD to end up in the hands of Larry Delaney, editor of the internationally- renown fanzine, Country Music News, who reviewed it and wrote, "Amber LeMouel may be the next vocal find of the decade."

LeMouel was clearly moving on to greater and better things, so it was no surprise to her fans that she went back into the recording studio in February to record another album -- this time in Toronto.

"Larry had suggested me to a composer and music arranger named Paul McGrath in early 1998," LeMouel said. "He was looking for a new talent to record and Larry told him that I would make a good choice.

"Paul was working with a producer named Allen Lysaght who also seemed interested. So we all talked and I sent them a CD," she recalled. "They were very enthusiastic about it and told me that they wanted to record me in a professional country music recording studio."

LeMouel went down to Toronto in March 1998 to meet with the McGrath and Lysaght and decided that they would make a good team. It was decided that Manta Eastern studio would be the right place to record her new album.

"I was excited about recording there," LeMouel said. "It was the same studio that Shania Twain and Celine Dion used to record their demo tapes. I had begun picking songs for the album the year before and by the time I went into the studio this year, I had five songs that I chose out of about 140 plus another that I had written."

According to LeMouel, fans of her music shouldn't get their hopes up for a release any time too soon.

"It still needs to be mixed," LeMouel said. "That will probably happen this fall."

As far as giving her new CD a name, LeMouel is still going over potential titles for the release.

"I wrote a song for it called Too Good to be True," LeMouel said. "I'm thinking of calling it that."

With a new album on the way, LeMouel is also busy juggling her summer agenda that will take her to Ottawa for a performance commemorating National Aboriginal Day and a two-month trip to Lebanon.

"I'm performing twice in Ottawa on June 21," LeMouel said. "I'm performing during the day on the DIAND stage and again at night at the Friendship Centre for the Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC).

"It's really exciting for me because I was selected as the youth representative for the NWT with NWAC and it will be a great chance to perform songs from the new album."

Lemouel received the call to perform at the concert from NWAC president, Marilon Buffalo, who thought she would be a perfect choice.

After her visit to Ottawa, LeMouel will be off to Lebanon for two months to do some sight-seeing and to visit her biological father, who is Lebanese, and her four siblings who live there.

"I haven't even seen my youngest half-brother," LeMouel said. "He's only six. I think it'll be neat to see him."

After an adventure-filled summer, LeMouel will return to Canada to continue her studies at Mount Royal College in Calgary where she will be going in as a second- year psychology student."

"I'm just going to keep going to school and continue with my music," LeMouel said after pondering her options. "In the long run I would eventually like to get into law."

As for her life in Yellowknife, LeMouel is always content to spend as much time here as possible.

"I love the summers up here," LeMouel said. "I love the people and just the whole beauty of it all -- the trees and the lakes. I guess I'm pretty much a lifer."