This article is missing information about footmen within a military context. This concern has been noted on the talk page where whether or not to include such information may be discussed. (March 2010)

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A footman (plural -men) is a male servant, notably as domestic staff.

Word history[link]

The name derives from the attendants who ran beside or behind the carriages of aristocrats, many of whom were chosen for their physical attributes. They ran alongside the coach to make sure it was not overturned by such obstacles as ditches or tree roots. They would also run ahead to prepare the destination place for their lord's arrival.^[1] Originally the term, also called running footman, applied to a non-mounted soldier, or foot soldier (infantryman). Later, just as demobilized officers frequently kept on a good batman as private servant, the word got applied to a household servant, who usually serves—standing—at meals while the master and guests remain seated.^{[citation needed]} The roughly synonymous term lackey may have a similar etymology.

Servants[link]

Male servants were paid more than female servants, and footmen were something of a luxury and therefore a status symbol even among the servant-employing classes. They performed a less essential role than the cook, maid or even butler, and were part only of the grandest households. Since a footman was for show as much as for use, a tall footman was more highly prized than a short one, and good looks, including well-turned legs, which were shown off by the traditional footman's dress of stockings worn below knee breeches, were an advantage. Footmen were expected to be unmarried and tended to be relatively young; they might, however, progress to other posts, notably that of butler. One 19th century footman, William Tayler, kept a diary which has been published. He was, in fact, married; but kept his marriage secret from his employers and visited his family only on his days off.^[2]

Once a commonly employed servant in great houses, footmen are much rarer today, as few households can afford large retinues of servants and retainers.

The first footman is the highest ranking and serves as deputy butler; he acts as butler in the butler's absence.

In a larger household, various footmen may be assigned specific duties (for which there may be a traditional sequence), such as the silver specialist, but usually the footmen perform a range of duties which include serving meals, opening and closing doors, carrying heavy items, or moving furniture for the housemaids to clean behind. The footmen may also double as valets, especially for visiting guests.

Sources[link]

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
• EtymologyOnLine

References[link]

1. ^ Olmert, Michael (1996). Milton's Teeth and Ovid's Umbrella: Curiouser & Curiouser Adventures in History, p.87. Simon & Schuster, New York. ISBN 0-684-80164-7.
2. ^ Burnett, John (1994 (second edition)). Useful toil: autobiographies of working people from the 1820s to the 1920s. Routledge. pp. 172 to 181. ISBN 978-0-415-10399-2. 

Jane Siberry
Jane Siberry (as "Issa") performing at Hugh's Room in Toronto, Ontario, 2007
Background information
Also known as	Issa
Born	(1955-10-12) October 12, 1955 (age 56) Toronto, Ontario
Origin	Guelph, Ontario, Canada
Genres	Pop, folk, vocal jazz
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, composer, musician, record producer, poet
Instruments	Singing, guitar, keyboards, computer
Years active	1981–present
Labels	Sheeba, Duke Street, Open Air, Windham Hill, Street, East Side Digital, Reprise, Rhino
Associated acts	John Switzer, Brian Eno, k.d. lang, Hector Zazou, Peter Gabriel, Rebecca Jenkins, Holly Cole, Mary Margaret O'Hara, Victoria Williams
Website	Jane Siberry on Sheeba Records

Jane Siberry ( /ˈsɪbri/ SIB-ree),^[1] (born Jane Stewart,^[2] October 12, 1955 in Toronto, Ontario)^[3] is a Canadian singer-songwriter, known for such hits as "Mimi on the Beach", "I Muse Aloud", "One More Colour" and "Calling All Angels".

Siberry has also released material under the name Issa ( /ˈiːsɑː/ EE-sah) - an identity (as opposed to a simple stagename) which she used formally between 2006 and 2009.

Musical style and commercial approach[link]

Siberry's music is most commonly compared to artists such as Kate Bush, Joni Mitchell and Laurie Anderson. Her music has drawn from a wide variety of styles, ranging from new wave rock on her earlier albums to a reflective pop style influenced by jazz, folk, gospel, classical and liturgical music in her later work. She has cited Van Morrison and Miles Davis as being strong creative influences.

Siberry has often criticized the competitive power of commercial radio and the recording industry.^[4] In 2005, Siberry pioneered a self-determined pricing policy through her website^[5] on which the purchaser is given the choices of: standard price (about $0.99 USD/track); pay now, self-priced; pay later, self-priced; or "a gift from Jane". In an interview with The Globe and Mail, Siberry confirmed that since she had instituted the self-determined pricing policy, the average income she receives per song from Sheeba customers is in fact slightly more than standard price.^[6][7]

Career history[link]

Childhood and early years[link]

Jane Stewart was born in Toronto, Canada, in 1955 and was raised in the suburb of Etobicoke.^[8] She would take her subsequent surname, "Siberry", from the family name of her maternal aunt and uncle. Many years later, she would explain this choice by stating "this woman and her husband were the first couple I met where I could feel the love between them and I held that in front of me as a reference point."^[2]

Siberry learned piano from the age of four, predominantly teaching herself^[9] and developing her own concepts of notation and structure. At school she learned conventional music theory (as well as French horn) and taught herself to play guitar by working through Leonard Cohen songs. Her first song was completed (to her own satisfaction) at the age of seventeen, although she had been developing song ideas since much earlier.

Following high-school graduation, Siberry moved on to study music at the University of Guelph, later switching to microbiology (in which she gained a B.Sc degree)^[9] when she found freshman music courses to be stifling. She began performing in folk clubs in Guelph, linking up first with singer Wendy Davis and then with bass guitarist John Switzer in a group called Java Jive.^[8]

First three albums and Canadian stardom (1979-1986)[link]

Following the split of Java Jive in 1979, Siberry maintained both a musical and a romantic relationship with John Switzer (who would work with her on her first four records). On leaving university, she supported her work as a solo performer by working as a waitress, earning enough to finance and tour her debut album, the folk-influenced Jane Siberry, which was released in 1981 on Duke Street Records. The album was relatively successful for an independent release, enabling Siberry to sign a three-album deal with A&M Records via the Windham Hill label. As part of the deal, Siberry was able to release her albums on Duke Street Records in Canada while Windham Hill handled American release and distribution.^[8][9]

Assembling a backing band of Switzer, guitarist Ken Mhyr and drummer Al Cross, Siberry recorded her second album No Borders Here (released in 1984) for which she mostly abandoned the folk approach in favour of electronic art-pop.^[9] This coincided with a growth in support of New Wave and independent music within Canadian broadcast media, including the Toronto radio station CFNY and the video channel MuchMusic. Both of these became keen supporters of Siberry and put her onto high playlist rotation.

Siberry's first hit was the No Borders Here track "Mimi on the Beach" - a seven-and-a-half minute art-rock single^[9] which benefitted from the art-friendly broadcast support at the time (and from its striking video made by Siberry and friends). Both factors earned it heavy MuchMusic and college radio play. Two further singles with videos - "You Don't Need" and "I Muse Aloud" - consolidated the success. No Borders Here sold 40,000 copies and won Siberry a CASBY award for best female vocalist, as well as giving her first opportunity to play live in New York.^[8]

Siberry's third album, The Speckless Sky (1985) continued her art-pop approach. It was another commercial and critical success, going gold in Canada by selling over a million units and establishing Siberry as a leading Canadian pop star. The album provided another hit single, "One More Colour" (with an entertaining video featuring Siberry walking a cow)^[9] and won the 1985 CASBY for best album, with Siberry also picking up the award for best producer. Siberry's growing success paved the way to her 1986 signing by a major label: Warner Brothers subsidiary Reprise Records picked up her American contract from Windham Hill, while honouring the existing Canadian arrangement with Duke Street Records.^[8]

[edit] Reprise Records period, part 1: The Walking and Bound By the Beauty (1987-1992)

For her fourth album (and debut major label release) Siberry created her most conceptually ambitious work to date. The Walking (released in 1988) contained a complex, diffuse and demanding set of intricately structured songs, many of which were lengthy and shifted between narrative viewpoints and characters. Many of the songs dealt with romantic collapse and miscommunication, partially inspired by Siberry's breakup with John Switzer (which happened during the writing and recording of the album). Siberry was now being marketed as part of the "high art" end of rock music, alongside artists such as Kate Bush or Peter Gabriel. With high hopes from Reprise, Siberry embarked on a high-profile tour of Europe and the United States to promote The Walking. This included her first European performance, which took place at the ICA in London.^[8]

In spite of the efforts of both label and artist, The Walking was ultimately less of a commercial success than The Speckless Sky, with Siberry failing to make her mainstream breakthrough. Although the album met with the same critical interest and attention as its predecessor, reviews were noticeably harsher and less welcoming. Even more damagingly, the album was considered unsuitable by broadcasters for radio airplay, despite the presence of several shorter and more accessible tracks on the album (both the title track and a shorter edit of "Ingrid and the Footman" were released as singles but failed to make an impact).^[8]

Despite this setback, Reprise retained Siberry's contract, even taking over the Canadian side of the distribution for her next album, 1989's Bound by the Beauty. This saw Siberry consciously move towards more simple and direct song forms, jettisoning electronic art-pop in favour of more acoustic styles drawing on country and western and Latin music. While retaining her quirkier conceptual approach, the album's song themes were generally more lighthearted than those of The Walking. Prior to the album's release, Siberry toured various folk festivals (in a duo format with Ken Mhyr on guitar) in order to reposition herself in the market. The lighter sensibilities and greater accessibility of Bound by the Beauty led to better record sales, and in 1990 Siberry embarked on a 50-date tour of Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Britain, the United States and Canada.^[8]

By 1991, Siberry had completed demos for her next album: however, this was scrapped when neither Reprise nor Siberry herself felt satisfied with the results. For Siberry, the demos sounded too much like Bound by the Beauty and she already wished to move on to something different.^[8] In 1992, during the wait for a new record, Reprise released a Siberry compilation album called Summer in the Yukon for the UK market. This focussed primarily on her more pop-oriented side and featured a remix of the Bound by the Beauty track "The Life is the Red Wagon" with a new dance-friendly rhythm track.

[edit] Reprise Records period, part 2: When I Was a Boy and Maria (1993-1996)

Siberry's sixth album, When I Was a Boy, was finally completed in 1993 after a three-year writing and recording period during which she'd undergone yet more changes, both in her personal life and in her musical approach. For the first time she chose to share album production responsibilities with other musicians - in this case Michael Brook and Brian Eno, both of whom also contributed instrumental work to the album.^[8] During the recording period, she had also confronted and overcome a longstanding alcohol addiction. She would later consider the music on the record to be more liberated, featuring what she described as "more body in it, more sexual energy... it's about the sacred aspects of sexuality, and finally being able to embrace them and not, em, (just) be an observer anymore."^[10]

In contrast to its predecessor, When I Was a Boy was influenced by funk, dance and gospel music and featured extensive use of layering and sampler technology,^[8] in line with developments in latterday pop music, trip-hop and R'n'B. It also featured what would become Siberry's best-known song, "Calling All Angels" (a duet with k.d. lang which had first appeared as part of the soundtrack to Wim Wenders' Until the End of the World and as a track on Summer in the Yukon (it was later re-recorded for the Pay It Forward soundtrack). Other contributors on the album included Canadian singers Holly Cole and Rebecca Jenkins and (for the last time) regular guitarist Ken Mhyr. The album introduced the more spiritually-oriented themes that became a hallmark of Siberry's later work^[11] and launched three singles - "Calling All Angels", "Sail Across the Water" and "Temple".

Prior to the release of When I Was a Boy, Siberry performed in Edinburgh as the opening act for Mike Oldfield's premiere of Tubular Bells 2. She met with a disastrous rejection by the audience. Initially, Siberry was devastated (later describing herself as having "cried for two weeks") and had to make a serious reassessment of her perspective on her work. From this point onwards, she chose to reclaim her art for herself and decided "I took back all the power back that I had put outside myself trying to please (others). The worst show of my life has become the best show because it's given me the ultimate freedom to care only about what I think is really good. How my career does is secondary."^[8]

Siberry would subsequently reassert full control over all areas of her work, from songwriting to stage presentation and video direction. For her promotional tour for When I Was a Boy - which she called "The It Ain't a Concert Concert", she opted not to use a band and instead performed solo, encouraging audience interaction and including spoken-word material (to the puzzlement of critics). During 1994 Siberry recorded sporadically, without constructing a new album. She won acclaim from a new audience by placing her song "It Can't Rain All The Time" on the soundtrack for the movie The Crow; time spent with Peter Gabriel at Real World Studios resulted in three more songs (not released for another seven years) and she sang on the Indigo Girls album Swamp Ophelia.^[8]

Siberry's next release was another complete change of direction. In contrast to the intricate studio production of When I Was a Boy, Maria (released in 1995) featured a more jazz-inspired direction with live acoustic instrumentation and approaches similar to Van Morrison's Astral Weeks. The basic tracks to the album were recorded in three days flat^[9] by a group featuring Tim Ray (pianist for jazz band Blue the Orange), Betty Carter's double bass player Christopher Thomas, top jazz session drummer Brian Blades and trumpeter David Travers-Smith (with Siberry playing electric guitar and singing). Siberry then edited and reworked the recorded material into fully realized songs, most of which featured various perspectives on innocence. The album also featured a 20-minute extended conceptual work called "Oh My My". Siberry took this new band on tour across Canada and the United States and professed herself pleased with the results, but Reprise Records were less pleased with the album sales.^[8]

After Maria, Siberry parted company with Reprise Records, later stating "they wanted me to work with a producer and that severed any sense of loyalty. I realized they truly didn't understand what I was doing... so I took my leave."^[12]

Sheeba Records - first phase (New York period, 1996-1997)[link]

In 1996, Siberry founded her own Toronto-based independent label, Sheeba Records, on which she has released all of her subsequent material.^[9] Although her public profile became lower once she became an independent artist, she retained a devoted cult following. Siberry's first Sheeba release was Teenager (1996), an album of songs which she had originally written during her teenage years and which she had recorded during the Maria sessions (taking advantage of the fact that the sessions had been completed with studio time left over). Leaving the Sheeba Records office to continue its work in Toronto, Siberry herself then relocated to New York City in search of new inspiration.^[8][9]

In 1996, she performed four concerts at the city's famous Bottom Line jazz club - all of which were recorded and released on a set of live albums between 1997 and 1999, collectively known as the "New York City Trilogy".^[9] The first of these was 1997’s Child: Music for the Christmas Season, a double album which combined Christmas standards and carols (such as "O Holy Night" and "In the Bleak Midwinter") and original Siberry songs containing religious imagery (such as "An Angel Stepped Down...").

Siberry had also demonstrated the greater creative freedom she had as an independent recording artist via her other 1997 album, A Day in the Life. This was her most unconventional release to date - although it did feature song excerpts, it was predominantly a sound collage representation of a typical day's experience by Siberry in New York. The album was filled with recordings of yoga classes, phone messages and street sounds; and featured conversations and exchanges with a wide variety of people - cab drivers, friends, fellow students and Siberry’s then-current musical collaborators Patty Larkin, Joe Jackson, k. d. lang and Darol Anger.^[8][9]

Also in 1997, Siberry's former label Reprise Records released a second compilation album of her work - A Collection 1984–1989. This compilation was aimed at the Canadian and American markets, and drew from the whole range of Siberry's output prior to When I Was a Boy.

Sheeba Records - second phase (Toronto period, 1997-2005)[link]

With Sheeba running into financial problems, Siberry left New York, returned to Toronto and reestablished her label as a one-woman operation (handling everything from songwriting to envelope-stuffing).^[8] In order to finance Sheeba, she also began to experiment with what were then seen as unorthodox promotional ideas, such as the weekend-long "Siberry Salons" (a concert-cum-seminar featuring two performances plus a workshop and dinner, which were hosted at intimate and unusual venues such as art galleries and loft apartments). Sheeba now also sold Siberry-designed soft toys and auctioned off collectible career-related items such as signed lyric sheets, her first guitar and even the pink bra which she had worn on the cover of Maria.^[9][13]

Siberry took two years to restore Sheeba's precarious fortunes,^[8] during which she kept busy. Her first book of prose-poems, S W A N, was published by Sheeba in 1998, the same year that she toured as one of the acts on the female-oriented "Suffragette Sessions" tour, alongside Indigo Girls, Lisa Germano and members of Luscious Jackson and The Breeders. A second book, One Room Schoolhouse, followed in 1999.^[12] In the same year, Siberry released the second and third volumes of the New York concert recordings. Lips: Music for Saying It was based around themes of communication (and included a "Mimi"-sung riposte to 1984’s "Mimi on the Beach"). Tree: Music for Films and Forests documented a concert in which Siberry had sung songs linked by the concept of trees, as well as adding a couple of songs she'd contributed to film scores. The complete trilogy was reissued as a three album box set the same year.^[9]

Siberry's tenth studio album, Hush was released in 2000. This was a predominantly acoustic record consisting entirely of cover versions in which Siberry explored traditional American and Celtic folk and gospel songs such as "Jacobs Ladder", "Ol’ Man River" and "Streets of Laredo".^[9] Siberry also released a third book via Sheeba in 2000, New Year's Baby.^[9] The following year's City album compiled various non-album tracks, rarities and collaborations between Siberry and other musicians. As well as providing another home for "Calling All Angels", the album included work with Nigel Kennedy, Peter Gabriel, Hector Zazou and Joe Jackson and featured "All the Pretty Ponies" (a children’s song which Siberry had contributed to the Barney's Big Adventure soundtrack).^[9]

In 2002, Love is Everything: The Jane Siberry Anthology was released on Rhino Records: a double-CD album combining material from her Duke Street, Reprise and Sheeba eras and summarizing the first twenty-one years of her career. This was followed in 2003 by Shushan the Palace: Hymns of Earth - another Christmas-themed album of cover versions. This time, Siberry performed her own interpretations of liturgical Christmas hymns by various classical and Romantic composers including Mendelssohn, Bach, Holst and Handel.

Despite her apparent productivity, Siberry was continuing to find her independent career and business efforts to be challenging and problematic. The live albums were in part an inexpensive tactic to enable her to gain resources to record her original work. She would later confess "I really thought it was going to be much, much easier. The whole label thing. It wasn't. Those records, Shushan and Hush, were to pay for studio time."^[14]

Sheeba Records - third phase ("Issa" period - 2006-2009)[link]

Early in 2006, Siberry closed her Sheeba office, then auctioned and sold nearly all of her possessions via eBay — including her Toronto home and her musical instruments. She retained one travelling guitar, but none of the other instruments featured on her albums and in her concerts. In 2006, she told The Globe and Mail that she had kept a very few precious possessions, including her Miles Davis CDs, in storage.^[6][15][16]

On June 3, 2006, somewhere in northwestern Europe, Siberry changed her name to Issa: revealing this change of identity to the public a couple of weeks later on June 24, 2006. She told The Globe and Mail that she chose the name Issa as a feminine variant of Isaiah.^[6] She stated that her older music would remain available for sale under the name "Jane Siberry", but her new material would be released as Issa. At the time she also stated, regarding the change of identity, "I had to do it right. I had to be serious about it and I had to convey that. When I put Jane away, I went silent for 24 hours. Not a word to anyone. And then Issa from that point on."^[14]

Later she would describe the process of choosing a new identity in terms of changing her writing approach - "Moving into Issa, I didn’t know if I’d be in the music business any more. I just started writing. I wanted to let go of any expectations and just try to get closer to what I heard in my head... I just tried to write as precisely as I could to what I heard in my head. I slowed everything down and took one note at a time, and just waited until I heard the next note."^[15] The process was evidently successful, resulting in thirty-three songs written in thirty-three days.^[14]

On July 4, 2006, Issa gave a lecture at University of British Columbia in Vancouver on the topic of "Cracking the Egg: A Look from the Inside". She began with a poetic meditation on science and life, and then opened the floor up to questions from the audience. She talked about her recent adventures in decommodifying her life, her change in name, and her new conception of herself as an artist. Over 2006 and 2007, she documented the process of recording some thirty new songs in her journal, posted on her MySpace page and on her new website (www.issalight.com).

In autumn 2008 Issa finalized the ideas for a trilogy of albums to be called the "Three Queens" sequence. The first of these - Dragon Dreams - was the debut Issa release, on December 12, 2008. As with the previous Jane Siberry material, it was released on Sheeba: Issa had retained the label despite slimming down its operations.

In 2009, Issa released the second album in the "Three Queens" trilogy, With What Shall I Keep Warm? However, it was plain that her identity was no longer fixed, as both of the names she'd used as a musician - "Issa" and "Jane Siberry" - were included on the cover. In December 2009, she notified her fans that she had recently changed her name from Issa back to Jane Siberry, feeling that the process of working under a different name had run its course.

Sheeba Records - fourth phase (recent work - 2010-present)[link]

Inspired by the dichotomy between frequent e-mails from devoted international fans asking her to play a concert in their city and her difficulty in finding a suitable concert promoter, Siberry launched a "microtour" through her fan mailing list in 2010,^[18] in which she offered to play small venues — ranging from intimate cafés to fans' own homes — in any location in Europe where one or more fans could organize a space, an audience of about 20 to 30 people and a night of accommodation.^[18]

In May 2010, Siberry made her entire back catalogue of music available as free downloads in MP3 and AIFF formats.^[19][20] She had previously employed a flexible pricing policy, stating "I started feeling weird about holding back anything people wanted because of the money. It just felt wrong to my stomach, so I made a flexible interface so people could take it with whatever reasoning they felt was right, and I didn’t have to worry about it any more."^[15]

In March 2011, Siberry advised her fans through her mailing list that the third album of the "Three Queens" trilogy was almost ready (having been "nearly completed" several times before), and that she intended to release a fourth disc as part of the collection. The album, Meshach Dreams Back was released later in 2011 and was the first album to be credited to "Jane Siberry" for eight years.

Awards[link]

On August 30, 2005, Jane Siberry was awarded the 2005 Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award in music by the Canada Council for the Arts.^[21]

Personal life[link]

Born "Jane Stewart", Jane Siberry took her stage surname from the family name of an aunt and uncle. She would later explain her choice by saying "this woman and her husband were the first couple I met where I could feel the love between them and I held that in front of me as a reference point."^[2]

Jane Siberry is a vegetarian.^[22]

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

Studio Albums[link]

• Jane Siberry (1981)
• No Borders Here (1984)
• The Speckless Sky (1985)
• The Walking (1987)
• Bound by the Beauty (1989)
• When I Was a Boy (1993)
• Maria (1995)
• Teenager (1996)
• A Day in the Life (1997)
• Hush (2000)
• Shushan the Palace: Hymns of Earth (2003)
• Dragon Dreams (as Issa) (2008)
• With What Shall I Keep Warm? (as Issa/Jane Siberry) (2009)
• Meshach Dreams Back (2011)

Live albums[link]

• Count Your Blessings (1994, live, performances by Jane Siberry, Holly Cole, Rebecca Jenkins, Mary Margaret O'Hara and Victoria Williams)
• Child: Music for the Christmas Season (1997, live)
• Lips: Music for Saying It (1999, live)
• Tree: Music for Films and Forests (1999, live)

Compilations[link]

• Summer in the Yukon (1992) - UK-only "best of"
• A Collection 1984-1989 (1995) - North American "best-of"
• New York City Trilogy (1999) - 4-CD box set of live albums '"Tree'", '"Child'" and '"Lips"'
• City (2001) - Collaborations, non-album tracks and rarities
• Love is Everything: The Jane Siberry Anthology (2002) - 2-CD "best of", 1981 - 2002

Chart singles[link]

Siberry has placed three singles in the Canadian RPM Hot 100:

• "Mimi On The Beach" (1984) - #68
• "One More Colour" (1985) - #27
• "Sail Across The Water" (1993) - #66

Two other tracks made RPM's Adult Contemporary charts:

• "Map Of The World (Part II)" (1986) - #17
• "Calling All Angels" (1992) - #9

Compilation albums[link]

Siberry has also contributed tracks to a number of movie soundtracks and compilation albums:

• Until the End of the World, 1991 ("Calling All Angels")
• Kick at the Darkness, 1991 ("A Long Time Love Song", duet with Martin Tielli)
• Toys, 1992 ("Happy Workers (reprise)")
• The Crow, 1994 ("It Can't Rain All the Time")
• Faraway, So Close, 1994 ("Slow Tango")
• Time and Love: The Music of Laura Nyro, 1997 ("When I Think of Laura Nyro")
• Women Like Us: Lesbian Favorites,^[23] 1997 ("Temple")
• Pay It Forward, 1998 ("Calling All Angels")
• Care Bears: Journey to Joke-a-lot, 2004 ("With All Your Heart")
• Whatever: The '90s Pop & Culture Box, 2005 ("Calling All Angels")

Covers[link]

Her song "One More Colour" was covered by Sarah Polley on the soundtrack to The Sweet Hereafter, and by the Rheostatics on their Introducing Happiness album. k.d. lang covered "The Valley" and "Love Is Everything" on her album Hymns of the 49th Parallel.

Rock Plaza Central covered "You Don't Need"; and "Calling All Angels" was covered by The Wailin' Jennys in 2009.

Guest Performances[link]

She sings on Bob Wiseman's 1991 Presented By Lake Michigan Soda

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jane Siberry

• Jane Siberry on Sheeba Records
• Jane Siberry at the Internet Movie Database

Adam Sandler
Sandler in February 2011
Born	Adam Richard Sandler (1966-09-09) September 9, 1966 (age 45) Brooklyn, New York, United States
Nationality	American
Occupation	Actor, comedian, musician, songwriter, screenwriter, film producer
Years active	1987–present
Influenced by	Mel Brooks, Bill Murray, Rodney Dangerfield[1]
Spouse	Jacqueline "Jackie" Titone (2003–present)
Children	2
Website
adamsandler.com

Adam Richard Sandler (born September 9, 1966) is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, musician and film producer. After becoming a Saturday Night Live cast member, Sandler went on to star in several Hollywood feature films that grossed over $100 million at the box office.^[2] He is best known for his comedic roles, such as in the films Billy Madison (1995), Happy Gilmore (1996), The Waterboy (1998), Big Daddy (1999), and Mr. Deeds (2002), though he has ventured into more dramatic territory. In 1999, Sandler founded Happy Madison, a film and television production company that has produced numerous films and developed the 2007 television series Rules of Engagement.

Early life[link]

Adam Sandler was born in Brooklyn, New York to Jewish parents,^[3] Stanley, an electrical engineer, and Judy Sandler, a nursery school teacher.^[4] When he was five, his family moved to Manchester, New Hampshire, where he attended Manchester Central High School. He found he was a natural comic, and nurtured his talent while at New York University by performing regularly in clubs and on campuses. Sandler graduated from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts in 1988.^[5]

Later in his career, he would draw on his earliest experiences for material for his comedy, music and movies. The song "Lunchlady Land" from his debut album They're All Gonna Laugh at You! is dedicated to Emalee, the lunchlady at Hayden Dining Hall at New York University.^{[citation needed]}

Career[link]

Acting career[link]

Sandler at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival

In the mid to late 1980s, Sandler played Theo Huxtable's friend, Smitty, on The Cosby Show (1987–1988). He was a performer for the MTV game show Remote Control, on which he made appearances as the characters "Trivia Delinquent" or "Stud Boy". Early in his career, Sandler performed in comedy clubs, taking the stage at his brother's urging when he was seventeen. He was discovered by comedian Dennis Miller, who caught Sandler's act in Los Angeles. Miller recommended him to Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels. Sandler was hired as a writer for SNL in 1990 and became a featured player the following year, making a name for himself by performing amusing original songs on the show, including "The Chanukah Song".^[6] Sandler told Conan O'Brien on The Tonight Show that NBC fired him and Chris Farley from the show in 1995.^[7]

In 1994 he co-starred in Airheads with Brendan Fraser and Steve Buscemi. He starred in Billy Madison (1995) as a grown, though uneducated, man repeating grades 1–12 to earn back his father's respect, along with the right to inherit his father's multi-million-dollar hotel empire. In At the Movies, Siskel and Ebert gave the film a very bad review, and said of Sandler "...Not an attractive screen presence, he might have a career as a villain or a fall guy or the butt of a joke, but as the protagonist his problem is he creates the fingernails on the blackboard" with Siskel adding "...you don't have a good motivation for the character's behavior".^{[citation needed]} He followed this film with other financially successful comedies such as Bulletproof (1996), Happy Gilmore (1996) and The Wedding Singer (1998). He was initially cast in the bachelor-party-themed comedy/thriller Very Bad Things (1998), but had to back out due to his involvement in The Waterboy (1998), one of his first hits.

Although his earlier films did not receive critical praise, his more recent films, beginning with Punch-Drunk Love (2002), have received more positive reviews - although they lack the meagre humour of his earlier films. Roger Ebert, in his review of Punch-Drunk Love, concluded that Sandler had been wasted in earlier films with poorly written scripts and characters with no development.^[8] Sandler has moved outside the genre of slapstick comedy to take on more serious parts such as the aforementioned Punch-Drunk Love (for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe), Spanglish (2004) and Reign Over Me (2007). He played a loving father figure in Big Daddy (1999). During filming, he met Jacqueline Samantha Titone—his future wife and mother of his two daughters -— who was cast as the waitress from The Blarney Stone Bar.^{[citation needed]}

At one point, Sandler was considered for the part that went to Jamie Foxx in Collateral (2004). He also was one of the finalists along with Jim Carrey and Johnny Depp for the role of Willy Wonka in Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005).^{[citation needed]} He returned to more dramatic^{[neutrality is disputed]} fare with Mike Binder's Reign Over Me (2007), a drama about a man who loses his entire family in 9/11 and rekindles a friendship with his old college roommate (played by Don Cheadle). He starred in the film I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (2007) alongside Kevin James, as a New York City fireman pretending to be gay to keep up an insurance scam so that his best friend's children can have benefits. Sandler headlined You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008), a comedy about a Mossad agent who fakes his own death and moves to the United States to become a hair stylist. The film was written by Sandler, The 40-Year-Old Virgin writer-director Judd Apatow (who was an old roommate of Sandler's when both were starting out), and Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog creator Robert Smigel, and was directed by Happy Gilmore director Dennis Dugan.

"Like Will Ferrell, Sandler has layers of tenderness under layers of irony under layers of tenderness—plus a floating anger like Jupiter’s great red spot," wrote David Edelstein of New York magazine in a review of You Don't Mess with the Z. "Some performers become stars because we can read them instantly, others—like Sandler—because we never tire of trying to get a fix on them."^[9]

Sandler at the premiere of Funny People in Berlin, 2009

Sandler starred in Bedtime Stories (2008), a fantasy film directed by Bringing Down the House director Adam Shankman, about a stressed hotel maintenance worker whose bedtime stories he reads to his niece and nephew begin to come true. This marked Sandler's first family film and first film under the Walt Disney banner.^[10] Keri Russell and English comedian Russell Brand co-starred.

In 2009, Sandler starred in Judd Apatow's third directorial feature Funny People. He played a very successful stand up comedian who finds out he has a terminal illness and he takes a young inexperienced comic, played by Seth Rogen, under his wing. Filming began in October 2008 and finished in January 2009. The film was released on July 31, 2009.^[11] At one point, Sandler was in talks to star in Quentin Tarantino's World War II film Inglourious Basterds, which he confirmed, but he did not appear in it due to a scheduling conflict with Funny People.^[12] Following the release of Funny People, it, along with Punch-Drunk Love were cited in the June 2010 announcement that Sandler was one of 135 people (including 20 actors) invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.^[13]

Sandler appeared in Grown Ups, teaming up with Kevin James, Chris Rock, Rob Schneider, and David Spade (all of whom have worked with Sandler before) for a film about five best friends from high school who reunite 30 years later on the July 4 weekend. Other costars include Salma Hayek (playing Sandler's wife), Maria Bello (playing James' wife), and fellow SNL alumna Maya Rudolph (playing Rock's wife), Colin Quinn, Tim Meadows, and Norm Macdonald. Sandler and Dickie Roberts scribe Fred Wolf wrote the script and Dennis Dugan directed the film.^[14]

Sandler starred in the 2011 film Just Go with It, with Jennifer Aniston, a romantic comedy written by Allan Loeb and Tim Dowling and directed by Dennis Dugan. He played a plastic surgeon who asks his office manager, played by Aniston, to pose as his wife, in order to prove his honesty to his much younger girlfriend, played by Brooklyn Decker. Sandler also provided the voice of a capuchin monkey in Kevin James' Zookeeper, released on July 8, 2011.^[15] He filmed That's My Boy with Andy Samberg, which tells the story of a man, played by Sandler, who fathered a son, played by Samberg, with his teacher in high school. Then years later, visits his son on the eve of his wedding where he clashes with the bride (played by Leighton Meester).

Happy Madison Productions[link]

Sandler has collaborated with Henry Winkler and Kevin James for several film projects

Sandler formed his film production company, Happy Madison Productions,^[16] in 1999, first producing fellow SNL alumnus Rob Schneider's film Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo. Happy Madison has produced all of Sandler's subsequent films to date with the exceptions Punch Drunk Love and Spanglish. Reign Over Me and Funny People were produced by Happy Madison but under the subsidiary label "Madison 23".

Sandler is known for consistently working with a core group of friends and associates through Happy Madison, frequently casting fellow SNL performers in various roles in his films. Sandler and Happy Madison produced SNL contemporary Rob Schneider's vehicles Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999), The Animal (2001), The Hot Chick (2002), and Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo (2005), and The Benchwarmers (2006), with Sandler making cameo appearances in the middle three. Meanwhile, Schneider has appeared in cameo roles in Sandler films The Waterboy, Little Nicky, Mr. Deeds, Click, The Longest Yard, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, and Bedtime Stories. Schneider had larger roles in Sandler films Big Daddy, 50 First Dates, Eight Crazy Nights, You Don't Mess with the Zohan, and Grown Ups.

The handprints and shoeprints of Adam Sandler in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre.

Happy Madison produced David Spade's Joe Dirt, Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star, and The Benchwarmers, which also featured Rob Schneider.^[16] Spade additionally made a cameo appearance in I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry and had a prominent supporting role in Grown Ups. Sandler cameoed as a special audience member in an episode of The Showbiz Show with David Spade. SNL contemporary Kevin Nealon has appeared in ten Happy Madison productions or Sandler films, including Happy Gilmore, The Wedding Singer, Little Nicky, Joe Dirt, Eight Crazy Nights, Anger Management, Grandma's Boy, You Don't Mess with the Zohan, Just Go With It and the Dana Carvey vehicle, The Master of Disguise.

Happy Madison also produced Paul Blart: Mall Cop, the first starring vehicle for Kevin James. James had costarred with Sandler in I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry and Grown Ups and made a cameo appearance in You Don't Mess with the Zohan. Happy Madison also produced James' second starring vehicle Zookeeper.

He appeared as the featured guest on the final episode of John McEnroe's eponymous CNBC talk show, airing in late 2004. McEnroe appeared as himself in three of Sandler's films (Mr. Deeds, Anger Management, and You Don't Mess with the Zohan).

Anna Faris, who appeared in The Hot Chick, became the first female actor to headline a production for Happy Madison with The House Bunny and will headline another film for Happy Madison in the near future.

Others who frequently appear in Sandler films include Steve Buscemi, Chris Rock, John Turturro, Jon Lovitz, Clint Howard, Norm Macdonald, Nick Swardson, and longtime Sandler pals Allen Covert, Peter Dante, and Jonathan Loughran. In particular Allen Covert plays unique and eccentric characters in Sandler's films. Most notably as a limo driver in The Wedding Singer, Ten Second Tom in 50 First Dates, and Nicky's roommate in Little Nicky. Covert starred in his first leading role in Grandma's Boy, also produced by Happy Madison productions.

In June 2007, it was announced that Happy Madison had made a preemptive acquisition for Mitch Albom's screenwriting debut.^[17]

In June 2008, it was announced that Sandler will be executive producer for a horror thriller titled The Shortcut under a nascent genre label for Happy Madison called "Scary Madison".^[18]

In October 2009, it was announced that Sandler and Happy Madison will produce the Richard Pryor biopic Richard Pryor: Is It Something I Said? for Sony, the company's first major dramatic production. The film was written by Bill Condon, who is set to direct, and Pryor will be played by Marlon Wayans, who is replacing Eddie Murphy.^[19]

Personal life[link]

Sandler with his two daughters in February 2011

On June 22, 2003, Sandler married actress Jacqueline Samantha Titone, and they are the parents of two daughters, Sadie Madison Sandler (born 2006)^[20] and Sunny Madeline Sandler (born 2008).^[21] Sandler lives with his family in Los Angeles, but also owns homes in New York City and Florida.^{[citation needed]}

Political and charitable donations[link]

In 2007, Sandler made a $1 million donation to the Boys and Girls Club in his hometown, Manchester, New Hampshire.^[22] He donated $2,100 to Republican Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign the same year.^[23]

Filmography[link]

Film[link]

Television[link]

Awards[link]

This section is empty. You can help by adding to it.

Discography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Adam Sandler

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Adam Sandler

• Official website
• Adam Sandler at the Internet Movie Database

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (February 2011)

Martha Grimes (born May 2, 1931) is an American author of detective fiction.

She was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to William Dermit Grimes, Pittsburgh's city solicitor, and to June Dunnington, who owned the Mountain Lake Hotel in Western Maryland where Martha and her brother spent much of their childhood. Grimes earned her B.A. and M.A. at the University of Maryland. She has taught at the University of Iowa, Frostburg State University, and Montgomery College.

Grimes is best known for her series of novels featuring Richard Jury, an inspector with Scotland Yard, and his friend Melrose Plant, a British aristocrat who has given up his titles. Each of the Jury mysteries is named after a pub. Her page-turning, character-driven tales fall into the mystery subdivision of "cozies." In 1983, Grimes received the Nero Wolfe Award for best mystery of the year for The Anodyne Necklace.

The background to Hotel Paradise is drawn on the experiences she enjoyed spending summers at her mother's hotel in Mountain Lake Park, Maryland. One of the characters, Mr Britten, is drawn on Britten Leo Martin, Sr, who then ran Martin's Store which he owned with his father and brother. Martin's Store is accessible by a short walkway from the Mountain Lake Hotel, the site of the former Hotel, which was torn down in 1967.

She splits her time between homes in Washington, D.C., and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Works[link]

Richard Jury series

• The Man With a Load of Mischief (Boston: Little, Brown, 1981)
• The Old Fox Deceiv'd (Boston: Little, Brown, 1982)
• The Anodyne Necklace (Boston: Little, Brown, 1983)
• The Dirty Duck (Boston: Little, Brown, 1984)
• Jerusalem Inn (Boston: Little, Brown, 1984)
• Help the Poor Struggler (Boston: Little, Brown, 1985)
• The Deer Leap (Boston: Little, Brown, 1985)
• I Am the Only Running Footman (Boston: Little, Brown, 1986)
• The Five Bells and Bladebone (Boston: Little, Brown, 1987)
• The Old Silent (Boston: Little, Brown, 1989)
• The Old Contemptibles (Boston: Little, Brown, 1991)
• The Horse You Came In On (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993)
• Rainbow's End (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995)
• The Case Has Altered (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997)
• The Stargazey (New York: Holt, 1998)
• The Lamorna Wink (New York: Viking, 1999)
• The Blue Last (New York: Viking, 2001)
• The Grave Maurice (New York: Viking Penguin, 2002)
• The Winds of Change (New York: Viking Penguin, 2004)
• The Old Wine Shades (New York: Viking Penguin, 2006)
• Dust (New York: Viking Penguin, 2007)
• The Black Cat (New York: Viking Penguin, 2010)

Andi Olivier series

• Biting the Moon (New York: Holt, 1999)
• Dakota (New York: Viking Adult, 2008)

featuring Maud Chadwick (who is also a character in the Emma Graham Series)

• The End of the Pier (Ballantine Books, 1993)

Emma Graham series

• Hotel Paradise (Knopf, 1996)
• Cold Flat Junction (2000)
• Belle Ruin (2005)
• Fadeaway Girl (2011)

Novels, Short Stories & Poetry

• Send Bygraves (Putnam, 1990)
• The Train Now Departing (New York: Viking, 2001)
• Foul Matter (New York: Viking Penguin, 2003)

References[link]

Source: Contemporary Authors Online, Thomson Gale, 2006.

External links[link]

• Martha Grimes' official Web site
• Ryan, Ellen. "Martha Grimes: Woman of Mystery", Washingtonian, August 1, 2008.

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