THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, July 29, 1996 TAG: 9607270046
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Interview
SOURCE: BY FRANK ROBERTS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 107 lines
CAN YOU NAME a Top 5 artist on the country music charts in Denmark, The Netherlands, Finland, Australia and Brazil?
No, it's not Garth Brooks, Vince Gill or Reba McEntire. It's P.J. Gilly.
Who?
P.J. Gilly. She's known around Margarettsville, N.C. Folks in Franklin and Washington, D.C. - where she lived before moving to Northampton County not long ago - know her, too.
Stateside, she's done well on the indie charts and has made some noise on the major-label charts. Overseas is a different story. Gilly gets healthy radio play and regular letters. Once her records go on sale, the checks will be arriving in the mail.
Denmark alone sounds like the headquarters for her Scandanavian fan club.
Bente Kyed, a deejay at Radio Holsted in Vejle, called her ``a very great female artist - voice, music, lyric and sound is very good. She is already on my playlist with two of her songs.''
Erik Topholm of Countrykanalen in Taastrup, wrote: ``You got a wonderful voice. Songs as well as tunes on your CD are great. I've tried to find some favourites of mine, but it is unpossible. Nine out of 10 are excellent.''
The Radio Amager playlist has ``Leanin' On a Feelin','' the title tune from her self-penned album, at No. 5, directly above ``Summerlove Sensation'' by the Bay City Rollers. Honest.
How did the the little singer - ``I'm 5 feet 1 and a frog's hair,'' Gilly said - become so popular on the foreign market?
``We mail our records overseas,'' said Bobby G. Rice, her Hendersonville, Tenn.-based manager. ``We've had more response on her than anyone else. We're working on a deal to have her albums sold there and we have a good shot of having a tour there, including a big country music festival held in Poland every June.
``What makes it so nice is that they're playing her songs on their own,'' he said. ``What they see in her is that she is not hard country. They have a tendency to like older style country. P.J. has a touch of the older vocal sound.''
While ``Leanin' On a Feelin' '' is getting the overseas play, ``That's What I Don't Want No More Of'' has been picked up in the U.S. Among her tour of domestic radio stations to push the album was WSM, the Grand Ole Opry station in Nashville.
Gilly was singing gospel and country as a wee 6-year-old in her Morehead City, N.C., hometown. As a teenager, she sang rock 'n' roll with small bands around Washington.
``I didn't get along with that. It just wasn't my bag,'' said Gilly, who now commutes between Margarettsville and Nashville. ``I switched to country at 17 - a preference thing.''
She was in her early 20s when she started singing professionally at clubs in Washington and Maryland.
``I did a benefit show one time,'' Gilly said. ``A man in the audience heard me and said he wanted to sponsor me. I had no idea what a sponsor was so I bypassed it.''
Arriving in Nashville, the wide-eyed country girl soon learned that, sometimes, there is dirty work afoot in Music City.
``A man was going to be my road manager,'' she said. ``I found out he wanted more than just my singing talent. I left the business. About 10 years ago I started again. Music is in my blood. I've had a lifelong desire to perform.''
She performed ``Hit By Love'' for Dawn Records. The song marked the beginning of her climb on the independent charts and her overseas success.
``Last October, I went back to Nashville with a nothing's-gonna-happen attitude. I was wrong,'' she said. ``A poet, Johnny Rogers Jr., offered to be a sponsor. This time I knew.''
Then, she tied in with Rice, a respected manager, writer and producer.
``We did a video on `That's What I Don't Want No More Of,' '' said Gilly, 41. ``It aired on `Nashville Video Showcase' and in several states. Things have been going real fast.''
It's a marked contrast to life in the Carolina woods. She and her husband, Robert Gilligan, have two grown children and a 2-year-old granddaughter.
``What's going on with my career is awesome. I feel so privileged that I'm doing so well over there.
Gilly, who plans to move to Tennessee, said she thinks about her overseas success during her frequent walks in the woods. That's her ``quiet time, a time to think about things, a time to pray.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
MICHAEL KESTNER
The Virginian-Pilot
P.J.GILLY
WANT TO GO?
Who: P.J. Gilly
When: 3 to 7 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday
Where: North Carolina Watermelon Festival, Broad Street,
Murfreesboro, N.C.
Admission: Free
Information: (919) 398-5922
Schedule: 5-11:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, noon to midnight
Friday, 9 a.m. to midnight Saturday. Other performers include the
Catalinas (Beach music), Continental Cowboys (country) and the Riffe
Band (Motown).
Directions: Take U.S. 58 west to U.S. 258 south, outside of
Franklin. Follow to Murfreesboro. It's about a 90-minute drive.
MORE INFO
Schedule: 5-11:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, noon to midnight
Friday, 9 a.m. to midnight Saturday. Other performers include the
Catalinas (Beach music), Continental Cowboys (country) and the Riffe
Band (Motown).
Directions: Take U.S. 58 West to U.S. 258 South, outside
Franklin. Follow to Murfreesboro. It's about a 90-minute drive.
KEYWORDS: PROFILE by CNB