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Maureen Leeson has spent 15 years knocking them dead live performing with the likes of The Carpet Frogs, The Life, Robbie Rae, Spare
Parts, The Sugardaddies and a reunited Klaatu (in 2005) and now on CD with her solo debut 'aka Moe'
Born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Moe is the youngest of the four children. With three older, louder,
more demanding siblings, she would often not be heard at the dinner table as a pre-teen, and so would retire to the living room to play her mother's upright Heintzman piano. Moe would pluck out the notes she
knew how to read from on-again off-again piano lessons, and then start singing. Quietly at first, just to herself, just to see if she could...but then a little louder and a little more deliberately off-key,
just to see if anyone was paying attention back in the kitchen. When she'd realize no one was, she'd get a little louder and a little more deliberately off-key, until finally someone in the other room would
invariably yell, "Stop singing!"
But in rural eastern Ontario, where would she ever find someone to finally stop telling her to stop? Ironically, at high school. Anne Landon was the music
teacher at Rideau District High School in Elgin, Ontario, when Moe started Grade 9 there. In band she taught Moe how to play the flute; in choir, she taught her how to sing - properly.
Maureen moved to
Oshawa, Ontario, to attend community college. Through the late 80's/early 90's, she regularly guested with her brother Jef's various country bands and a number of Toronto cover bands who had heard her
singing at the Sunday Night Jam at Lee's Palace on Bloor Street. But, she wanted to be in a band. She wanted to sing for a living, so Moe took the chance to audition for local funk-rock act the Life and
landed the spot as back-up singer. In 1992 the Life took part in Toronto radio station Q107's Homegrown contest and recorded a song, "Sunrise", for the 14th version of the Homegrown album released
on MCA Records Canada in 1993.
Moe's tenure with the band lasted about a year and then it was time to move on to greener pastures. Moe's desire was to front her own outfit and with an old friend from
Durham College, Geoff Wilson, they teamed up with two members of Ajax's Moving Targetz - bassist Jaimie Vernon and drummer friend Duanne Welsh. Geoff, Moe, Jaimie, and Duanne met one night at the Sunday Jam
at Lee's Palace, and cover band Spare Parts was born.
For almost four years Spare Parts played all over southern Ontario, with regular trips to Maynooth, near Algonquin Park, to entertain the locals
there. But after a couple years of doing other people's music, artistic frustration set in and the desire to do something original took hold. Sharon'SISTER was the result of that desire, and an eight-song CD
EP, Steeped, the outcome of their efforts. However, Geoff's desire to spend less time in the bars and more time with his bride-to-be made his eventual decision to quit the band understandable to all. But it
left Moe without a band
She kept musically busy with studio work with Bullseye Records artists Brian Gagnon and Terry Draper (ex-Klaatu) and singing on professionally produced jingles for Kwik Copy and
The City Of Vaughn to name just a few. But she missed the musical group and live performance aspect of singing so in 2000 Moe answered an ad in the paper a Toronto cover band called the Sugardaddies. Her
tenure with this act lasted 4 years. Plenty of time to hone her chops for the ultimate audition – a solo album.
Bullseye Records of Canada, run by Moe's brother-in-law Jaimie Vernon, was committed to
working with Maureen; no one knew her talent, her abilities and her drive better than them. Bringing producer/musician Creighton Doane (Honeymoon Suite, Harem Scarem) to the table to work with Moe, her first
solo CD, aka Moe, was recorded over a few months in 2002. Maureen co-wrote five of the ten songs with Creighton, and two of the five also share songwriting credits with Creighton's sister Melanie.
Moe has
been touring the album sporadically since 2003 as her day gig involves vocal coaching Canadian Idol hopefuls and other aspiring musicians such as Degrassi High: The Next Generation star Cassie Steele. But,
in 2005 Spare Parts has been revived with its entire original line-up where Moe can perform material from the side-project Sharon'SISTER and her solo efforts side-by-side. |
