Julie Mintz, part folk waif and forlorn fairy maiden, grew up in the small coastal Texas town of Corpus Christi, listening to classical music and my-man-done-me-wrong country love songs. “I’m not sure if Mozart and Patsy Cline were the only two albums my parents owned or just the only ones they liked, but those are the musical sounds I remember filling my childhood home,” Mintz recalls. It is no surprise then that Julie studied classical piano but always had a longing to play and sing her own stories.

Julie flirted with piano playing and songwriting as she pursued an acting career in Los Angeles. But with acting and insomnia taking its toll, she would stay up nights at the piano after the rush of long days spent auditioning. She was particularly drawn to the honesty and poeticism of artists such as Joni Mitchell and Patty Griffin. She says, “I’ll never forget the first time I heard ‘Blue’ by Joni Mitchell. I swear I felt my mind and my heart expand.” She also received a guitar as a birthday gift right around the time she made the painful descent from sweetheart to brokenhearted, and it didn’t take long before she was making up pretty tunes about love and loss.

Julie auditioned to play a musician on the ABC drama, “What About Brian,” and was asked to perform the song, “Over” on the show. This also led to the recording of the acoustic single shortly after, and is now available on iTunes. The show’s producers thought they had chosen a signed artist but were stunned to hear that she had yet to record an album. This has changed, however, as Julie just completed work on her first EP. The six song EP was independently produced and recorded in a cabin high on a mountain top in the Angeles National Forest. Look for "Crown and Anchor Me" available soon.

The majority of her songs still remain in a shoebox full of cassette tapes that she records on an old tape player. “I imagined the only way people might ever hear my songs was for me to sit in front of them with my guitar and sing. And, if it’s done right, it sort of feels like you’re sharing a little piece of your soul with another person,” Julie says. “But, then again, if my songs resonate with someone and they’d like to listen to them sometime other than when we are face to face, then I suppose they should be recorded.” And resonate they do. Academy Award nominated writer and director Josh Olson (“A History of Violence”) says, “You’ll know immediately that Julie’s voice is one of those rare and beautiful human instruments. But take a moment and listen to the lyrics. This is also one hell of a writer. There’s an amazing facility and sad humor at work here that will keep you coming back to these songs again and again.”

bio by Debbie V. Burenhausen

folk adj. of, originating among, or having to do with the common people, who transmit the culture of the group through succeeding generations.

waif n. anything found by chance that is without an owner. A person without a home or friends, esp. a homeless child. A piece of property found but claimed by nobody.

NEWS!!!
15th ANNUAL BILLBOARD WORLD SONG CONTEST, HONORABLE MENTION for "Thank You For Leaving Me Behind" 2008
LOS ANGELES MUSIC AWARDS, BEST ACOUSTIC/FOLK SONG NOMINEE for "Thank You For Leaving Me Behind" 2007

Check out Julie Mintz at www.myspace.com/juliemintz, sonicbids.com/juliemintz, Facebook (search Julie Mintz), and YouTube (search Julie Mintz).