Jann Arden is a true prairie gal. Born and raised in nearby Springbank, the multi-time Juno award winner still calls the Calgary area home. She is building a house just west of the city, with a home for her parents sharing the property.

"I can see your god damn bedroom from the office," Arden has said, slipping into her trademark imitation of her father Derrel. "I think my nude days sitting with cat on my lap are over."

While her music is frequently heartbreaking, she is renowned for her wicked sense of humor. That humor, and the incredible woman behind it, were very much on display when Jann sat down recently for a one-on-one interview with GayCalgary & Edmonton Magazine. One of the things that have lead to Arden’s success is the connection she makes with her fans.

"I have been doing this for such a long time, almost thirty years, and when I look out at an audience I don’t know who they are. I couldn’t tell you that it was gay men, or lesbians or plus 55 or teenage girls from 16 – 22 or young couples on a date. It is so diverse, the only thing I am ever mindful of is that a lot of times people bring their kids which is always flattering to me. I am not really racy or saying ‘fuck’ all the time. Once in awhile I’ll throw it in there but I am always careful.

"I am not sure what endears me to people but I think when you write about relationships it doesn’t exclude anybody. Everyone has the same emotional journey that they go on; it’s not different for any of us. When I write something that feels really real to me I know people understand that. I have screwed up enough to know that I need to write about something authentic, I can’t be trite and sit there and write about gum or something inanimate. All of my songs are about relationships directly or indirectly. I don’t think there is anything more important to write about than the very human but simple concept of loving another human being, or intricate friendships, relationships with parents and siblings. I think anyone that sits in front of me and sees a show and listens to the music understands on their own terms what it is for them.

"I don’t think I am massively appealing; I am for personal consumption. You aren’t going to hear me at a lot of parties but you will put me on when you don’t feel great or are on a road trip and I am proud of that. I don’t care if I am particularly fashionable because I never have been physically nor musically. I have just been the girl next door and I think that is appealing to people because it’s not so far from the grasp of what they can be. I am not an unreachable ideal."

Arden was home in Calgary promoting her new CD, Uncover Me, now available in stores. The CD features covers of many of Arden’s favorite artists and songs. Some of the standout tracks are a dark cover of Pat Benatars Love is a Battlefield, current single Janis Ian’s At Seventeen and a cover of The Carpenters Solitaire that would have made Karen Carpenter proud – and caused Jann a lot of stress. We asked her why she decided to do a cover CD.

"Stupidity!" she jokes. "I thought it was going to be really easy and I could take a break from my own inner workings. I’ve been writing for the last year and a half, I have all kinds of material and none of it makes sense, it’s like I’ve been writing on the sitar and singing in Swahili. The record company were like ‘how about you do a Christmas album’ and I said I am not subjecting the world to another version of Silent Night...for a few years anyways.

"So ideas like 50’s and 60’s Divas came up. Russ and I recorded an entire record with songs like End of the World by Skeeter Davis and Moon River, some Burt Bacharach stuff. I was done, it was mastered and I got cold feet, I didn’t want to do it. I felt like I had nothing invested in it, I didn’t know what it was. Bruce Allen, (manager of Bryan Adams and Michael Buble) had heard a copy of the record I had done. He phoned me and gave me so much shit. He told me I had to pick songs that mean something to me and I was startled. A stupid part of me thought I could phone this record in, and have a break and put this record out before Christmas.

"I put the breaks on, ditched everything and spent a lot of time repacking these songs. This record should have been called ‘Songs that I sang three million times in my parent’s basement.’ We started from scratch and I lost a lot of sleep over it thinking I was ruining perfectly good songs that were already great. Why would anyone want to redo Solitaire? So I had to nail it and show people how much I respected Karen and how much I learned from singing that. I think it’s a really fun record for fans. It is still really dark. I tried to make it light and poppy and there are still parts of it that are just like ‘holy hell... how can somebody do that to Love is a Battlefield?"

While it is cool to hear Jann’s interpretations of other people’s work, one of her biggest strengths has always been her songwriting. We talked about the effect her songs have on people. For me personally, songs like Sorry for Myself and All of This have deep personal meaning. Others identify strongly with the song Good Mother, one of the most popular songs she has written.

"I think our shows are a rollercoaster, they really are. I in a million years never would have thought that Good Mother would have the legs and the life that it’s had. I remember scribbling the lyric down on the back of a Du Maurier cigarette paper. My friend Bob had written this incredible procession and I’d written down ‘I’ve got a good mother, I like the color of my hair.’ My friend Stephanie had just completely changed the color of my hair. Before the Living Under June package I had really fair blonde hair and she colored it and gave me bangs. So that lyric was born out of that. ‘I’ve got a friend who loves me, I’ve got a house, I’ve got a car.’ I don’t think the car I was driving was mine, I didn’t have a house I had an apartment I could barely afford at $325 a month. But whenever I hear people sing that back to me I think it’s such a simple sentiment. I like the fact that people can connect, and the music, when you are dealing with human emotion it’s such a general blanket, it doesn’t single out or isolate anybody. I write about such simple things, I am not saying new things.

"But a song like Mend - who hasn’t had one of those fights where an hour later you have no idea what you are fighting about, but who is going to give in first? The best lesson my parents taught me was, do you want peace or do you want to be right? I want to have peace I am just not a fighter. It is great that people can relate to it. I played Good Mother for my Mom (Joan). My Mom and dad have never been particularly emotional they are very true people. She said to me ‘Well I think that’s got a really good beat.’ I was so frightened to play that song for them. I close every one of my shows with Good Mother, I have for years. I see people just waiting for it. Good Mother will always be in the set."

It’s this connection that has lead to many of her fans reaching out and telling their stories, as she has through her music.

"I am thrilled with the response to my music over the years. It never ceases to amaze me the letters I get. I want to cry all the time. Something will strike me when I am sitting on a plane reading the letters I get," she continued. "I am sitting there going ‘I don’t know you but you just put an arrow through my heart.’ It always starts off with ‘I’ve never written a letter like this before’ and they just tell me these stories that are pages long about where they hurt and why and what. I am proud of that, I haven’t sold thirty million records but to the people who have bought them it is such a prized possession that they have."

The concert experience is another part of the appeal of Arden. Blending humor with heartache, they are one of the few concert experiences that can bring you tears from sadness and laughter all within minutes. Arden hits the road this spring for a series of sold-out shows.

"Every time I do a new record it gets increasingly difficult to keep doing songs that I want to do. I can’t push the show past two hours because my voice gets tired. If I want it to sound right I have to leave it at that. I have nine records and I need to juggle that. Now with this new record I need to find a 25-minute segment to do four or five of these songs. It’s like a turd in a glass of milk, I am going along depressing the shit out of everybody... and now for a little Downtown everyone!"

There have been embarrassing moments when Arden has forgotten the words to her own songs. "When I haven’t done these songs for a long time, I know I am the author but I really die. I have sung Unloved maybe 4000 times, even if I am by myself. I was at a live TV taping and lost it. ‘Here I am inside a hotel, choking on a million words I’ve said.’ Then nothing. I know what the next line is but I didn’t have it. I stopped and this woman yelled ‘cigarettes have burned a hole.’ They just left it on TV. I was so glad I did it. It is hilarious that the audio caught her saying that. There was this smattering of applause when we started up again."

Being on the road and having fame take its toll. August covergirl Bif Naked spoke of the loneliness of rock n’ roll, so we asked Arden to share her own views.

"Bif isn’t the exception to the rule at all. What happens is you go through everybody in the band. That lasts through your twenties on the road, it’s disgusting and there is always alcohol involved. You have to live with them for the next six weeks. I know a lot of people who have had really successful relationships in the music business, I have to say from my own experience it’s the nut behind the wheel. I can’t sit and blame music for any of my relationship things. I’ve had wonderful relationships in my life and I’ve had some terrible ones. If I am going to be at all honest, I have to look at the common denominator in all of them and it’s me. It is not an easy thing to face, it just isn’t. I am not easy to be with. When you travel 250 days a year, do you want to be with someone who has to give up their job and be like a fungi on you when you travel around the world? They have nothing to do, what, are you going to have them sell merchandise? I don’t want to be with somebody like that. I think for some people if you are a librarian you are going to have unsuccessful relationships, it doesn’t matter if you’re a musician or not. Sometimes being with another musician or artist is a nightmare. My dad’s best friend just got married at 71 to my guitar player’s mother. You can still settle into something and it can happen at any age."

As a renowned storyteller, Arden also shared a story about her first time meeting Bif Naked, who she has developed a friendship with.

"She is one of my favorite people, we’ve become really odd friends. The first time I met her was at the Juno’s in Newfoundland. I was walking down the hallway and was like ‘holy crap, that’s Bif Naked’ with the tattoos and she is such a pretty girl. She is not at all what people would perceive her as, she is very soft spoken and spiritual. We ended up presenting an award together. The stagehand, this fellow from Newfoundland, was all sweaty and nervous and trying to get everyone organized. The guy was telling us what to do and Bif goes ‘Have I fucked you?’ He was just perspiring and going ‘no!’ That was my introduction to Bif."

Arden is unique in the music industry in that she has avoided scandal and simply lets her music speak for itself. In a day and age of female artists bouncing in and out of rehab and marriages, she stays true to a classic time.

"I would love to do some Britney Spears covers. I think she is fascinating. When you talk about modern American sex kittens, she is just nutty. I am just so glad there isn’t a picture of my crotch on the internet, I can’t even tell you. I would be horrified for anybody to see my Scooby Doo underpants!

"Girls these days, there is something so blatant about it. I grew up on the end of innuendo, allure, mystery. Now its ‘here’s my crotch, my boobs, me getting slammed on the side of a boat, you can get it on the world wide web.’ I find nothing sexy about any of this stuff. I like the idea of ‘I wonder what they are like’ - I don’t want to see them. I think that is really sad about our industry now. I don’t want to know, I want to guess, ponder, think up my own little things. You can’t tell me that Britney didn’t get out of that car on purpose seeing fifteen photographers on the sidewalk. But they want it, that kind of attention and energy. I couldn’t live with myself, I am a really private person. But I am not, which is the conflict with me because my music is an open book and all you have to do is listen to know exactly who I am and what I am about.

"If you ever see my crotch anywhere please call me. ‘Jann, you know when you were drunk at the Dairy Queen... with the cone? We need $100,000 or its going on YouTube."

As our time came to a regrettable close, Arden asked to say a few words specifically to her GLBT fanbase, one that has supported her since the beginning of her career.

"You guys are the most well educated, lovely people in the world and I am flattered. Any iconic female figure that has had lasting success from Bette Midler to Cher in the past fifty years is because of the gay population. They have more money than anybody else, are better educated and they support people to the end of the world. It is amazing to me the fans and the loyalty that I have, and success because of the gay community. It is overwhelming to me. Every time out, never making judgments of me or asking more of me then I am unable to deal. I feel very, very blessed. I have made some wonderful friendships and I feel very honored to be part of something that’s so fantastic. I hope it never stops, that people keep supporting me. I hope the world gets more tolerant and people change and I hope I hope I hope.

"A magazine like GayCalgary & Edmonton is a great start, to have a voice and to be really proud of your community. I am very glad to be talking to you today."

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