Finishing the third album in her Three Queens Trilogy of albums--and working on a fourth to go with them--hasn't been Jane Siberry's only focused activity.
As her many Twitter followers and Facebook friends already know, she's been busy with her two Border Collies in sheep herding class.
"I brought a Border Collie back home to Vancouver from Wales--where some of my ancestors are from--and needed to challenge him in other ways than just being my pet," says Siberry, who has toured internationally over the last year. "So I investigated sheep herding and took a few lessons, and decided I was probably learning more than my dog!"
Sheep herding, she explains, is "oddly profound."
"My mother came to a lesson with me and said she wished she'd taken lessons before she had children!" says Siberry. "It's all about consistency, and what makes a child or a dog secure: order, clarity--all those things."
In addition to enjoying the class, Siberry has met interesting people, she says, "including an Irish shepherd who's been sheep herding since he was three-years-old. Now he's an old man of few words, but a great teacher: He insisted I get a second dog and name her after his best dog Jan."
So Jan has now joined Gwyllym, Siberry's first Border Collie.
"He's the one I brought back from a farm in Wales on my last tour," she says of Gwyllym, whose name, she adds, is Welsh.
Incidentally, one of Siberry's most beloved songs is "Everything Reminds Me Of My Dog," from her 1989 album Bound By The Beauty.
Meanwhile, Siberry has begun writing regularly for The Huffington Post's new Canada edition. She related her sheep herding experience in one of her first columns.
[The Examiner has written liner notes on several Jane Siberry CD releases.]
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