Singer/songwriter Juli Tapken celebrates season with cozy new EP

Singer/songwriter offers cozy down-home songs

Juli Tapken shares her cozy holiday song, "Hopin' It's Snowin'" on the What's Up podcast and talks about her path to seeing herself as a musician as well as an actor. 
(Courtesy Photo)
Juli Tapken shares her cozy holiday song, "Hopin' It's Snowin'" on the What's Up podcast and talks about her path to seeing herself as a musician as well as an actor. (Courtesy Photo)

"I'm the youngest of four children. So I pretty much came out of the womb entertaining people," says actress and singer/songwriter Juli Tapken during a recent podcast interview with What's Up!

Her acting career started in Branson with the play "Two from Galilee" in 2000. From there she starred in "Smoke on the Mountain," for 15 years until she started working in feature films and television. Her most recent film, "Forbearance," is now available on streaming services.

"It's a wonderful story about a marriage -- sometimes when it's as hard as it can get, it can get a little harder," Tapken explains. "It's a dramatic movie, but I hope that it's uplifting and encouraging for people that are going through some tough times maybe in their marriage or physically."

Tapken knows something about using art to heal. She says that her initial goal in life was to be a mother, but the road to motherhood was a long one.

"I wasn't interested in entertaining or music, I mean, any more so than just for the fun of it. My life's ambition and goal was to be the old woman in the shoe. I just love children so much, so when my husband and I found out that we wouldn't be able to have our own, we became foster parents," she says. "For someone whose heart is to be a mother to find out that's not necessarily God's dream for you and to have to kind of step back and be OK with that and be OK with the way that God wants to build your family -- opening yourself up to fostering, opening myself up to adoption, those were things that I had not considered would ever be a part of my life."

She and her husband now have a son, Lane, who is 18 years old.

"When my husband and I went through those difficult times that kind of opens up your heart. There are things that you just can't say to people or that you wish people wouldn't say to you, and those are the kinds of things you just put into poetry and you put into songs."

Tapken released an EP in 2020 called "Denim With Diamonds," which was another thing that she didn't see herself doing -- being a musician. However, when a producer with Platinum Planet Records saw her play an alcoholic and battered woman in a movie called "Mission Improbable," he saw a storyteller who could share through music.

"I play the piano. I play the trumpet. I play guitar. I sing, but I never really considered myself a musician," she says. "Acting was my craft, was my foray. So having someone in the industry open that door for me and say 'come tell your stories, and I'll put music to them' was a really exciting career move, nothing that I had sought out or tried."

She says that the EP reflects her "heart."

"I'm a simple country girl. I grew up in Oklahoma. Right now I live and work on a farm, and so that is just where my sensibilities lie. 'Denim With Diamonds' is really just about the simplicity of the way of things -- listen to your mama, what you grow in your garden tastes better ... just those, those simple precepts of country life.

"It's incredible. I'm obviously pleasantly surprised at how people are taking to the songs, how they've taken to 'Denim With Diamonds,' and, the seasonal song, 'Hopin' It's Snowin',' I get a lot of feedback from that."

"Hopin' It's Snowin'" with Justin Peters is a cozy holiday tune that will fit right in with the cold weather currently in this region. Tapken shared the song during her podcast with What's Up! at nwaonline.com/1225tapken.

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Listen Here!

Listen to an interview with actress and musician, Juli Tapken, and stay tuned to the end for her song, "Hopin It's Snowin'" a cozy, holiday duet with Justin Peters at nwaonline.com/1225tapken.

Keep up with Tapken's music and movies at www.julitapken.com

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