Amelia Curran
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada | INDIE
Music
Press
Amelia Curran is no longer the east coast's best kept secret. Nearly a decade into her career, the Haligonian recently signed a deal with Toronto's Six Shooter Records. Her fourth album, War Brides, was recently released in Canada and Europe.
"War Brides surprised us both," says Curran, who co-produced the album with multi-instrumentalist Phil Sedore. "We made that record two years ago just to have something to sell at the St. John's Folk Festival.
"We figured we'd print a couple of hundred copies and sell them on the road. We're about 7,000 copies into that plan now and about to break into an international market."
It's been a landmark year for Curran. With rumours of her inevitable move back to Newfoundland, she's been dividing her time between St. John's and Halifax, recording a follow-up to War Brides with Don Ellis. There were also multiple on-screen film debuts at this year's Atlantic Film Festival, both in Tara Thorne's short film Gracious and in Aram Kouyoumdjian's whimsical video for "Scattered And Small."
"The past couple of years, I've been threatening to go home, leave Halifax, which has been so good to me these past times," Curran says. "Last year, I even spread a rumour myself via CBC radio, then reneged and stayed in Nova Scotia anyway. The older you get, the harder it is to relocate, which puts me in a bit of a hurry sometimes to get it done."
Curran's resilience has been noted. Her discography — which includes Barricade (2000), The Sense Amelia Project's Trip Down Little Road (2001), Lullabies For Barflies (2002) and War Brides (2006) — has been stamped with multiple East Coast Music Awards and Music Nova Scotia nominations.
War Brides' title comes from a lyric in Curran's "All The Ladies," and brings to mind the young Newfoundland women who married Yankees or British solidiers. With the rich historical connotations and folkloric imagery found throughout the album, it's not hard to tell the city of legends still runs thick in her veins.
"The island of Newfoundland itself probably influences me more than I realize," Curran says. "But maybe not as much as being away from it, which after nine years still stinks.
"There's an intense, mysterious loneliness about being away from Newfoundland. Maybe just a juvenile resentfulness, too. Growing older, being so sure that you belong in another place, and sure, too, that you'll get to settle there again soon — that's a bit dramatic and wild, but worth reflecting on."
Curran will join the handsomely romantic Royal Wood for these shows:
Dec. 3 London, ON @ London Music Club
Dec. 5 Toronto, ON @ The Mod Club
Dec. 13 Wakefield, QC @ The Black Sheep Inn - Chart Attack
Amelia Curran is no longer the east coast's best kept secret. Nearly a decade into her career, the Haligonian recently signed a deal with Toronto's Six Shooter Records. Her fourth album, War Brides, was recently released in Canada and Europe.
"War Brides surprised us both," says Curran, who co-produced the album with multi-instrumentalist Phil Sedore. "We made that record two years ago just to have something to sell at the St. John's Folk Festival.
"We figured we'd print a couple of hundred copies and sell them on the road. We're about 7,000 copies into that plan now and about to break into an international market."
It's been a landmark year for Curran. With rumours of her inevitable move back to Newfoundland, she's been dividing her time between St. John's and Halifax, recording a follow-up to War Brides with Don Ellis. There were also multiple on-screen film debuts at this year's Atlantic Film Festival, both in Tara Thorne's short film Gracious and in Aram Kouyoumdjian's whimsical video for "Scattered And Small."
"The past couple of years, I've been threatening to go home, leave Halifax, which has been so good to me these past times," Curran says. "Last year, I even spread a rumour myself via CBC radio, then reneged and stayed in Nova Scotia anyway. The older you get, the harder it is to relocate, which puts me in a bit of a hurry sometimes to get it done."
Curran's resilience has been noted. Her discography — which includes Barricade (2000), The Sense Amelia Project's Trip Down Little Road (2001), Lullabies For Barflies (2002) and War Brides (2006) — has been stamped with multiple East Coast Music Awards and Music Nova Scotia nominations.
War Brides' title comes from a lyric in Curran's "All The Ladies," and brings to mind the young Newfoundland women who married Yankees or British solidiers. With the rich historical connotations and folkloric imagery found throughout the album, it's not hard to tell the city of legends still runs thick in her veins.
"The island of Newfoundland itself probably influences me more than I realize," Curran says. "But maybe not as much as being away from it, which after nine years still stinks.
"There's an intense, mysterious loneliness about being away from Newfoundland. Maybe just a juvenile resentfulness, too. Growing older, being so sure that you belong in another place, and sure, too, that you'll get to settle there again soon — that's a bit dramatic and wild, but worth reflecting on."
Curran will join the handsomely romantic Royal Wood for these shows:
Dec. 3 London, ON @ London Music Club
Dec. 5 Toronto, ON @ The Mod Club
Dec. 13 Wakefield, QC @ The Black Sheep Inn - Chart Attack
“Scattered and Small,” “You Won’t Find Me” and “All the Ladies” are just about the best trio of songs you’re going to hear. This album has a thematic sway between life on one’s own or with another, even if it’s hoping and waiting for distances to be crossed. The mood follows from carefree to wanting. Curran’s like Ron Hawkins, tough even when strumming an acoustic, thoughtful but not sentimental, lyrically sharp, woefully underappreciated. Phil Sedore contributes brilliant multi-instrumental playing—mandolin, accordion, trombone and more—that underscores Curran’s assuredness and clarity for her first record in four years.
—Sean Flinn
- The Coast
"Curran balances lyrical grace and the ability to generate pictures from emotions with a gift for gentle, rolling melodies. On Lullabies, her unaffected vocals and guitar are augmented by Caleb Hamilton's trumpet and John Scott's cello, but these touches are sparing as she and co-producer Jude Pelley take care not to disturb the space around the songs. With lullabies like these, sweet dreams are sure to follow." - Halifax Herald
"You may not have heard of her yet, but Amelia Curran is Newfoundland's next great female songwriter, and her latest album proves it"
Amelia Curran's latest CD, "War Brides", is one of those intimate gems of an album that you have to discover for yourself. There isn't a big publicity machine forcing it down your throat, and it's an album you have to seek to find. One thing that is very clear upon listening to it is that you realie that Curran, a St. John's native now based in Nova Scotia, creates music that is instantly satisfying, and ina world full of folk singers, Curran's music is a cut above.
Whether it's the subtle acoustic guitar of "You Won't Find Me", the harmonica intro on "Scattered & Small", the country twang of "Everything I've Got To Give", or the Neil Young feel of "Just A Tuesday", War Brides is 30 minutes of pure listenting pleasure, with Curran's gentle voice easing over the sparse instrumentation like a gentle fog coming in from Signal Hill on a spring day.
- The Newfoundland Herald
"That refreshing honesty and Curran's husky, unforgettable voice place her firmly in the East Coast's new guard of most promising talent." - Halifax Daily News
Maybe you'll get lucky and pick the right place on the right night. In my case it was the Rose and Thistle on Water Street August 5. A performer - Amelia Curran - and her small band of superb musicians, held us all spellbound with their talent and their quiet, confident brilliance. I will never forget the image of a waitress standing, a case of empties in her arms, lost in the music. - The Independent
"Balancing wry newfie humour with aching vulnerability and the yowl of a tough-as-nails alley cat defending its turf, Curran must have an interesting story. I haven't heard it yet - " - Halifax Daily News
"Balancing wry newfie humour with aching vulnerability and the yowl of a tough-as-nails alley cat defending its turf, Curran must have an interesting story. I haven't heard it yet - " - Halifax Daily News
4 Stars
The fourth record by this Halifax singer/songwriter announces itself so immediately that you imagine the folks at the record label shoving a contract at her halfway through hearing the first song. Curran’s wonderful voice and simple acoustic strumming are front and centre on “Scattered and Small,” coloured with producer Phil Sedore’s harmony vocals and complementary instrumentation — here an accordion, elsewhere on the disc a mandolin, a clarinet. “Scattered” is a masterful, delicate little song about self-knowledge and self-doubt. If none of the other songs on War Brides (independently released in 2006, now rereleased by Six Shooter) are its peer, they are nonetheless very good, ranging from folk to wry country and rarely misfiring. This is an unexpected gem. - Eye Weekly
4 Stars
The fourth record by this Halifax singer/songwriter announces itself so immediately that you imagine the folks at the record label shoving a contract at her halfway through hearing the first song. Curran’s wonderful voice and simple acoustic strumming are front and centre on “Scattered and Small,” coloured with producer Phil Sedore’s harmony vocals and complementary instrumentation — here an accordion, elsewhere on the disc a mandolin, a clarinet. “Scattered” is a masterful, delicate little song about self-knowledge and self-doubt. If none of the other songs on War Brides (independently released in 2006, now rereleased by Six Shooter) are its peer, they are nonetheless very good, ranging from folk to wry country and rarely misfiring. This is an unexpected gem. - Eye Weekly
Mike Regenstreif - country, folk, blues:
#9
Amelia Curran
War Brides
Six Shooter/Warner
4.5 out of 5
The national release of the quietly stunning War Brides – independently released in Newfoundland two years ago – heralds the emergence of Canada’s newest great singer-songwriter.
- Montreal Gazette
Mike Regenstreif - country, folk, blues:
#9
Amelia Curran
War Brides
Six Shooter/Warner
4.5 out of 5
The national release of the quietly stunning War Brides – independently released in Newfoundland two years ago – heralds the emergence of Canada’s newest great singer-songwriter.
- Montreal Gazette
Discography
Amelia Curran - Spectators (Six Shooter Records, 2012)
Amelia Curran - Hunter, Hunter (Six Shooter Records, 2009)
Amelia Curran - War Brides - (Six Shooter Records, 2008)
Amelia Curran - Lullabies for Barflies - 2002
the SenseAmelia project - trip down little road - 2001
Amelia Curran - Barricade - 2000
Photos
Bio
Amelia Curran is a seeker. Nearly a decade ago she left St. John’s for Halifax, but still pines for Newfoundland every single day. With a number of East Coast Music Award nominations and an extensive discography, including: War Brides (2006), Lullaby for Barflies (2002), Trip Down Little Road (2001), and Barricade (2000), Curran knew it was finally time to make a record at home.
Over the past two years she recorded with Don Ellis in various caverns in St. John’s, the city of legends, from the abandoned CBC building on Duckworth Street to an old farm house on the fringes of town. For Curran St. John’s captures the essence of her inner huntress.
A songwriter by trade, but a writer at heart, Curran believes language is everything. She describes the craft of song-writing as an act of “expressing the inexpressible, a means of describing the indescribable.”
“Bye, Bye Montreal” could pay homage to Leonard Cohen and the thriving arts scene of yesteryear, but that’s the beauty of Curran. She never explicitly says what her songs about. She just opens the door and allows room for various interpretations and relationships.
“All Hands On A Grain of Sand,” speaks to Curran’s ability to elevate the lyrical into the poetical. Her desire to reconcile the past and move into the future is a constant struggle. “Ah Me,” manifests biblical myths into self-reflexive epiphanies, while “The Mistress,” is part confession, part obsession. A narrative-driven internal contention of what it means to be the other woman.
“Mad World, Outlive Me,” mines for the truth and untouchable gems held deep within the soul. With splashes of folk and cabaret aesthetics, “The Company Store,” wades through a lost way of life.
“Julia,” turns the page on a bleeding heart, while “Tiny Glass Houses,” shatters expectations and rebuilds the broken places within us all. “The Dozens,” is a toe-tapping rendition of harnessing one’s inner lover.
Retribution arrives in both “Love’s Lost Regard,” and “Wrecking Ball,” but it’s the album’s closer, “Last Call,” that leaves listeners thirsty for another round.
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