Barbara Lynn Doran

Summer's most memorable moments happen in parks, and in late July, it once again proved to be true. Barbara Lynn Doran recently released her album called Love From All Sides, and shared her songs with music lovers of all ages as part of Whitby's Concert in the Park Series. Taking place at Grass Park in Brooklin, the free concert welcomed pint-sized tots and older siblings, parents, grandparents, friends, neighbours and more. But it wasn't just a solo performance by Barbara Lynn. The Whitby-based singer had a special guest join her on stage, welcoming her son Matthew. Some may recognize him as he has made many appearances as a member of the 2013 Brooklin Mini Idols. To learn more about Barbara, visit www.barbaralynndoran.ca. - Snap Whitby

WHITBY -- Barbara Lynn Doran has a nice problem: things are going so well in the singer/songwriter’s personal life that there’s no drama which she can use to inspire a tune.

“I’m happily married and that’s been one of the biggest challenges as a writer,” says the Brooklin resident. “I’m not used to writing happy songs.”

But her new disc, Love From All Sides, features at least one, With You, the only song on the disc she wrote herself, about her musician husband Matthew.

“I’m starting to transition to the happy stuff,” she quips.

She’s also transitioned to a place where she belongs, more on the country side of pop music.

“I really tried to go a little more to the country side,” Doran says of the material on the disc. “It’s something I didn’t realize until later in my career, that this is where I needed to be.”

She jokes that she doesn’t have a country twang, but Doran possesses a pure voice and her singing seems effortless. The songs on the disc are “all about love, mostly relationships and not all of them mine.” The liner notes state the songs are about "new love, content love, love gone wrong, abandoned love, forever love and so on." Tonight, a duet, started out as “just a simple love song,” but turned into one about committing yourself to another person. Forgot to Love Me is “very melancholy.”

You can hear Doran and her band as part of Whitby’s Concert in the Park series on July 24 at 7 p.m. in Grass Park, 41 Baldwin St., Brooklin.

And you can also see her son Matthew, 12, as he’ll be doing six songs. He wanted to do more and she had to remind him that, after all, it’s her gig.

“My son’s a singer too so we’re working on stuff for him,” Doran notes.

She says Matthew is a part of the Brooklin Mini Idol program and “has a tonne of confidence.”

With daughter Keira showing an instrument in percussion, she says a family band might be in her future.

Doran’s own musical roots began with family at around Matthew’s age, as she first plinked on her grandfather’s piano, a man who she says played by ear and who could play anything. All of her uncles, mostly on her mom’s side, are also musicians and “they’re all amazing.

“We’re all horse and music people,” says the Scarborough native, who works at the family business, J and F Trucking, in Ajax.

Doran grew up on classic rock and has sung many different genres of music over the years.

“I like to challenge myself to sing lots of different styles; it makes me a better singer,” she says.

And several trips to Nashville have helped make her a better songwriter. Doran is a Nashville Songwriters’ Association coordinator and this year was named one of its ‘Ones To Watch’. She was a semi-finalist in the International Songwriting Competition and a finalist in the Great American Songwriting Competition.

She collaborated with Murray Daigle on all but one of the Love From All Sides songs, with some other hands in the mix as well, and he also produced the record. Doran notes that like herself Daigle comes from more of a pop background.

“You’ve got to be very flexible to co-write with other people,” she says, noting if there’s no give and take “it just doesn’t work.”

Doran won’t pass on a big break if it comes along, but becoming a better songwriter and maintaining her integrity are paramount to her.

Visit her website, barbaralynndoran.ca, where you can find links to buy her music. - Durham Region.com

Scarborough, Ontario, a suburb of Toronto may not seem like the place from which a country singer would emerge, but that is exactly the case with Barbara Lynn Doran.

Citing a diverse range of artists among her favourites; Olivia Newton John, Madonna, Tori Amos, Kate Bush, Sheryl Crow, it was the country influences which ultimately won out with Doran.

Doran likes her country slower. Her voice seems best suited to a country song laden with emotion.

Cuts such as Innocence and Little Misunderstood are among the best of a solid six-song debut disk.

On her website Doran notes that Little Misunderstood is in large part autobiographical. "This song is my life in a nutshell. I've always been misjudged and misunderstood and I thought it was a great title for my first single," she explained.

Doran is like a lot of country of singers these days, musically solid, but not exactly offering something which completely knocks your socks off. That said, this is a disk which holds promise of being the launching pad of a new star in terms of Canadian country. - Yorkton This Week

The 2012 PotashCorp Country Music Week's Diamond in the Rough Showcase will feature a rising country star at the Radisson Hotel next Saturday.
Barbara Lynn Doran will be in Saskatoon for Country Music Week, and just recently released her new single, "Maybe I'll Fly".
She performs at the Aroma Resto Bar Saturday, September 8th at 7 thirty. - Saskatoon homepage.ca

Top 5 dmds download. - Canadian Country Aircheck

Also new this week, Barbara Lynn Doran has dropped a brand new single as well. Released on October 4th, Doran’s new single “Half Hearted Love” has been released digitally and to radio. “Half Hearted Love” is the first single from Doran’s brand new upcoming album Reveal. “Half Hearted Love” is rocking, edgy, and gives a good insight on what to expect from Doran’s new album. Check out the song for yourself on iTunes or make a request at your local country station. - Dutch Bickell