Calum Hughes Collective

Calum Hughes wows the crowd at the last live show - Kelowna Live in the City

Kelowna musician Calum Hughes has a new album out that should resonate with those participating in this weekend’s Relay for Life at Polson Park.

Two of the songs, And That’s OK With Me, the title track off his new CD, and If I Sing Loud Enough, are both empowering and emotional rock ballads which Hughes recently performed at the Independent Canadian Music Showcase at Vernon’s Powerhouse Theatre.

And they will be some of the tunes he performs when he kicks off the night of entertainment at the Canadian Cancer Society event.

Approximately 50 teams, and more than 500 people, will be walking, jogging and dancing their way around Polson Park’s track for 12 hours, with musicians, entertainers and activities to help them keep going.

As the fiddler and primary songwriter with well-known Kelowna Celtic band Kinship, which also features his brothers, Frank and Andrew, Hughes has been breaking out on his own for a while now.

“Kinship is still going, but we now mostly play for big events like St. Patrick’s Day,” said Hughes, who remembers performing in Vernon with the band at the long defunct Restoration Music Festival, as well as at a big music festival at O’Keefe Ranch in 2000, as well as at a Canada Day event in Polson Park.

This is a way for Hughes to give back to the community by volunteering to perform at Relay for Life, however, he also has his personal reasons.

“I have a friend who ran in the Kelowna Relay for Life last year. She survived breast cancer,” said Hughes. “I really respect the integrity behind the whole event: people coming together in support of fighting cancer and in remembrance of a loved one. That’s why I jumped on board.”

With Kinship winning Album of the Year at the 2010 B.C. Interior Music Awards for its third CD, Boneshaker, Hughes has been back in the studio with his guitar to record his debut solo effort, And That’s OK With Me, which also has a local connection.

The single, If I Sing Loud Enough, features Vernon-based choir, the Chorealis Music Ensemble, singing background on the chorus, he said.

Three of the album’s songs were recorded at Big Audio Studio at McKinley Landing in Kelowna, and the other tracks were recorded at The Warehouse (the Vancouver recording studio co-owned by Bryan Adams) with award-winning producer Vince Ditrich (also the drummer with Spirit of the West.)

Hughes is currently in talks with HMP and Recording Development Inc. for a development deal.

“It’s pretty exciting. There’s a lot happening right now,” he said. “I also have 320 Entertainment, who own a radio station in Pennsylvania, playing my song like crazy down there. They will be hosting an event for juvenile diabetes, and they are planning to fly us down there for it.”

Hughes has also been invited to partake in the upcoming Nashville Songwriting Festival.

However, he is first gearing up to take the Relay for Life stage Saturday at 6:10 p.m. to kick off the night’s musical entertainment.

Hughes will be donating 50 per cent of the sales of his CD, as well as any merchandise, from the night to the Canadian Cancer Society.

(More information is available at www.calumhughes.ca or check out his Facebook page at facebook.com/calumhughesmusic).

The Relay for Life starts at 6 p.m. Saturday with the victory lap featuring cancer survivors led by the Trinity Drummers.

Also performing will be singer Leah West (this year’s People Choice winner at the B.C. Interior Music Awards) at 7:30 p.m., guitarist Tom Stinson at 8:20 p.m., and singers Tanya Lipscomb, Sherie Erickson and Kailee Duggan, who will take the stage at 9 p.m. before the luminaries are lit around the track at 9:45.

Taking the stage at 10 p.m. will be guitarist Dave Anthony, followed by singer-songwriter Raquel Warchol at 11 p.m. Juno-award winner Jon Buller and his band will perform at midnight, followed by 2010 Our Kids Have Talent top 10 finalist Jeff Piatelli, and local bands Disengaged and Know Tomorrow performing in the wee hours of the morning Sunday.

More information on the event is available at www.relayforlife.ca. - Vernon Morning Star Newspaper

Press release regarding the album published in Nashville - Sun Down Songs - Nashville

Interview with Cougar Night in Canada - this is funny. - The Province Newspaper - BC

Article in G3 Agency Magaize on Calum Hughes
Please see page 22, 23 for artist profie. Past artists include PINK, Busta Rhymes, Kayne west, many more. - G3 Magazine

Profile on a tandem show that is happening wiht Claum Hughes and Ryan McMahon.
- Castanet News

CONTACT:
email: hughescalum@hotmail.com>
cell: 250-863-8589

For Immediate Release:

CALUM HUGHES GOING SOLO - VINCE DITRICH / WAREHOUSE TO RECORD KELOWNA SINGER/SONGWRITER

Kelowna singer songwriter, Calum Hughes' announced that his fourth album will be a solo project, and the album is already well underway. After some work at Big Audio Studios in McKinley Landing, Hughes is set to record at Bryan Adams' Warehouse Studios in Vancouver, where industry veteran, Vince Ditrich, will produce and engineer the project. Ditrich, was winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award from both WCMA's and SOCAN, and was nominated Producer of the year five years running.

“The songs are a departure from the traditional-based Irish folk rock that Kinship was known for,” Hughes says. “I connected with Vince and Norm Fisher (Bryan Adams' Bass player) to record the album down at Warehouse. The experience and skill these guys bring to the table will ensure every track is exactly what it should be. We're also doing a TV spot in the studio on March 26th. Then it's back here for the Taste of Kelowna gala on the 27th, the Nashville Songwriting Festival for June 03-05, and then back here again for the Vernon Relay for Life on June 04th.”

With his enigmatic stage presence and crowd interaction, and with much of the groundwork having been laid with Kinship, Calum is getting excellent traction in industry circles and with fans. He recently received accolades from CACH Radio in Vancouver, who named him April Breakout artist of the month, G- Magazine is doing a profile in May, KCAL-FM in Los Angeles is has an interview scheduled for May, and he is working alongside Don Grierson, a producer from Los Angeles and ex- A&R executive from Capitol Records/EMI, who is consulting on the project and will pitch it for film and TV placement as well as sending it on to his contacts at major labels in the U.S.

In 2010, Calum won the "Band on the Run" competition for " Henry has LOST HIS TEETH!" This tune hit the radio stations within the Okanagan; Calum's third album, Boneshaker won album of the year in the BCIMA's in 2002. In 2000, Calum won the Western Canada Songwriting Competition for a Single Soldier.

Hughes music is equatable to Dave Matthews and Gord Downie but with the subtle Celtic edge still intact. Touring credits include Spirit of the West, Tom Cochrane, The Leahy Family, Grapes of Wrath, Lee Aaron, Willy Nelson, Wide Mouth Mason, Barney Bentall and others.

“Before I depart for the recording session in Vancouver, I'm doing a tandem show at O'Flannigan's Pub with Canadian recording artist Ryan McMahon on April 11,” Hughes says. “This promises to be a fantastic show.”

The finished album is expected for release in June, 2011.


###


For more information or to speak directly with Calum, contact:
email: hughescalum@hotmail.com
cell: 250-863-8589


- Knight and Unger Communications