Colleen Brown

Colleen Brown
A Peculiar Thing
Independent

Songstress Colleen Brown's strong debut release titled "A Peculiar Thing" is an amalgamation of folk music with a pop sensibility. The album was recorded in Edmonton Alberta where Brown currently resides. Brown has clearly taken inspiration from the prairie scenery, with music suggestive of country singer songwriters of the past including Gordon Lightfoot and Joni Mitchell who Brown is often compared to.

"A Peculiar Thing" starts off on a high note with "Hitching a Ride" a song about traveling to Tofino, British Columbia and being taken in by the surf town's laid back ambience. "Hitching a Ride" has recently been receiving airplay on some of Edmonton's commercial radio stations exposing Brown to a wider audience. For the most part "A Peculiar Thing" is an surprising slice of forward thinking progressive pop music, but at times Brown's classically styled vocals overpower the instrumentals. Especially on tracks including "Bedroom Window" and "A Mystery" on which Brown's voice sounds more theatrical than singer songwriter. When Brown tones down her vocals, the result is pure perfection. The title track "A Peculiar Thing" is a great example of how Brown's vocals and simplistic piano instrumentals complement each other creating a song music lovers of all kinds can enjoy with its sound reminiscent of Sarah Mclachlan.

Fans of Colleen Brown will also be excited to know that she is currently playing more gigs with her pop rock band The Secretaries in which she plays bass and assists on vocal duties. Expect to hear lots more from Colleen in the future.

Paul Borchert

- MOTE MGZN

Album review

Various Artists
That’s Edmonton for You!
(www.thatsedmontonforyou.com)
****1/2

It’s hard to listen to Amy van Keeken’s “Northern City,” the leadoff track to this all-star seven-track suite of songs about Edmonton, and not think that Dirt City has found an unofficial new civic anthem. The lyrics are short and sweet, but they manage to incorporate references to rock ’n’ roll, cold northern winds, and hockey — plus, there’s the killer couplet where van Keeken joyfully sings, “When I see the puck go in the net / It makes me happy, it makes me wet.” Add in the rousing chorus of “I live in a northern town!” and you’ve got an instant classic.

But what’s exciting about That’s Edmonton for You! is that it’s not all fist-pumping expressions of civic pride. I’m not sure if producer Trevor Anderson encouraged his contributors to head in this direction, or if the artists just naturally headed there on their own, but again and again, you hear the same themes coming through in the lyrics: resentment of the oil industry, despair at Edmontonians’ inborn tendency towards apathy, the nagging feeling that maybe we should do what so many others have done and move somewhere else: “The mentality that contributes to the cold,” as Nik Kozub puts it on the excellent closing track, “and weighs down everyone I know.”

At the same time, the musicians’ love for this city is never in doubt — if they criticize some of Edmonton’s more frustrating tendencies, it’s only because they take enough pride in living here to care about making it better. And besides, the very fact that an album as terrific as this one even exists is reason enough to be happy to proclaim Edmonton as your hometown. Highlights include Colleen Brown’s “Workin’ Hard for Easy,” a Heart-style rocker about Big Oil and the average Joe; “Lazy for Everything,” on which Cadence Weapon trades in his usual quick-tongued rapping style for a laconic vocal that recalls vintage Beck; and Lyle Bell’s epic-length “A Devil in the Woodpile,” with its memorable image of Edmonton’s dark and cold getting inside your bones and “burrowing like a devil in the woodpile of your soul.”

I can’t wait to hear it live. Download it now and get ready to sing along with me this Sunday afternoon.

-PAUL MATWYCHUK

Cover Story, music preview:

That’s Trevor Anderson For You!
Edmonton’s favourite all-around creative sparkplug organizes the coolest musical event of the year
Published June 11, 2009 by Kathleen Bell in Music Preview

That's Edmonton For You!
Louise McKinney Park
Sunday, June 14 - Sunday, June 14

I’m supposed to meet musician and filmmaker Trevor Anderson downtown at the Axis Café to chat about That’s Edmonton for You! — a free outdoor concert, packaged with a corresponding album, commissioned by the City of Edmonton and orchestrated by 12 of the most talented young musicians currently prowling Edmonton’s underground scene. It’s kinda like our very own Broken Social Scene, only with a government mandate.

I get there early, grab a latté, and find a seat just in time to see Anderson glide past the floor-to-ceiling windows that front the café. He doesn’t look up, only forward, striding along the sidewalk of the city he’s chosen to call home, seemingly with another destination in mind.

I wonder if I’m in the right café. I wonder if I truly did spot Anderson’s glossy black jacket and sleek auburn hair. I wonder if I should run after him, brandishing my tape recorder, but before I can decide if I’m above chasing someone down Jasper Avenue for a story, Anderson reappears, apologizes and explains he was daydreaming.

Once I have him sitting down next to me, released from his reverie, he’s engaged, energetic, and quick to keep me on point. “To me That’s Edmonton for You! is an unprecedented collaboration among a really large number of indie rock musicians in town,” he begins. “So the more the focus [of the story] can be on community and collaboration, the more comfortable I’d be.”

And I’m happy to oblige, but if we’re going to talk about this particular community and the collaborative effort that is That’s Edmonton for You!, we have to talk about Trevor Anderson.

“He’s the man,” assures Amy van Keeken, guitarist with The Secretaries and one of said indie rockers Anderson tapped to contribute to That’s Edmonton. “Trevor is the man who makes it happen. He knows how to get other people to make what he wants to have happen, happen.”

The Arts Council of Edmonton must have felt the same way, because when they were charged with the task of commissioning a piece of public art on behalf of the City of Edmonton, Anderson is the man whose phone number they looked up. The project is a promotion for the ICLEI World Congress, an international conference designed to encourage sustainable development. That’s Edmonton is meant to spread word of the conference to Edmontonians, because this year we’re hosting it.

“I got this very strange phone call out of the blue: ‘Will you make an hour of new music on the theme of sustainability?’” Anderson explains back at the café. “I said, ‘You know I’m not a composer, right?’ And they said ‘Yeah, but you can get this done, right?’” So Anderson picked up his phone.

He compares rounding up his gang of rockers to assembling a “crack team” from a heist movie. “I would just call up the musicians and, God love them, each one of them said yes before they had any idea that I was going to be able to pay them,” he says. “I mean, of course — that’s what it’s like here. So then to be able to go, ‘And there’s money!’ was a really rewarding feeling for me.”

Lyle Bell, Anderson’s bandmate in the local dance-rock outfit The Wet Secrets and member of the electric Shout Out Out Out Out, was on the other end of one of those phone calls. “He didn’t put it in those terms — it might have been an easier sell,” laughs Bell. “I happened to be on the road when he called me and I was just a bundle of stress, with no cash. One of the things was, he waved a tiny amount of money, which because I was so poor, I was like, ‘Okay, I’ll do it! Blood test? What do you need me to do? Oh, recording project? Sounds good!’”

Along with Bell and van Keeken, the final list of participants includes Cadence Weapon, Nik Kozub and Gravy from Shout Out Out Out Out, Colleen Brown from The Secretaries, Paul Arnusch of Faunts, Doug Organ of Red Ram, Scott Davidchuk and Ted Wright of The Get Down, and a string quartet led by Moni Mathew. Anderson also brought in DJ Cameron Sound to mix in a vocal track from van Keeken’s tune into a break in Cadence Weapon’s song. So really, that raises the total number of musical contributors from the advertised 12 to a nearly orchestral 16 members — they could start a soccer team! (I can hear the cheer now ... “3, 2, 1, rock!”)

It’s not completely extracurricular to note that most of the above musicians play in more than one band (and you might recognize them from a different act). Community and collaboration is not a trend but a reality for Edmonton’s artists.

The idea of a community of artists working together to produce a sum greater than its parts grates at the myth of the solitary creative genius. Don’t we need a Neil Young or a Lou Reed or a Kurt Cobain to come along for Edmonton to be truly great?

“I think [that’s] a great big fallacy,” answers Anderson without hesitation. “I think ideas themselves are social creations. Often the best ideas come up in dialogue with other people or if you’re sitting alone and thinking, you’re having a dialogue with the various voices inside your head.... I’m going to sound so crazy in the paper.

“But it’s true!” he continues with a chuckle. “They’re not, of course, actual voices but when you’re sitting and thinking there’s a dialogue going on in your head with usually a multiplicity of voices and you only have those voices in your head from the experience of talking to other people. So the more you can work with and talk with, and think with and joke with smart, creative people, the more ideas you’ll generate together and also the more you’ll be generating ideas when you’re alone, because that’s how you practice that form of dialogue. And listen, occasionally. Listen more than you talk.”

Anderson epitomizes this ethos of teamwork — of coalescing with and relying on as many people who will help. And that’s true of a lot more than That’s Edmonton for You! Besides being one member of the five-piece firestorm of pounding sound and dirty lyrics known as The Wet Secrets, he’s also an independent filmmaker. While he applies his formal education in theatre to the direction of his movies, he has no formal technical training, meaning he knows how to depend on good people who do.

It’s worked out pretty well so far since Anderson’s short films have garnered praise at film festivals from Berlin to Toronto, where his short Rock Pockets received the inaugural Lindalee Tracey Award, a prize presented to “an emerging Canadian filmmaker working with passion, humour, a strong sense of social justice, and a personal point of view,” or so the blurb goes. “A lot of the fact that we succeeded in that attempt was thanks to director of photography Steven Hope, who shot it,” Anderson says.

It was a sneaky shoot too. Filmed at Klondike Days (or Capital Ex, for you SEE readers younger than five), Rock Pockets starts out as a social experiment, answering the question, “What would happen if two guys walked around with their hands in each other’s back pockets?” Rock pockets, as Anderson calls the practice.

“That’s a completely illegal film,” he admits. “We put [Hope] in a wheelchair with the camera on his lap, which is a cheap way to get a moving dolly shot. It’s also a great way to get shots without permission because thanks to our cultural biases we tend to not look directly at people in wheelchairs, so nobody saw the camera.”

What the film becomes at the end of its five-minute running time is a treatise on coalition, since the friend who stepped in to put his butt on the line (and on film) wasn’t gay, as Anderson is, but simply a friend happy to help. A perfect example of how far we’ve come since a 10-year-old Anderson first noticed his first “rock pockets” couple and instinctively understood that two guys would never be able to do the same thing without it being, as he puts it in the film, “a really big deal.” Seeing the two men walk along, hands in pockets, is just gloriously uplifting, in the simplest way.

But we still have far to go, as exemplified in what Anderson sees as Rock Pockets’ companion piece.

“If Rock Pockets is about the politics of coalition, The Island is about the politics of separation,” he says. “The idea that’s brought forth in The Island is that I got this e-mail that said, ‘All you fucking faggots should be put on an island where you can give each other AIDS.’ And so I think, ‘Why not?’ So I have this satirical daydream about gay men separating from all other society. Just retreating from the homophobes and having a party island to ourselves, which is a fun idea for a while but, of course, one of the many problems to my mind about separation politics is that it cuts off any opportunity for coalition and collaboration and that, to me, is a lonely idea.... That there would only be one kind of person in society, that we would be limiting the multiplicity, is a terribly lonely idea.”

I think the idea of community is most deeply felt when one finally leaves it. Travelling makes you acutely aware of where you’re from, whether you’re trying to explain the geographical location of Edmonton (hmm ... it’s “close” to Vancouver?) or the weather conditions. (We do get hot temperatures, really we do!) Even when you’re thousands of miles away, you can’t leave your hometown behind.

“I hadn’t thought of this before,” Anderson says, “but when I travel with music people, people more often know where Edmonton is. I wonder if that’s a reflection of our musical exports? I bet it is. It must be.”

We’ve finally gotten around to talking about Anderson’s role as drummer for The Wet Secrets. They hit up SXSW this year and, considering the northern contingent in attendance, they might as well have shifted a chunk of the Canadian Shield into Texas. But The Wet Secrets managed to represent in a special way.

“Our stage outfits are matching band outfits,” he says. “We have two bombshell ladies in the band who wear platform boots and high marching band hats and when those are combined they’re about seven feet tall. They stayed in their outfits and walked up and down the strip all day, each day handing out handbills for our shows and they were mobbed because it was like Mickey and Goofy walking around Disneyland — everyone wanted a picture. They were sort of like the mascots for Canadian music, because their outfits are also red and white, so it has that feeling of national colours. I saw them at one point, they were talking to one of the guys from Priestess, the metal band from Montreal, and some music tourists full arm-shoved Dan out of the way to get a picture with the pretty ladies. They were great ambassadors.”

The irony, of course, is that they’re ambassadors for a city whose citizens may not always know who The Wet Secrets are. And they’re not alone in that role either — Edmonton harbours many a band that’s made noise on the international stage, and whom we celebrate with only a polite amount of mumbling. “A lot of these artists are way more famous outside of Edmonton than they are inside Edmonton,” Anderson says. “You go to a Shout Out Out Out Out concert in New York City and there’s a huge room packed full of people shouting up and down and screaming for these stars, you know?”

Hopefully, we will all get to know our friendly neighbourhood rock stars a little better at That’s Edmonton for You! “I am really excited about the current mentality of the Edmonton Arts Council,” Anderson says about the show’s co-presenter. “I think they are doing a great job of recognizing the art that’s actually happening in the city. Instead of an out-of-touch state of affairs, where the official art would be really separate from the exciting street-level art, here’s an example of the city of Edmonton knowing these artists are alive!”

“He is a person who lives life to its fullest and lives up to his potential,” gushes van Keeken over the phone, as a final explanation of the man, desperate to make me understand his overwhelming awesomeness. “He knows how to live his life and he knows how to pursue his art and make things happen. He’s a man of ideas. He has vision and drive. I’ll be out with him and all of the sudden, he’ll be like, ‘Wait a second, let’s do this... We’re putting on a show! We’re going to rent this and we’re doing this and this is how we’re going to do it,’ and it will be done. And we’ll just be, like, standing outside having a smoke and he’ll arrange everything in his mind and you know in you’re heart that it’s going to happen.”

Which makes me wonder what plan, what pursuit, what possibility I put on hold when I woke him from his daydream this morning. Chances are, it was something wonderful.


- See Magazine Cover Story and album review

As a solo artist and the bassist/vocalist for Edmonton garage-rock trio The Secretaries, Colleen Brown's got some serious skills. Her recent album Foot In Heart highlights her tangy, triumphant vocals and pretty-in-pink persona. And her spunk -- it's contagious. Really, it's hard not to fall head-over-heels for this Prairie girl. Maybe the way to our hearts isn't through her music, but through her baking ...


Culinary battle of the bands

Instead of buying yummy treats from the bakery this holiday season, you might want to try stopping by the kitchens of local musicians.

BY THE EDMONTON JOURNALDECEMBER 23, 2008


STORYPHOTOS ( 3 )



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Instead of buying yummy treats from the bakery this holiday season, you might want to try stopping by the kitchens of local musicians.

When they're not driving Canada's wintry roads or hiding in a recording studio, it seems some artists trade in their guitars for spatulas.

And their baking can be as yummy--and self-emblematic -- as their music.

We often hear a musician's personality reflected through his or her soulful tunes. Sorrows become evident in melancholic vocals, and times of joy highlighted by jubilant chorus lines.

The same can be said about food. That little dash of sass or lightheartedness can be tasted in sharp spices or bold flavours.

So what better way to learn more about musicians than to make them bake?

The Edmonton Journal decided to create a battle-of-the-cookie-pans competition -- between alt-pop musician Tim Gilbertson and piano babe Colleen Brown.

No longer were drums and vocals allowed to duel. To compete, musicians had to funnel their artistic selves through the art of baking. With the help of Journal music writer Sandra Sperounes, we were able to pick a winner for The Journal's first musical bake-off.

THE CONTESTANTS

TIM GILBERTSON

Even though it's been almost two years since Tim Gilbertson released his self-titled debut album, he's still getting lots of love and attention from fans and critics alike. His penchant for catchy pop hooks and hazy rock 'n' roll punches makes for an airy, upbeat listen.

Gilbertson chose to bake Christmas Kringler, a Norwegian holiday cookie and a family favourite. The recipe he got was actually off the Internet (tsk tsk), but he spent quite a while on the phone with his grandma to make sure the recipe was authentic. In the end, it got her stamp of approval.

"I'm in it to win," Tim boasted as he mashed some flour with a brick of butter

According to his girlfriend, Morgan Hordal, Tim has had a bit of baking training. She's an avid cook and likes really complicated recipes like babka, so whenever things start to go sour, he's called in to attempt a rescue.

Tim wanted to avoid the kind of complexity his girlfriend loves. However, even the simplest recipes can bomb. The last time he made Kringler, he added too much butter.

"It's so simple, but you can really screw it up if you're not paying attention," he said.

COLLEEN BROWN

As a solo artist and the bassist/vocalist for Edmonton garage-rock trio The Secretaries, Colleen Brown's got some serious skills. Her recent album Foot In Heart highlights her tangy, triumphant vocals and pretty-in-pink persona. And her spunk -- it's contagious. Really, it's hard not to fall head-over-heels for this Prairie girl. Maybe the way to our hearts isn't through her music, but through her baking ...

Colleen chose to make coconut eggnog macaroons. This recipe came from her elementary school cookbook, St. Joseph's Family Favourites. How resourceful! She modified the ingredients -- using soy milk and brown sugar -- to make her cookies a bit healthier and friendlier to those who are lactose-intolerant.

Colleen started baking when she was eight years old. She grew up with five brothers and sisters in Lloydminster.

"We were all chubby kids. But I guess it was better than going to the candy store," she said.

Her bright smile and festive apron told us she was a veteran at baking. Armed with a whisk and her wits, she began mixing.

"Hmmm. Hmmm," she said. "I actually don't know how much of everything I actually put in. I never follow recipes. I always eyeball it."

THE JUDGING

TIM GILBERTSON'S BAKING

Amanda Ash: Watching Tim work in the kitchen was a lot of fun. He was dedicated to his Kringler. I could tell he hadn't had much experience baking before, but he was gung-ho about perfecting the cookies. I liked the simple recipe. Even I couldn't screw up a recipe like Kringler! These cookies definitely reflected Tim's musical style. He is a novice in the music scene, but his enthusiasm can be tasted throughout the album.

Sandra Sperounes: My mouth is watering just thinking about the Kringler. Butter and sugar, two of my favourite ingredients. (Insert Homer Simpson drool here.) Still, I was surprised by how light it tasted -- I think the Kringler is an accurate reflection of Tim's pop songs. They feel airy, sweet and simple -- yet you know there's a lot of substance to them.

AA: I'm a total sucker for butter and sugar. And almond-flavoured vanilla icing. Mmm. Like the Kringler, his songs are layered with breezy vocals, a base of spunky rock and a pop-rich topping. And when you listen to his music, it crumbles at the touch. Melts in your mouth. Makes you feel as though you're in a different world. Even though his music reminds me of a California beach (minus the popped Hollister collars and Jack Johnson wannabes), his Kringler did actually make me imagine what it must be like to have a Norwegian Christmas. It's a vacation in a single mouthful.

SS: How could I forget about the almond extract? It reminds me of marzipan -- yes, another one of my favourites. Mmmm. I actually saved a few pieces of Kringler and I'm just biting into one now. Seriously, I think it tastes better cold. You get a better sense of the different textures -- the soft, spongy cookie part and the smooth, sweet icing. I'm not sure if it necessarily makes me think of Norway, except I'm sure the country is covered in a lot of smooth, sweet ice. On the surface, it's not at all like Tim's music. He uses fancy chords and arrangements, but he makes them sound as effortless as making Kringler.

AA: I loved how Tim's girlfriend Morgan was there for moral support. She lovingly mocked his ability to bake, but you know what? I think he did pretty darn good. From what I heard, Morgan is quite the baker. Maybe the tables have turned. Tim, you're a natural! Now you're going to be on baking duty for the rest of the holidays. What do you think, Sandra?

Do you think the art of baking might've come more naturally to Tim because he's already an artist in the musical sense?

SS: Good question. All the good cooks I know seem to possess other artistic capabilities -- my boyfriend (music), my sister (dance), my mom (gymnastics).

But I don't think all artists are necessarily natural cooks or bakers. I think patience is also important, of which I have none when it comes to food.

Tim strikes me as a very patient guy in the kitchen and in the studio. Dare I say it? Mr. Gilbertson makes good cookies. And even more delicious tunes.

COLLEEN BROWN'S BAKING

Amanda Ash: If I'm not mistaken, Colleen probably loves to bake as much as she loves to sing. The girl is a natural in the kitchen. I love her "eyeballing" approach to the coconut macaroons.

When I bake (which only happens when my desire for gooey chocolate chip cookies overpowers my laziness), I tend to eyeball ingredients, too.

Sandra Sperounes: I never follow the directions! Colleen is definitely my kind of cook and artist. She loves to take risks. They don't always work out, but at least she tries.

Coconut and eggnog are another two of my favourites -- what don't I like? -- but I didn't taste enough of either in her macaroons.

AA: I think there might've been too much flour and not enough sugar and eggnog in her macaroons. Then again, these were soy-based, organic cookies that are actually sorta healthy for you and don't make you want to vomit after eating a whole tray. Not that I've ever eaten a whole tray of cookies ... OK, maybe I have once or twice. But I digress.

Anyway, I did enjoy how I could eat lots of Colleen's macaroons without bouncing off the walls until 3 a.m. And I feel less guilty about not going for a run the morning after.

I also enjoyed how comfortable Colleen was in the kitchen. She's as confident about her baking as she is about her music. They're both down-to-earth, simple, no-frills attached, and mixed with passion and a hankering for living on the edge.

SS: I'd have to disagree.

To me, Colleen's baking doesn't seem simple. Her recipe called for at least twice as many ingredients as Tim's Kringler and she was constantly experimenting with how much flour, butter and sugar to use. That's equivalent to calculus for a non-cook like me!

I feel the same about her voice -- it's layered with so many tones and emotions, I'm always at a loss for words when I hear it. How did she come up with such a vocal equation?

AA: I think the baking process was complex, but the ingredients themselves were plain and pretty.

Even though her macaroons could've used more of a sugar kick, I think her kitchen personality made up for it.

And the fact that she chose a recipe from her elementary school cookbook, St. Joseph's Family Favourites; that was a neat idea! I've always figured that only Company's Coming cookbooks with glossy hard covers were worth cooking from.

SS: I think Colleen could write a series of cookbooks or star in her own cooking show. She has such an ease about her in the kitchen, she almost makes me believe I can bake without burning down the house.

But I'd rather listen to her soulful, folky piano-pop songs than eat her cookies. Almost anyone can bake, not everyone possesses her exquisite voice. What's your verdict?

THE VERDICT

Amanda Ash: I think both contestants were great in the kitchen. They were fun to watch, and very dedicated to their cookie-making. But in the end, my tastebuds rule.

I'd have to say Tim's Kringler was my favourite. Although two measly pieces held enough butter to grease an entire truck engine, they were damn tasty. And cookies are supposed to be a guilty pleasure, right? Colleen's macaroons were good, but could've used a bit more flavour.

Sandra Sperounes: By unanimous decision, Tim is the winner of the Journal's first musical bake-off.

Tim, can you make me some more cookies now?

EGGNOG ADDS A FESTIVE KICK TO COCONUT MACAROONS

TIM GILBERTSON'S NORSKE JULEKRINGLER

- 1 cup flour

- 1/2 cup butter, softened

- 1 tbsp water

Mix like a pie crust. Divide in half and pat onto cookie sheet in two long strips (3- x-14).

- 1 cup water

- 1/2 cup butter

- 1 cup flour

- 3 eggs

- 1/2 tsp almond extract

Put water and butter in saucepan. Heat to boiling; remove from stove. Add flour and stir until smooth. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until smooth. Add almond extract. Divide and spread over crusts. Bake for 45 minutes at 350 F. Cool.

TO MAKE FROSTING:

- 2 cups powdered sugar

- 2 tbsp cream

- 2 tbsp butter, softened

- 1 tsp almond extract

Add ingredients together and beat until smooth and spreadable. Frost Kringler. Sprinkle with Christmas sprinkles and/or almond slivers. Cut crosswise into small rectangles.

COLLEEN BROWN'S COCONUT EGGNOG MACAROONS

- 2 cups shredded, unsweetened coconut

- 11/2 cups white flour

- 1 cup white sugar (or raw organic sugar)

- 1/2 cup melted butter

- 11/2 cups eggnog

- 1/4 tsp each nutmeg and cinnamon

- 1/2 tsp vanilla

- red and green glace cherries

Pre-heat oven to 300 F. Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add melted butter and eggnog and mix well. Drop small teaspoons of mixture onto a lightly oiled cookie sheet. Bake 20-30 minutes until slightly golden at edges. Garnish with red and green glace cherries for the holidays. Enjoy!

- - -

ROCK 'N' ROLLIN' PINS

Watch video of local musicians Tim Gilbertson and Colleen Brown baking up their Christmas cookies at edmontonjournal.com/videos.

- - - - The Edmonton Journal

...On another subject, Colleen Brown played the show of her life, opening up. There is a confidence about her new songs that’s actually scary, savaging the things we men do with a sarcastic lilt and an eager smile for the next round of battle. She joked that the only reason she was asked by Union to open for Black was that she had Brown in her name, but of the two she was more of a rapture...

Fish Griwkowsky, July 9, 2009 - See Magazine

"Brown's new album is absolutely awesome...It's a slapshot into the back of the net, Colleen. Every young woman should hear its resounding crack" 4.5 out of 5, Fish Griwkowsky, The Edmonton Sun


COLLEEN BROWN

Foot in Heart

Indie

Sun Rating: 4.5 out of 5

"You think you need a man to have problems with - that's what your problem is."

So sings Edmonton's Colleen Brown with near excitement, as if she's just discovered the most basic tenet of relationships that too few of us ever do - mainly - if you don't especially need a partner, chances are you're in the best shape to hold onto one.

Same goes in the other direction. That terrible paradox. Thanks to a fullness of ideas just like this, Brown's new album is absolutely awesome.

Not to be a jerk, but I liked it way more than Calgary's Feist right off the bat. Here's why.

Opening with strong piano playing, right away a mechanical beat comes in, then, curiously, wanders off. As if that wasn't quite the way to start, which comes off as playful and improvised, even though it was surely a thing decided on.

Instead, some blocks struck together come in, more organically. There, that's more like it. Only then does Brown kick in with an album that reminds me of Tori Amos in the best mood ever, Stereolab finally escaped from the maze and, of course, Joni Mitchell, who Brown admires deeply. In terms of occasional overproduction, Foot in Heart is complicated like the haziest Beatles, but against Brown's seriously powerful voice, it's shockingly good. She's probably my favourite lady singing in the city, now that I think about it. Every time she sings Highway to My Heart with the Secretaries, I feel all strange inside and want to make art.

By the fourth song, a jazzy yet contained number that reminds me of large, confident birds circling overhead, I was shocked at how technically good these songs are, yet how much innocence and joy they contain, despite being about bad boyfriends, worrying and nervously stepping out to say thank you anyway. Like Brown, they are carefully articulated and never sloppy.

Specifically on the defiant Boyfriend, Brown manages to create a relationship anthem worthy of Bruce Springsteen, dangerous material out there for any of you jerks messing around with your girlfriends' heads just because you're bored and fat. I'm not a woman at this particular point in history - only mischievous aliens could make anything else so - but the music here inspires me to give a shout out to all you actually nice women who put up with your lame Man Show losers who care more about hockey stats than you. Track down this album and play it loudly. See if they bitch. Then by all means take no more crap.

This isn't the return of Alanis or anything, it's much too pretty and exactly woven. Another thing to be proud of in our city.

It's a slapshot into the back of the net, Colleen. Every young woman should hear its resounding crack. - The Edmonton Sun

"...frankly I don't know why [Colleen] isn't as well known or respected as four-time Grammy nominee Feist. With any luck, Foot In Heart will rectify the situation. [This] is a luscious and defiant collection of rootsy, folky pop songs." 4 stars (out of 5), Sandra Sperounes, The Edmonton Journal


Album: Foot In Heart
Artist: Colleen Brown
Label: Independent

Best tracks: Fantastic Feeling, Love You Baby, Fire
Rating: 4 (out of five)
With a few vocal lessons, almost anyone can carry a tune.
Or, if you're lazy, tone-deaf or Britney Spears, you can get computer software (AutoTune) to do it for you.
But there are very few people who are blessed with a truly remarkable voice.
Not the showy, over-the-top, can-set-off-car-alarms kind of pipes a la Celine Dion, Christina Aguilera and Mariah Carey.
I'm talking about singers who don't really need any lyrics to convey emotion. Their voices are effortless and rich, seemingly shaped by decades, even centuries, of wisdom and/or heartaches.
Britain's troubled soul-pop star Amy Winehouse boasts such a voice. So does Julie Doiron, a singer-songwriter from New Brunswick.
Or Colleen Brown, a Lloydminster native who now lives in Edmonton and performs with a trio, The Secretaries.
Her voice is a study in contrasts -- bouyant yet weary, operatic yet earthy -- and often compared to that of prairie icon Joni Mitchell.
Brown released her piano-pop debut, A Peculiar Thing, in 2004, and frankly, I don't know why she isn't as well-known or respected as four-time Grammy nominee Feist.
With any luck, Foot In Heart will rectify the situation. Brown's second album, co-produced by Doug Organ and Ian Martin, is a luscious and defiant collection of rootsy, folky pop songs.
She may sing about loneliness, uncertainty, and the awkwardness of new relationships, but more often than not, Brown's arrangements are snappy and/or lighthearted -- brimming with wurlitzers, pianos, pedal-steel guitars, trumpets and strings.
"Even his sour face can't bring me down / Even too much work can't bring me down," her voice soars on Fantastic Feeling, a soulful ditty infused with tambourines, organ bursts, scribbly guitars, and a joyous chorus of back-up singers.
Boyfriend reverberates with the boldness of Petula Clark's Downtown, while Love You Baby starts off like a '60s doo-wop number, then veers into soaring piano pop.
"No regrets darling yet / I can see how you'd hurt me like cigarettes," she sings, perhaps her only overt nod to Joni Mitchell.
Even Brown's slower, sombre tunes -- including Gasoline and I Can't Make You Love Me -- crackle with the spirit of rebellion.
"Fire can warm you, burn you, charm you," she repeatedly chants on Fire, trying to give herself (and listeners) a pep talk in the process.
It's as if she holds contempt for the very sadness she feels.
Brown will release Foot In Heart on Sunday at the Myer Horowitz Theatre.
Tickets are $13 at the door, $10 at Ticketmaster, Megatunes, Blackbyrd and Listen. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Her set starts at 7:30 p.m.

Sandra Sperounes, Journal Music Writer - The Edmonton Journal

And...At #9- Colleen Brown, Foot In Heart

Why is this woman not celebrated across the country? Her second album, a stellar collection of rootsy piano-pop tunes, proves the local musician is a national treasure in the making -- along the lines of Joni Mitchell, Anne Murray, Gordon Lightfoot or k.d. lang.

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Longevity a challenge for musicians thanks to the Internet
Sandra Sperounes, The Edmonton Journal
Published: Sunday, December 30 2007
When one of the year's top sellers is Josh Groban's Christmas disc Noel -- three million copies and counting -- you know the record industry is in dire need of help.
The '007 was shaky -- sales were down by almost 20 per cent, but it felt like more and more artists were releasing albums or songs.
Yet no one -- not even Radiohead, Kanye West, Rihanna or Amy Winehouse -- was able to capture the world's imagination for more than a few weeks.

This, of course, is one of the side-effects of the crumbling industry and the rise of the Internet.
Anyone can release an album, anyone can blog about it, and anyone can be a star for a few minutes.
Longevity is an increasingly rare commodity, only guaranteed to those who were around long before the Internet -- Eagles, Duran Duran, The Police, Van Halen, Def Leppard, U2.
Let's look back to 2002, for example.
Five years ago, artists such as Eminem, Pink, Theory of a Deadman, Dirty Vegas and Ashanti all scored big hits -- and where are they now?
(Cue crickets.)
Here's my list of favourites albums, songs and concerts of 2007.
Wonder who will still be around in the next five years?
Favourite albums
1. Radiohead, In Rainbows
Could it really be anyone else? Not only did the Oxford rockers get the music industry talking with their pay-what-you-want digital download of In Rainbows, they also delivered their finest --and most personal -- album since 1997's smash, OK Computer.
2. Jens Lekman, Night Falls Over Kortedala
Sweden is on a roll. Like Canada, the Scandinavian country pumps out one talented artist after another -- and Lekman does his compatriots proud. The orchestral popster takes ordinary subjects -- such as avocados and haircuts -- and turns them into the stars of a quirky '60s movie musical.
3. Feist, The Reminder
If it was up to me, Leslie Feist's pop masterpiece would've walked away with this year's Polaris Music Prize for best Canadian album. (Alas, I was one of 11 jurors on the voting panel.) The Reminder is joyous yet aching -- like a wonderful memory of a time in your life you can never recreate. Not even with YouTube.
4. LCD Soundsystem, Sound of Silver
Most electro-rock artists are one-dimensional, leaning towards the sillier end of the spectrum. In the hands and vocal cords of LCD's James Murphy, the genre can also be sensitive (Someone Great) or scathing (North American Scum) -- without ever losing a beat.
5. Mark Davis, Don't You Think We Should Be Closer? and Mistakes I Meant To Make The Old Reliable co-vocalist is the master of the slow, sexy alt-country drawl -- which might explain why he took his sweet time (two years) to record and release his two solo debuts.
6. Amy Winehouse, Back to Black
OK, so her life is a mess -- and true to her lyrics, she'll likely never go to Rehab -- but this British soul singer and six-time Grammy nominee knows how to pour every ounce of emotion into her songs. In an era of cutesy poptarts who use computer software to boost their vocals, Winehouse's Back to Black is an intoxicating antidote.
7. White Stripes, Icky Thump
Jack and Meg White continue to deconstruct their infamous drum 'n' guitar formula -- adding bagpipes, horns, synthesizers to their sixth album. Ragged, ridiculous and revitalizing.
8. M.I.A., Kala
This outspoken British/Sri Lankan rapper wants to change the world by starting a revolution on the dance floors of the world. Her second album is funky, eclectic, politically brash and socially conscious. If only our politicians would follow suit.
9. Colleen Brown, Foot In Heart
Why is this woman not celebrated across the country? Her second album, a stellar collection of rootsy piano-pop tunes, proves the local musician is a national treasure in the making -- along the lines of Joni Mitchell, Anne Murray, Gordon Lightfoot or k.d. lang.
10. Nine Inch Nails, Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D
Trent Reznor's latest industrial-rock effort, Year Zero, was as bombastic and boring as Hulk Hogan's reality TV show. (Seriously, the record reviews were more entertaining -- I tried to keep track of how many critics used the word "dystopian" to describe the disc.) This remix album, featuring inventive retoolings by Kronos Quartet, Epworth Phones and Ladytron, was everything Year Zero wasn't -- a near-perfect 10.
Favourite songs
- Interpol, Pioneer to the Falls
The New York foursome's new album, Our Love to Admire, was supposed to be their commercial breakthrough, but failed miserably for two reasons. It was released in mid-July (Interpol doesn't write bouncy, summery ditties) and The Heinrich Maneuver was picked as the first single. It was a decent track, but not as epic or powerful as Pioneer to the Falls.
- Britney Spears, Piece of Me
My guilty pleasure of the year. Vocoderized vocals, autobiographical lyrics about life as a celebrity, suggestive moans, what more could you ask for?
- Daft Punk, Television Rules the Nation/Crescendolls
Glorious robot rock.
- Tim Gilbertson, Palm Trees & Postcards
Quiet, controlled chaos froths from this breezy, melodic indie-rock number.
- Queens of the Stone Age, Make It Wit Chu
Uncharacteristically sexy, soulful R&B from Josh Homme and his psychedelic desert rockers.
Concerts
- The White Stripes, June 30, Shaw Conference Centre: OK, it didn't feel quite as monumental or intimate as their gig in a 428-seat theatre in Whitehorse or a small drop-in centre in north Edmonton, but Jack and Meg White still delivered. Their set was passionate and powerful -- they weren't just going through the motions, but let their songs play them.
- Girl Talk, Oct. 12, Starlite Room: This DJ took audience interaction to a new level. Crouched over a small table, he hung on to his laptop for dear life as dozens of fans swarmed around him -- and crowd surfed over his head. By the end of his set, the table's legs were a mangled mess.
Worst show
- Def Leppard, Oct. 1, Rexall Place: Joe Elliott
couldn't sing and Phil Collen's shirtless, albeit buff, 49-year-old torso was tacky and tiresome. Give it a rest.
ssperounes@thejournal.canwest.com - The Edmonton Journal

It's 3:30 am. Why aren't you listening to Canada's next great thing?

by edie
Somewhere between the relaxed poise of Carole King found on her Tapestry album, we find Colleen Brown, standing in a natural setting, gazing back at us with a strangely, ever-knowing gaze. I am describing the cover of Ms. Brown’s second solo release called Foot in Heart. The differences between these two chanteuses are many and not so, and like Her Highness of master song crafting, Brown is truly not too far behind. With her astute, solid piano tracks surrounded by this enormously bold, big voice, I find that Brown offers just a little bit more amongst the extremely heartfelt and personal songs found on Foot in Heart. Found here are 12 magnificent songs that travel between splitting heartbreak and the splendor of bold realizations, the timid-ness of new love and the bleak uneasiness of what the future holds for us. Brown’s lyrics guide the listener easily into that exact unknown excitement of it all.

Clever is not a word to use lightly when describing Brown’s intelligent, thought provoking lyrics. Foot in Heart offers some of the most biting I have heard in awhile. “Ain’t Got No Man (To Have Problems With),” is an anthem for women living in a quasisingle lifestyle thinking it’s truly enjoyable as Brown sits in the corner, wasting no time in cracking open the real Pandora’s Box as she sings: “I said hey hey woman/do you know just what your problem is/you think you need a man/you think you need a man to have problems with/that’s what your problem is.” In the song “Boyfriend,” she sings, “Boyfriend, write me off if you don’t own the pen.” The song sounds like it was first spawned in the Doo-Wop/Uptown girl group era and would be better off on a Decca recording.

(full article unavailable)
- Dig This Real Magazine #14 (Dec 2008)

Colleen Brown, Foot In Heart

Colleen Brown might be better recognised as one-third of the sassy Edmonton-based all-female rock band the Secretaries, but it won’t be long before fans get to know her on a first name basis. Brown’s latest album, Foot In Heart, champions those moments we often find ourselves in that crazy little predicament called love. Feasting off of the influence of Joni Mitchell and Carole King, Brown challenges all of her songs head-on, her sweet yet triumphant vocals ringing throughout the record. “Fantastic Feeling” mixes pop momentum with delicate folk melodies, while other tracks like “Now That I’ve Found You” create an intimate heart-to-heart with the listener. Juicy in some parts, completely stripped down and honest at others, Brown’s Foot In Heart isn’t a record you’ll ever regret listening to. (Independent)
- Amanda Ash

The Globe and Mail
MUSIC » MUSIC REVIEWS
Colleen Brown, Foot in Heart (Dead Daisy Records)
by Sean Flinn

Colleen Brown's big, broad voice rolls right over the vogue for wispy, wiry, whimsical vocals. Sure, she sings mostly about that universal theme, love, and she does so with robust romanticism---belief in an ideal---but this idealist's way of phrasing lyrics and vocals set this Edmontonian apart. Listen to her talk back to "the woman on the talk show" in "Ain't Got No Man (To Have Problems With)" or "Love You Baby," with its "hoo-hoos." Behind Brown's classic soul-pop piano, her band blends horns, strings, guitar and pedal steel, folk, country and rock. Brown commits and deserves committed listeners.

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Exclaim.ca
Colleen Brown
Foot In Heart
By Kerry Doole

This album was actually self-released in 2008, but Emm Gryner's Dead Daisy Records deserves kudos for not letting this gem get away, picking it up for re-release (CBC Radio has already taken to it). As clear and bracing as a sunny Albertan winter day, it marks the Edmonton-based singer-songwriter (previously best-known for her band the Secretaries) as a real contender. Her style is impossible to categorise. There's a real pop sensibility to some of her songs and vocals ? "Boyfriend" sounds like something Dusty Springfield might have sung in the '60s ? and the only cover is country hit "I Can't Make You Love Me." There's a definite Joni Mitchell feel to Brown's vocal phrasing and timbre on tracks like "Now That I've Found You" and "Pursuit," but Joni never sang songs as exuberant as "Love You Baby" or the aforementioned "Boyfriend," a song that deserves high pop radio rotation. There's a full production sound and fine instrumental work from Brown's band. Horns and strings are employed judiciously, for the most part (though a little overdone on "I Can't Make You Love Me"), never overshadowing Brown's impressively vigorous vocals. There are not many missteps here. (Dead Daisy)

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CHARTattack
MUSIC
Colleen Brown — Foot In Heart
Foot In Heart
Dead Daisy/Outside
Aaron Brophy
03/17/2010

This solo record by The Secretaries' Colleen Brown is getting a second life through reissue from Emm Gryner's Dead Daisy Records, and the world is a better place for it.
While this Edmonton singer mines the rich vein that is '70s female pop vocalism, comparing her to Carole King or Joni Mitchell or Carly Simon would be a mischaracterization. I agonized over repeated, concentrated listens to figure out just who Brown resembled and came up short. More studied followers of Canadian songstresses might come up with a more potent Mia Sheard, but ultimately (and for the best) Brown's rich, melodious voice floats around you in a wholly unique way.
Her voice isn't the only draw, though. Brown also follows through where it counts most — the songs. As obvious Lilith Fair-bait as they are, the trio of "Ain't Got No Man (To Have Problems With)," "Boyfriend" and "Man, Woman & Child" (featuring the line "I'm woman and I'm strong enough and I ain't gonna let you do me no wrong") deserve recognition for the anthems they are. We could do without the Bonnie Raitt cover "I Can't Make You Love Me," but it's heartening to know at least some westerners feel guilty about their tar sands lifestyle ("Gasoline").
When it comes down to it, Foot In Heart is a magnetic album and the whole planet should hear Colleen Brown roar.

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Colleen Brown goes for 1960s girl group sound

BY BILL ROBERTSON AND JANET FRENCH, THE STARPHOENIXMARCH 18, 2010


Colleen Brown
Foot In Heart
www.colleenbrownmusic.com
Rating 4
If I was on old-time DJ, someone from the mid-1960s, say, and had total control of my musical selections, I'd put Colleen Brown's Love You Baby in heavy rotation. Listeners would tune in immediately and make that song a hit.
Here, Brown goes for a real, retro '60s girl group sound, with big background vocals on the title line: Whoo, whoo, I could love you, Baby. Then, after that positive, major key opening, she shifts to a minor seventh and moves into Joni Mitchell country -- a woman finding the promise of love undermined by the reality of both love and a woman's place in the world. Great lyrics, great pop rocking sensibility, great song.
Brown, from Edmonton, brings this attractive mix of pop structure, folk sense, youthful promise and worldly understanding of her own foibles to material about love and loss on her album Foot In Heart, a re-release of an album from 2008.
Fantastic Feeling is happy, grateful pop with a dreamy, effects-laden guitar solo, while Ain't Got No Man (To Have Problems With) features Brown's strong, bold alto asking: Do you really need a man to have problems with?
--ROBERTSON

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CALGARY HERALDFEBRUARY 2, 2010

Reissue
Colleen Brown, Foot In Heart - Canadian singer-songwriter Emm Gryner was so enamoured with Edmontonian Brown's sweet collection of rootsy piano pop that she re-released it on her own label to give it the push she thought it deserved. Hard not to agree. Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon, Tori Amos, Chantal Kreviazuk -- Brown's assured effort falls smackdab in the middle of those musical touchstones.

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Review: Colleen Brown - "Foot In Heart"
2010/02/11 | Aaron Miller, CityNews.ca

Emm Gryner wrote me a letter about Colleen Brown.
She said she'd heard her music on the radio a while back and liked it so much she'd decided to personally re-release Brown's last record.
And it's not hard to understand why.
Not that Brown, who hails from Edmonton, is some sort of musical saving grace, someone so sublimely talented as to warrant some string of complimentary cliches writers and critics routinely roll out for buzz bands or wannabe youth icons.

But what she and the album in question - Foot In Heart - represent is a certain tradition of Canadian female songwriters, one it shouldn't be difficult to see a number of people in this country reaching out for.
Self-referentially the impossible love child of Carole King and Joni Mitchell, Brown sings with an eye to yesterday, pushing jangly guitar lines underneath the character-filled voice of a street-smart and world-wise woman.
In that sense her songs are both refreshing and retro, which these days is the way people seem to like their music (CBC Radio 2 seems to agree, having plucked a Brown song for a string of TV ads).
And make no mistake, her seemingly passive song titles - "Boyfriend" or "Love You Baby" aren't just retread mush ballads that would make a Brittany fan blush.
These are songs written with meaning in between the lines and aimed at an audience mature and discerning enough to pass on the Ke$has and GaGas of the world simply because they don't relate and don't want to.
And that alone is enough of a reason to give Colleen Brown a chance.

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POP
Foot in Heart
Colleen Brown
Dead Daisy Records / Outside
“Boyfriend, read my lips and not the words that I spout,” sings Colleen Brown, in her album-long role as the straight-talking independent woman who’s struggling to act the part. Unsteady as she may look in the heart’s own mirror, the talents of this Calgary-based musician shine like a beacon. Her boldly written originals (self-released in 2008, now out on Emm Gryner’s label) have the good bones and great melodic rhythm of classic big-screen pop songs from the sixties and seventies. But nobody back then wrote clever songs based on an Oprah Winfrey interview (in Ain’t Got No Man) or on a kind of desire sustained near and by the oil patch (Gasoline). Brown’s big soprano voice seems to fuel her songwriting, sometimes taking the tune where a lesser set of pipes may not go. “Something is happening, something great,” she sings in Fantastic Feeling, and it’s happening here on this record.

Robert Everett-Green
The Coast.ca
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Concert review: Hawksley Workman

BY ELIZABETH WITHEY, EDMONTONJOURNAL.COMMARCH 15,
…Opening for Workman was Edmonton’s own Colleen Brown, whose rich, unmistakable voice filled the concert hall beautifully as she performed original songs with modest confidence and cool. Something Regina Spektor-esque about this gal. Brown was all legs in an emerald green minidress, a cute but somewhat questionable wardrobe choice when standing at a keyboard. Still, her veritable joy at performing in a venue where she once worked in the box office was as heartwarming as her pipes.
“I’m pinching myself right now,” Brown admitted during her set, her grin ear to ear. “Ha ha ha, here I am at the Winspear!”
Not too shabby for a Lloydminster gal who noted Sunday night she’ll perform at Edmonton Folk Fest this summer. Ooh ooh!
- various, Canadian press