Cyndi Cain

Halifax's own neo-soul diva Cyndi Cain performed a flawless set of R&B tunes to a sold-out Friday night crowd. Recently awarded the Galaxie Rising Star Award, it was easy to understand why some are labelling this one-time Motown lounge singer the next Sharon Jones. Strutting across the stage in a curvaceous gold dress and towering heels, the young artist captured the audience's attention with her booming voice and spunky stage presence. Born into a religious family, the spiritual hometown singer-songwriter delivered a gospel inflected set that resembled a young Aretha Franklin, leaving those in attendance wondering why the sultry crooner hasn't become a household name yet. - Exclaim.ca

Halifax's own neo-soul diva Cyndi Cain performed a flawless set of R&B tunes to a sold-out Friday night crowd. Recently awarded the Galaxie Rising Star Award, it was easy to understand why some are labelling this one-time Motown lounge singer the next Sharon Jones. Strutting across the stage in a curvaceous gold dress and towering heels, the young artist captured the audience's attention with her booming voice and spunky stage presence. Born into a religious family, the spiritual hometown singer-songwriter delivered a gospel inflected set that resembled a young Aretha Franklin, leaving those in attendance wondering why the sultry crooner hasn't become a household name yet. - Exclaim.ca

Home is where the soul is.

That’s the message found in the deep grooves of Cyndi Cain’s new album, Soul Food. When she’s making your ears hum and your mouth water with the title track’s descriptions of beans and cornbread, or roti and ox tail, she’s talking about more than just home cooking with that tempting growl.

Mama’s in the kitchen and all is right with the world; you’re surrounded by loved ones and the sights, sounds and smells that make you feel like you’re right where you belong.

“That’s my life, my family and my friends, and the people around me,” says the local favourite R&B performer of her album, which she launches on the final night of the 2013 Halifax Jazz Festival, Saturday at the Marquee Ballroom, along with the Carson Downey Band and East Coast hip-hop dance company The Woods.

Home can be a relative thing when you’ve spent your life equally in two different places; a fixture on the Maritime scene since she started singing in the Maritimes in the late 1990s, Cain grew up in Toronto but spent summers with her grandparents and extended family in Halifax.

She made her first recording of note in 2000 when she appeared on the EMI Music Canada compilation 44N/63W: The East Coast Explosion, which also featured an early track by Classified as well as cuts by Jamie Sparks, Bonshah, Jorun and Shy Luv, and she’s been finding and defining her own voice ever since.

“I’ve always felt like I’m from here,” says Cain over coffee at Dartmouth’s Two If By Sea cafe, while subconsciously tapping her fingers to the beat of the Prince and Chic tunes playing in the background.

“Even when I’m in Toronto, I tell people that I’m ‘Scotian.’ It was hard there because most of the black folks there came from an island in the Caribbean or they’re from Africa, and they don’t understand the fact that there’s this strong community on the East Coast.

“I tell them I’m seventh-generation black Nova Scotian, and I’ve learned a lot more about my background when I moved back here at 21.”

After spending a few years kindling a music career in Toronto—years that also included working for a bank, driving a truck and singing Motown and Tina Turner covers (wig and all) at Club Med—Cain returned east and regrouped. She put together a band that includes keyboardist Kyle Farley, Norman Love on guitar, bassist Rheo Rochon (although Mike Ouellette will be sitting in this Saturday) and drummer Greg Hann, plus backing vocals by Chantal Bee and Charity Stairs.

And the music that sounds best live with their groove and Cain’s expressive pipes? Vintage soul and R&B that gets people moving and lets her express herself with maximum oomph.

“I think it was just the vibe of the band, that’s just how we were going,” she explains.

“A lot of the songs I chose to do, when we do covers, were by artists like Betty Wright, Aretha Franklin and a lot of older stuff, because I like that. They were feeling it too, and they love to play it, and it just kind of works. I love my band, and it’s great when we find songs that they click on.

“I think it comes across when I go up on stage, I’m leaving my heart out there. I’m just going to leave it up there, and I’m hoping (the listeners) feel where I’m coming from. ”

Cain knows there’s an audience out there for what she’s doing. Modern soul acts like Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings and Charles Bradley are continuing in the vein of classic Atlantic and Stax/Volt performers while addressing modern concerns and expressing true emotions in the process.

“I felt that’s exactly what Charles Bradley was doing when I saw him perform at the jazz fest last year; I was in awe,” says Cain, who had the honour of opening for Brooklyn’s Screaming Eagle of Soul in the Festival Tent.

“Then when we were backstage, he gave me this amazing piece of advice, he said, ‘You just stay true to yourself,’ and he said this really cool thing about how when he gets to heaven, he hopes to see me there. It was so moving I had to write it down.” - The Chronicle Herald

Home is where the soul is.

That’s the message found in the deep grooves of Cyndi Cain’s new album, Soul Food. When she’s making your ears hum and your mouth water with the title track’s descriptions of beans and cornbread, or roti and ox tail, she’s talking about more than just home cooking with that tempting growl.

Mama’s in the kitchen and all is right with the world; you’re surrounded by loved ones and the sights, sounds and smells that make you feel like you’re right where you belong.

“That’s my life, my family and my friends, and the people around me,” says the local favourite R&B performer of her album, which she launches on the final night of the 2013 Halifax Jazz Festival, Saturday at the Marquee Ballroom, along with the Carson Downey Band and East Coast hip-hop dance company The Woods.

Home can be a relative thing when you’ve spent your life equally in two different places; a fixture on the Maritime scene since she started singing in the Maritimes in the late 1990s, Cain grew up in Toronto but spent summers with her grandparents and extended family in Halifax.

She made her first recording of note in 2000 when she appeared on the EMI Music Canada compilation 44N/63W: The East Coast Explosion, which also featured an early track by Classified as well as cuts by Jamie Sparks, Bonshah, Jorun and Shy Luv, and she’s been finding and defining her own voice ever since.

“I’ve always felt like I’m from here,” says Cain over coffee at Dartmouth’s Two If By Sea cafe, while subconsciously tapping her fingers to the beat of the Prince and Chic tunes playing in the background.

“Even when I’m in Toronto, I tell people that I’m ‘Scotian.’ It was hard there because most of the black folks there came from an island in the Caribbean or they’re from Africa, and they don’t understand the fact that there’s this strong community on the East Coast.

“I tell them I’m seventh-generation black Nova Scotian, and I’ve learned a lot more about my background when I moved back here at 21.”

After spending a few years kindling a music career in Toronto—years that also included working for a bank, driving a truck and singing Motown and Tina Turner covers (wig and all) at Club Med—Cain returned east and regrouped. She put together a band that includes keyboardist Kyle Farley, Norman Love on guitar, bassist Rheo Rochon (although Mike Ouellette will be sitting in this Saturday) and drummer Greg Hann, plus backing vocals by Chantal Bee and Charity Stairs.

And the music that sounds best live with their groove and Cain’s expressive pipes? Vintage soul and R&B that gets people moving and lets her express herself with maximum oomph.

“I think it was just the vibe of the band, that’s just how we were going,” she explains.

“A lot of the songs I chose to do, when we do covers, were by artists like Betty Wright, Aretha Franklin and a lot of older stuff, because I like that. They were feeling it too, and they love to play it, and it just kind of works. I love my band, and it’s great when we find songs that they click on.

“I think it comes across when I go up on stage, I’m leaving my heart out there. I’m just going to leave it up there, and I’m hoping (the listeners) feel where I’m coming from. ”

Cain knows there’s an audience out there for what she’s doing. Modern soul acts like Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings and Charles Bradley are continuing in the vein of classic Atlantic and Stax/Volt performers while addressing modern concerns and expressing true emotions in the process.

“I felt that’s exactly what Charles Bradley was doing when I saw him perform at the jazz fest last year; I was in awe,” says Cain, who had the honour of opening for Brooklyn’s Screaming Eagle of Soul in the Festival Tent.

“Then when we were backstage, he gave me this amazing piece of advice, he said, ‘You just stay true to yourself,’ and he said this really cool thing about how when he gets to heaven, he hopes to see me there. It was so moving I had to write it down.” - The Chronicle Herald

Cyndi Cain's newest album, Soul Food, released Saturday, July 13 at the Marquee for the Jazz Festival, is a live off the floor, recorded straight to tape R&B wonder, and it came from a little pain, a little love and a lot of friendship.

"When I think soul food, I think community, it's not always food that I think about," says Cain. "I bring in stuff like family talking about problems, family laughing together, family dancing, all that. I'm the confidant of my friends and family, they know I'm the one that will take it to their grave, so a lot of my songs are about what they go through. They feed my soul."

Soul Food marks a shift from 2009's Essentially Cyndi's neo soul to a more nostalgic sound that made her opening slot at last year's Charles Bradley show at Jazz Fest a no-brainer. Like Candi Staton or Betty Wright, Cain's voice is evocative, whether raising goosebumps with a whisper or belting out a heart-wrenching refrain. In recent memory, successes of artists like Bradley and Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings signified a return to the feel-good throwback sounds to Cain's childhood. "I'm a child of the '70s, I like music that reminds me of my parents' parties," says Cain. "Getting put out cause it's grown folks time but sneaking down and seeing them partying and singing."

The songs on Soul Food would have been a hit at her parents' parties and that's in no small part to her dedicated band—Rheo Rochon, Charity Stairs, Chantal Bee, Norm Love, Greg Hann, Kyle Varley and Matt Myer—who have played with her for the last four years. "I feel like I'm in the magic band," she says. "They get me."

Beyond classic R&B, Cain's roots are in the church, there's a gospel song on Soul Food that she calls her "hymn", and there are even elements of rap on the album. No matter the genre, it's clear Cain was born to sing. "The first song I ever sang was 'Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah,'" she says, laughing. She had caught the bug. Giddy off her first original recorded track on the 44ºN/63ºW: The East Coast Explosion in 2000, Cain took off to Toronto, which luckily for those of us on the east coast, was short-lived. "I was just going there dreamy eyes, head in the clouds," she says. Cain returned and worked with Yvonne "Muzz" Marshall. "I used to do back up vocals for her," says Cain. "She's a mentor to me, and I miss her performing. She has a lot to do with my sound, I was always watching her while I did back ups. She mentored me in a big way."

Cain wishes her music to be the backdrop to other people's connection to home. "I envision family reunions, cook outs, playing cards, kids running everywhere." That said, it's not always lighthearted matters—being the unofficial vault for her friends and family sometimes takes a toll. "I have to let that out, it's pretty heavy stuff," says Cain. "Mostly about guys. I have some angry songs and that was me—I was pretty angry—but we've all been there. But now I have songs about my life that are happy, feel-good songs."

Giving back to the community also helps. Cain works as a student support worker, devoting every lunch hour to a choir made up of elementary students. "I got them singing and dancing, it's just so cute. We do 'Ain't no Mountain High Enough', 'Shackles' by Mary Mary," Cain says. "Anyhow I can push music in there, I do. I think it's so important."

"I just love to sing, that's all I want to do." - The Coast, Halifax's Weekly

Cyndi Cain's newest album, Soul Food, released Saturday, July 13 at the Marquee for the Jazz Festival, is a live off the floor, recorded straight to tape R&B wonder, and it came from a little pain, a little love and a lot of friendship.

"When I think soul food, I think community, it's not always food that I think about," says Cain. "I bring in stuff like family talking about problems, family laughing together, family dancing, all that. I'm the confidant of my friends and family, they know I'm the one that will take it to their grave, so a lot of my songs are about what they go through. They feed my soul."

Soul Food marks a shift from 2009's Essentially Cyndi's neo soul to a more nostalgic sound that made her opening slot at last year's Charles Bradley show at Jazz Fest a no-brainer. Like Candi Staton or Betty Wright, Cain's voice is evocative, whether raising goosebumps with a whisper or belting out a heart-wrenching refrain. In recent memory, successes of artists like Bradley and Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings signified a return to the feel-good throwback sounds to Cain's childhood. "I'm a child of the '70s, I like music that reminds me of my parents' parties," says Cain. "Getting put out cause it's grown folks time but sneaking down and seeing them partying and singing."

The songs on Soul Food would have been a hit at her parents' parties and that's in no small part to her dedicated band—Rheo Rochon, Charity Stairs, Chantal Bee, Norm Love, Greg Hann, Kyle Varley and Matt Myer—who have played with her for the last four years. "I feel like I'm in the magic band," she says. "They get me."

Beyond classic R&B, Cain's roots are in the church, there's a gospel song on Soul Food that she calls her "hymn", and there are even elements of rap on the album. No matter the genre, it's clear Cain was born to sing. "The first song I ever sang was 'Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah,'" she says, laughing. She had caught the bug. Giddy off her first original recorded track on the 44ºN/63ºW: The East Coast Explosion in 2000, Cain took off to Toronto, which luckily for those of us on the east coast, was short-lived. "I was just going there dreamy eyes, head in the clouds," she says. Cain returned and worked with Yvonne "Muzz" Marshall. "I used to do back up vocals for her," says Cain. "She's a mentor to me, and I miss her performing. She has a lot to do with my sound, I was always watching her while I did back ups. She mentored me in a big way."

Cain wishes her music to be the backdrop to other people's connection to home. "I envision family reunions, cook outs, playing cards, kids running everywhere." That said, it's not always lighthearted matters—being the unofficial vault for her friends and family sometimes takes a toll. "I have to let that out, it's pretty heavy stuff," says Cain. "Mostly about guys. I have some angry songs and that was me—I was pretty angry—but we've all been there. But now I have songs about my life that are happy, feel-good songs."

Giving back to the community also helps. Cain works as a student support worker, devoting every lunch hour to a choir made up of elementary students. "I got them singing and dancing, it's just so cute. We do 'Ain't no Mountain High Enough', 'Shackles' by Mary Mary," Cain says. "Anyhow I can push music in there, I do. I think it's so important."

"I just love to sing, that's all I want to do." - The Coast, Halifax's Weekly

ANSMA gala honours freshAn inspired mix of voices from black performers, honourees

Cyndi Cain performs at the African Nova Scotian Music Awards gala on Saturday night in Casino Nova Scotia’s Schooner Room in Halifax. (TED PRITCHARD / Staff)






Stevie Wonder might be superstitious, but the 13th annual African Nova Scotian Music Awards gala showed only evidence of good luck and hard work from the performers and honourees on Saturday night.A packed house in Casino Nova Scotia’s Schooner Room enjoyed a celebration of the province’s black talent that also doubled as a local kick-off event for 2011 as the International Year of People of African Descent.
"(This year) is a chance to show leadership at a time when the eyes of the world are on people of African heritage," said guest of honour Lt.-Gov. Mayann Francis as the show got underway, hosted with a boisterous sense of humour by Robert Upshaw and Charla Williams.

But the evening made clear that the ears of the world are also important, and open to hearing the region’s experienced and burgeoning performers of soul and pop, blues and jazz.

The awards began with a fresh face, 18-year-old Reeny Smith, who earned the Up and Coming Award and displayed some impressive vocal power on her song The Simple Things.

"I feel like I’m on the right path, this is really encouraging," said the North Preston performer and recent recipient of the Nova Scotia Talent Trust’s Portia White Award. "There are lots of things I could be getting into right now, but this is a good motivator."

Smith’s music also motivated some listeners to pump their fists in the air as the petite diva knocked a mighty note out of the park, although after her performance Williams chided the audience for letting the swanky surroundings limit their enthusiasm to polite applause.

"If we’re not going to celebrate, we might as well give the year back. And I’m not giving the year back," she said with a note of mock severity.

There was also a chiding tone in the voice of award presenter and former ANSMA president Ed Matwawana, but he wasn’t joking when he announced that the East Coast Music Awards wouldn’t include a category for African-Atlantic Canadian artists at this year’s ceremony in Charlottetown in April due to a lack of submissions.

"We have the artists, we have the albums, all it would take is one phone call to ANSMA, and we could have a category," said Matwawana after the gala, suggesting the snub could become a bigger issue as the ECMAs draw nearer.

Another female voice that’s already earning wider recognition on the East Coast, Lower Sackville singer-songwriter Chelsea Nisbett, earned the artist of the year award for her unique soul-infused pop/rock, as displayed in her impassioned performance of I’m Not Going Anywhere with the gala house band, led by bassist Bruce Burton.

"It’s scary at first, you don’t know how people are going to react," said Nisbett, whose spiritual tunes fill the recent CD Anchored Roots. "Now I know this is what I’m supposed to be doing; I trusted God to open doors and he’s opening doors."

Dutch Robinson may have a new CD, titled Life, but he’s not a new kid on the block, and the veteran soul survivor was honoured with the Black Business Initiative’s Industry Development Award for his role as a musical mentor and ambassador for the region, touring the world as a cast member of Drum! as well as performing and recording locally.

The South Bronx native said the award confirmed his decision to settle in Nova Scotia in 1998 and become part of a deeply ingrained music scene.

"I came here and it’s been nothing but an uphill thing for me," said Robinson, who opened the show with a cross-generational collaboration with rapper J-Bru. "I’ve grown and watched other people grow along with me."

"I’ve been living here for 13 years, I didn’t realize they’d taken me to be like family. It feels good to be accepted."

There was also much love in the room for Rising Star Award winner Marko Simmonds, the only performer to get the entire crowd on its feet with insistent beat of Dance With Me, while Cyndi Cain paid emphatic homage to classic ’70s R&B--sporting a vintage soul sister hairdo--on The Old School.

Among the evening’s artists, the most emotional moment was provided by spoken word collective Word Iz Bond member El Jones, who described black music as "the sound of sacrifices."

Her piece reinforced the importance of remembering its heritage going back to the days of slavery, even as hip-hop goes from being banned at the Grammys to powering car commercials over the past three decades.

Other ANSMA Awards of Excellence included the Lifetime Achievement Awards for the late pioneer R&B and gospel musician Donald "D.J." Jefferies, a veteran of CBC-TV’s Frank’s Bandstand and groups like the Rain Drops and the Mission Band, and the hard working electric blues trio the Carson Downey Band. The Pioneer Award honoured Halifax’s Adams Brother - By STEPHEN COOKE Entertainment Reporter Mon, Jan 10 - 7:11 AM

Coughlan’s band, symphony, soulful singers bring Motown to Cohn
By STEPHEN PEDERSEN Arts Reporter CONCERT REVIEW
While mostly content to roar their enthusiasm from their seats in the sold-out Rebecca Cohn Auditorium for Symphony Nova Scotia’s Traditional Pops Series Motown show on Friday night, the audience went a little nuts when Dutch Robinson urged them to get it on for the final tune, Marvin Gaye’s Dancing in the Street.

There’s a lot of finger-snapping, arm-pumping and hip-thrusting required by that R&B Motown beat and those bluesy soul harmonies so most of the 900-plus fans didn’t bother with the aisles. They just stood and boogied. All over the house. A lake of boiling bodies.

The lanky Robinson, boxer-built Tony Smith and the diminutive Cindy Cain headlined the show which included more than 20 Motown hits, leaning more than once on Gaye and Stevie Wonder, and scoring big with My Girl (Smokey Robinson and Ronald White), followed with a quick change-up of tempo by Cain’s smoky tribute to My Guy (also Robinson, and Mary Wells’s biggest hit).

Halifax tenor saxophonist Brian Coughlan wrote all but one of the arrangements for the orchestra, and they were first-rate. He kept things simple and imaginative, using strings and winds with a nice sense of colour, especially on the ballads, and reserving a hot rhythm/horn section including both SNS trumpets and trombone with his band for the up-tempo tunes. When all the horns played in unison on Wonder’s Sir Duke, for example, with Jamie Gatti doubling the tune on bass guitar, the sound was rich and funky. Irresistible.

Coughlan’s band included Dave Staples on piano, Al Macumber on guitars, Tom Roach on congas and a subtle but nevertheless funky, tambourine, and Dave Burton on drum kit.

The whole show, staffed entirely by local musicians, was put together by SNS cellist Shimon Walt’s agency, Walt Music and conducted by Dinuk Wijeratne. It also included back-up singers Michelle Gill and a groovin’ Carl Thomas.

Robinson, as we know, has a real gift for the Motown sound. His flexible voice soars effortlessly into an intense falsetto that drives crowds wild with delight. As an emcee he is spontaneous and winning, though a little too prone, on this occasion, at least, to take Sexual Healing as his motif for repeated jocular warnings to the men in the audience. He had an annoying habit of shouting, ”Are you having a good time?” which performers often use when they want to whip up enthusiasm in a crowd. To judge from the shouts and whistles he got every time, I was the only sourpuss in the house. Ah well.

Toronto’s Cain, a relative newcomer to the Halifax scene, though her pedigree is Nova Scotian, was a pure delight. With her ability to modulate from sweetness to soulfulness and her warmth of tone and style, it is little wonder she won the 2001 African Nova Scotia Music Association award for best R&B artist. We just need to hear her sing more often.

Tony Smith’s singing talent is still developing, but he’s on his way. He sang most of the leads in the second half and scored high on Sir Duke, a show stopper with horns, drums, guitars and pianos only, which had the members of the symphony clapping and snapping. Their delighted smiles and animated body language proved that Motown demolishes any imagined barriers between it and classical music. A great groove is a great groove, whether it’s Motown or Mozart.

( spedersen@herald.ca)

- Stephen Pederson

Coughlan’s band, symphony, soulful singers bring Motown to Cohn
By STEPHEN PEDERSEN Arts Reporter CONCERT REVIEW
While mostly content to roar their enthusiasm from their seats in the sold-out Rebecca Cohn Auditorium for Symphony Nova Scotia’s Traditional Pops Series Motown show on Friday night, the audience went a little nuts when Dutch Robinson urged them to get it on for the final tune, Marvin Gaye’s Dancing in the Street.

There’s a lot of finger-snapping, arm-pumping and hip-thrusting required by that R&B Motown beat and those bluesy soul harmonies so most of the 900-plus fans didn’t bother with the aisles. They just stood and boogied. All over the house. A lake of boiling bodies.

The lanky Robinson, boxer-built Tony Smith and the diminutive Cindy Cain headlined the show which included more than 20 Motown hits, leaning more than once on Gaye and Stevie Wonder, and scoring big with My Girl (Smokey Robinson and Ronald White), followed with a quick change-up of tempo by Cain’s smoky tribute to My Guy (also Robinson, and Mary Wells’s biggest hit).

Halifax tenor saxophonist Brian Coughlan wrote all but one of the arrangements for the orchestra, and they were first-rate. He kept things simple and imaginative, using strings and winds with a nice sense of colour, especially on the ballads, and reserving a hot rhythm/horn section including both SNS trumpets and trombone with his band for the up-tempo tunes. When all the horns played in unison on Wonder’s Sir Duke, for example, with Jamie Gatti doubling the tune on bass guitar, the sound was rich and funky. Irresistible.

Coughlan’s band included Dave Staples on piano, Al Macumber on guitars, Tom Roach on congas and a subtle but nevertheless funky, tambourine, and Dave Burton on drum kit.

The whole show, staffed entirely by local musicians, was put together by SNS cellist Shimon Walt’s agency, Walt Music and conducted by Dinuk Wijeratne. It also included back-up singers Michelle Gill and a groovin’ Carl Thomas.

Robinson, as we know, has a real gift for the Motown sound. His flexible voice soars effortlessly into an intense falsetto that drives crowds wild with delight. As an emcee he is spontaneous and winning, though a little too prone, on this occasion, at least, to take Sexual Healing as his motif for repeated jocular warnings to the men in the audience. He had an annoying habit of shouting, ”Are you having a good time?” which performers often use when they want to whip up enthusiasm in a crowd. To judge from the shouts and whistles he got every time, I was the only sourpuss in the house. Ah well.

Toronto’s Cain, a relative newcomer to the Halifax scene, though her pedigree is Nova Scotian, was a pure delight. With her ability to modulate from sweetness to soulfulness and her warmth of tone and style, it is little wonder she won the 2001 African Nova Scotia Music Association award for best R&B artist. We just need to hear her sing more often.

Tony Smith’s singing talent is still developing, but he’s on his way. He sang most of the leads in the second half and scored high on Sir Duke, a show stopper with horns, drums, guitars and pianos only, which had the members of the symphony clapping and snapping. Their delighted smiles and animated body language proved that Motown demolishes any imagined barriers between it and classical music. A great groove is a great groove, whether it’s Motown or Mozart.

( spedersen@herald.ca)

- Stephen Pederson