Carmel Mikol – Biography 2011
www.carmemikol.com
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If there’s any romance left in the old State highways. If there’s still a story in the Trans Canada. If there’s a legend to be found in a cluttered old bookstore, a crowded coffeehouse, or a stranger’s conversation. If there’s any power left in a folk song, Carmel Mikol is out to find it. And write about it.
A triple nominee at the 2011 East Coast Music Awards, Carmel has always been a songwriter. From her childhood on a family farm in rural Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, to her current "home" on the road, Carmel has built her life around crafting songs, collecting stories, and carving poetry out of the human experience. After a year of touring extensively across Canada and the US with her celebrated debut album "In My Bones", Carmel recently returned home to Cape Breton to create her newest recording "Creature".
An Americana-tinged confluence of acoustic and electric guitar, banjo, mandolin, and unaffected vocals, “Creature” was recorded live off the floor with her band at Cape Breton’s award winning Lakewind Sound Studio (Gordie Sampson/Fred Lavery). From the overtly political Twenty Something Girl to the deeply personal I Miss The Moon, “Creature” is a fresh take on traditional folk song fodder: wayward politics, social change, and poignant, fictional “true” stories. “I’m not sure which takes more courage for me – singing honestly about my losses or taking on newspaper headlines,” Carmel admits. Either way, the album reveals her as a truly unique voice in the Canadian songwriter landscape.
Carmel’s songwriting has garnered her international attention, winning the folk category in the 2010 Great American Song Contest and International Singer Songwriter Awards Song Contest. A fan favourite at festivals in Atlantic Canada and the US (Folk Harbour, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia; Deep Roots, Wolfville, Nova Scotia; 30-A Songwriters Fest, Florida), Carmel has shared stages with Garnet Rogers, Connie Kaldor, David Francey, David Myles, Meghan Smith, Jimmy Rankin, and Matt Anderson. In 2010, she performed in CBC’s Studio H for Concerts on Demand and developed and produced “Roots to the Future”, a new creation project for Cape Breton’s Celtic Colours International Festival. Carmel also participated in a month-long artist residency alongside four internationally acclaimed artists in the 2011 Escape To Create program (www.escape2create.org).
What They Said About “In My Bones”:
“Mikol's sure way with a melody, straddling country and folk traditions, is warm and organic… It announces her as a hardcore troubadour and a softcore cynic, winning either way.”
(Carsten Knox, The Coast)
“She reminds me of Judie Tzuke or Joni Mitchell… An impressive start, with hopefully more to come from this talented lady.”
(Phil Edwards, AmericanaUK)
"Full of life and personality, while her voice is clear, expressive and direct without overselling the emotion in her soul-bearing songs"
(Stephen Cooke, Halifax Chronicle Herald CD Pick of the Week)
"Great songs and a great new voice...not a bad track in the bunch."
(Dave Clarke, London Scene)