DIRT: Colleen Brown has just released her 3rd full-length album of originals; Colleen Brown’s DIRT. The new album contains 13 indelible folk/pop gems, including the award winning composition Fight! Fight! Fight! (Harvard Broadcasting/New Music West 2011 Songwriting Award) and a co-write with Pierre Marchand (Sarah MacLachlan’s collaborator/producer). The songs are strung together seamlessly with a narrative written by the artist.
October 21st saw Colleen release the album at the Arden Theatre in St Albert with her 10-piece band; recorded and filmed for CBC Canada Live. The new album will also be feted with a couple of music video releases for Happy Love Song (filmed on an Edmonton City bus) and for Fight! Fight! Fight! (New Music West and Harvard Broadcasting song contest winner!)
“A strikingly diverse collection of vibrant, colorful (sm)art-pop from this Canadian singer and multi-instrumentalist deftly balances classic songwriter appeal with some inspired and energized — and dare we say just plain fun – tunecraft…”
– Dave Curtis, Direct Current
“If you just read her lyric sheet before hearing her, you’d likely place Brown in the rather crowded category of introspective female singer-songwriters. Her work transcends that niche, courtesy of her bright, powerful voice, one that has a widescreen pop feel… there’s plenty to enjoy while frolicking in this Dirt.”
- Kerry Doole, Exclaim.ca
“Vulnerable comes to mind in describing Brown’s third record, though it’s far too complex in feeling to be so simply tagged. This is due in large part to excellent supporting work from producer Ian Martin, her longtime rhythm section of Peter Hendrickson (drums) and Patrick Michalak (bass), as well as departing guitarist Peter Belec, but Brown is definitely the captain of this ship. While very much in the mould of ’70s song craft, filled with hummable melodies and irresistible rhythms, there’s also a manifesto to be found if you dig even slightly below the surface of Colleen Brown’s Dirt.”
- Tom Murray, The Edmonton Journal
About Colleen: Colleen is a singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist based out of Edmonton, AB, Canada. She has steadily gained momentum since she first self-released her 2nd album FOOT IN HEART in 2008, with regular airplay on CBC, CKUA and college stations across Canada (6 weeks in the !earshot Chart’s Top Ten folk/roots). An Alberta Emerging Artist Award followed, and various song placements- including a CBC Radio 2 TV Commercial (the song Love You Baby) and 2 full-length features 'Campus Radio' & ‘The Pharmacist’- both in theatres across Canada this fall.
FOOT IN HEART: was re-released in 2010 with Emm Gryner’s Dead Daisy Records & Outside Music, and Colleen toured extensively across Canada that year, playing music festivals, concert halls and clubs. Brown played 2010’s Edmonton Folk Fest, and has shared stages with Jakob Dylan, Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo, Hawksley Workman, Brandi Carlisle, Kathleen Edwards, Hannah Georgas, Dan Mangan, Frank Black, and Don MacLean, among others. She also toured across Canada last October with Canadian folk/rock icons Crash Test Dummies.
In addition Colleen was a winner in the 2010 All Albertan Song Contest for the song ‘Western Fire’, co-written with Colin Cripps. (Sarah MacLachlan, Kathleen Edwards, Blue Rodeo, Jim Cuddy Band)
OTHER PRAISE:
“a national treasure in the making – along the lines of Joni Mitchell, Anne Murray, Gordon Lightfoot or k.d.lang.”
- Sandra Sperounes, The Edmonton Journal
“the talents of this Edmonton-based musician shine like a beacon. Her boldly written originals…have the good bones and great melodic rhythm of classic big-screen pop songs from the sixties and seventies…”
- Robert Everett-Green, The Globe and Mail
“As clear and bracing as a sunny Albertan winter day, (the album) marks the Edmonton-based singer-songwriter…as a real contender.”
-Kerry Doole, Exclaim.ca
"[The album] sounds like some of the best music you heard on pop-radio back in the '70s...I love this album,”
- Rich Terfry (aka Buck 65) on CBC Radio 2 Drive
“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.”
– Fish Griwkowsky, See Magazine (re: Colleen’s opening slot for Frank Black)
“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. (They) deserve recognition for the anthems they are… Foot In Heart is a magnetic album and the whole planet should hear Colleen Brown roar.
- Aaron Brophy, CHARTattack