Sarah
Greene writes many of her sparse, country-tinged songs while biking around her
native Toronto. Her music and lyrics are direct and conversational, always
hummable - anything more complicated would be hard to remember by the time she
gets to the guitar or piano to add finishing touches. Greene’s indie-folk band
The Pickups (with The Sure Things’ Martin Crawford, Owen Keenan (Circle of Ill
Health, Wilder, Noon) and Signe Miranda) formed in 2003 and put out two CDs and
a single between 2005 and 2008 -- a self-titled LP, Highway single, and the EP Country
Houses, City Streets, toured Ontario and Quebec, and were warmly received
by local press. They shared stages with Basia Bulat, Ohbijou, Forest City
Lovers and Proof of Ghosts and charted on campus/community radio. The band’s
song "Country Houses" was chosen as a CBC Radio Song of the Day and was
also featured in the Globe & Mail's Essential Tracks section.
Greene's
warm vocal delivery recalls Kitty Wells, Iris Dement, Ruth Minnikin, and Julie
Doiron, though she grew up on Bob Dylan, Neil Young, The Velvet Underground and
Jonathan Richman. Her music show (Roadrunner) on Toronto’s CIUT 89.5 FM saw a
number of notable guests, including Jojo himself. After a stint in Halifax
studying journalism, Greene returned to Toronto in 2009 and re-immersed herself
in the music community as an open stage host, writer and performer.
Recorded
over three days in August at David
Celia’s Organica home studio in Mississauga, Toronto Blues is a short
debut solo album more or less about returning to Toronto, being single, and
being sad. That said, it’s not a sob story. Starting with horses in Halifax’s
shifting winter wind, and moving through Parkdale backyards, nostalgic summer
love, girlish crushes, and country song accusations, the album is a little like
the blues – funny, honest, plain, and sexy.
Multi-instrumentalist
David Celia (drums, guitars, ukulele), Montreal piano pop man Mike Evin and bassist Chris Banks brought their talents to
the recording, as did film and television composer Robert Carli (sax), violinist Gregory
Campbell and singers Abigail Lapell
and Ben Veneer.