by Steve Bell

While on the road this last weekend in Alberta, Carolyn Arends emailed me with news that her new CD is in manufacturing and will be available for release October 20th. I was a little surprised. And delighted. I thought it would be several more weeks yet.

Back in August Nanci and I were in Vancouver area, dropping my son Jesse off at the the U of Vic (click HERE for sappy blog from a teary dad). Carolyn was then in full production on the new disk and asked, since I was in the neighborhood, if I could sing on one of the tracks. So, I had the opportunity then to preview her new project a bit. Now I have the whole thing on my iPod and the first listen confirms what I’ve always known, that Carolyn is a master songwriter.  The title track, Love Was Here First, is classic. The project itself cuts a wide berth with full-on pop horns and bouncy melodies to immediate and intimate devotional ballads.

At Whitewater Studios in Surrey

Back: Roy Salmond (co-producer), Jesse Bell (my son), Greg Reely (mixing engineer). Front: Carolyn and me.

Listening

I’ll listen a few more times and write a better review (unbiased I’m sure) for next week. I’ll also pick a song for you to listen to. And by the following week we should have copies in hand.

For artists there’s always such (terrified) energy surrounding a new release as we wait for initial responses. Carolyn has nothing to worry about.  More next week…

Related Carolyn Arends Articles:

• This is Who You Are – watch live video of Carolyn Arends and Steve Bell performing song.

• Meeting Carolyn Arends – by Steve Bell

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In the meantime, note that several Signpost artists have new projects coming out this fall:

Bob Bennett is finishing a Christmas CD. To read Bob’s description and song list click HERE.

Jacob Moon is about to release his new EP. If you haven’t yet seen Jacob’s brilliant video of his solo-acoustic rendition of Rush’s epic Subdivisions, click HERE to view.

Jon Buller‘s long anticipated next project is in the final mixing stages. To listen to a track from his previous CD click HERE.

Kevin Ramessar‘s instrumental guitar project will be ready for late fall.  Most of you will be unfamiliar with Kevin. But we hope to change that. He’s a truly beautiful guitarist.

Finally, we were hoping that Amanda Falk‘s new CD would be ready before Christmas but that’s not looking likely right now.  Fingers crossed. We’ll keep you posted.

- Steve