Amanda Falk’s new album, In Between the Now and Then was recently highlighted on The Weekend Morning Show on CBC Radio. Kinsey Posen had previously interviewed Amanda and discusses her life, award wins, and her new album on Manitoba Music Corner.

To hear the program, click on the link below:

http://www.cbc.ca/weekendmorning

Jacob Moon | Maybe Sunshine -release date: early November

Signpost Music is eagerly awaiting  copies of Jacob Moon’s new CD Maybe Sunshine. At this point the assumption is that we’ll have them in our hands by the end of the week. But in the meantime we asked Jacob to tell us a bit about the project. Below is the summary Jacob sent in as well as two mini-documentaries (about 5 minutes each) which has Jacob sharing about the songs and  letting you hear snippets of each one as well. Good idea Jacob! Thanks for the sneak peak.

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Six new songs are now available in the form of a little musical postcard I’m releasing called “Maybe Sunshine”. By doing fewer songs, I found myself at liberty to do more with them, and so the songs on this record are very personal, and have a more contemporary sound.

They certainly reflect where I am at these days, and the journeys I have been on…from heartbreak to optimism, from Hamilton to El Salvador, and from despair to hope. The theme of children is a predominant one here, since I have been advocating for those young ones living in poverty, on behalf of International Justice Mission and Compassion Canada. We’re also adopting over the next year(!), Lord willing. So that’s a new chapter for me, and has been filling my head with lots of fresh insights and inspiration.

You’ll hear my guitar alot on this record, as I spent more time than ever crafting the parts and layers at my home studio in Hamilton. Getting my hands dirty in the mixing and recording was really gratifying for me, and put me even more in touch with the process and the production, resulting in a more unified vision and a stronger record, I believe.

I hope you’ll consider picking up this bargain priced CD ($9.99) and making it your stocking stuffer of choice this year! It’s an inexpensive way to give the gift of music, and it will help make the next six songs possible…”

Peace,

~ Jacob Moon

Here is the Music Player. You need to installl flash player to show this cool thing!

Audio Preview #1

Here is the Music Player. You need to installl flash player to show this cool thing!

Audio Preview #2

• To learn more about Jacob and previous projects click HERE
• To view Jacob’s live video of the song Subdivisions (highly recommended) click HERE
• To view Jacob’s live video of the song Come Talk To Me (a must see) click HERE
• Pre-order Maybe Sunshine ($9.99)

Now Available:  Carolyn’s New Release “Love Was Here First”

Not only is Carolyn Arends an absurdly talented writer of upbeat songs and meaningful lyrics, she is also one of the nicest people I have ever met. I was at a house concert of hers last year, and she charmed us all. Everybody loves Carolyn, or should….

When I first listened to Carolyn’s new release, Love Was Here First, I found myself bopping around my office, inspired by the great beat and “big band” feel. I’m not a reviewer, but I know what I like – one of my favourite tunes is Something Out of Us. Listening more closely, I loved the line: You made cosmos out of chaos, you made Adam out of dust. You made wine out of water, you’ll make something out of us.

If you’re already a hardcore Carolyn Arends fan like my friend Susan (who is an uber-fan), you will love this album. If Carolyn Arends is new to you – give her a listen. You won’t be disappointed! Click on the link below for more information, to sample songs or to order.

Now Available: Love Was Here First…click HERE

by Signpost Staff, Faye Hall

• Click HERE to read Steve Bell’s overview of Carolyn’s new project and to listen to a full song from the album.

by Steve Bell

I am always astonished at how much Carolyn Arends can pack into a pop song. Her songs are consistently like those mythological abodes of fairy-tales that are magically bigger on the inside than they can possibly be from the outside.

Love Was Here First (release date: Oct 20 / 09) is Carolyn’s 6th career album and I have experienced it much the same as I have all her works:

• First listen – usually in a car where all nuances are rendered inaudible by  road noise. Conclusion:  great pop record. Clever lyrics. Good job Carolyn.

• Second listen – usually with headphones in a quiet space.  Conclusion: masterful production and arrangements.  Who’s the bass player? Wow.  Love the mature, melodic interplay and musicianship. Something is going on with these lyrics… must look closer at the lyrics.

• Third listen – headphones again with printed lyrics in hand. Conclusion: this is a deeply intelligent and thoughtful woman.  Gosh I wish I could write like that. What has she been reading?

• Fourth Listen - inspired, humbled, moved and grateful.

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Roy Salmond, Jesse Bell, Greg Reely, Steve and Carolyn

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What follows is hardly a review as I am not, in the slightest, an unbiased listener.   I’ve written a few thoughts about each song. But before that, you might as well just listen to a song from the disc.

I happened to be in Vancouver with my wife and son Jesse this summer as Carolyn was putting the last touches on her album.  She graciously asked if I’d be willing to sing some harmony vocals on a track and I was quite pleased to be part of it.  Here is Never Say Goodbye:

Here is the Music Player. You need to installl flash player to show this cool thing!

Click player (arrow) above to hear song.

Love Was Here First |Album Cover

Love Was Here First opens with a surprising lyric for a wordsmith: “Words fail, but I just keep talkin.” It’s as if Carolyn is wanting us to know, before all else, that she knows her own limitations  and the pretensions of her craft. The song itself,  Be Still, (ironically the bounciest track on the CD,) sets the tone that her confidence rests in God and is nurtured in stillness.

Standing in the Need of Prayer, an inventive swamp-roots adaptation of a traditional  spiritual, follows the opening track with the Louisiana-gospel singing of the Vancouver-based Sojourners and Gayle Salmond‘s  haunting country-blues descant.

My Favourite Lie is the song that first caught my ear lyrically. “I am a caterpillar who will not cocoon…feels like a tomb…. I will not die.“  And,  “I am a sucker for my favourite lie, that you don’t have to die to live the resurrection.“  Carolyn touches on the western preoccupation with resisting death at all costs; managing vulnerabilities at the expense of real living: “I am the girl who is sore afraid, that the life I’ve made’s no life at all.“  Adrian Walther’s bass on this track is wonderful, as is the signature Canadian-celtic melody line that let’s us know that  Spencer Capier‘s violin-voice is still a worthy favourite of Carolyn.

Something Out of Us is a brassy, bawdy, east-European romp that almost sounds like it could have been on the soundtrack of the movie Everything is Illuminated.  A fun, lighthearted track that explicitly carries the redemption theme  woven throughout the whole project. “You made cosmos out of chaos, you made Adam out of dust. You made wine out of water,  you’ll make something out of us.”

I Am a Soul – I think my favourite of the album; an introspective anthem that ponders the unquenchable hope of the human spirit:  “Why beauty? Why Poetry? Why no! no! no! to every tragedy?“  Later, “It’s in love songs, in symphonies… In funeral marches and in liturgies…It’s in whispers, in rally cries …In dreams that won’t say die.”

Willing is the obligatory prayer of personal dedication that properly belongs on every evangelical musical offering    Carolyn’s however, is lovely and compelling. Without the  bravado of  I Surrender All it humbly declares “I am willing – to be willing…. I am longing- for the longing.“  This is the prayer of one who has prayed the other many times and knows only too well the inevitable disappointment following such prayers.

Roll It – a fun, gospely number featuring again the harmony vocals of the Sojourners; reminiscent of the Rhymin’ Simon’s Loves Me Like a Rock. My only complaint about this track is that the soloing never really takes off like it seems to want to – feels a bit measured.

The Last Word: Spencier Capier’s ethereal lap-steel sonically sets this track apart. Lush vocals and classic Carolyn melody line makes for a memorable song that celebrates the primacy of love.

According to Plan – lyrically, wrestles with the question of how God’s intervention in history. “I’m not so sure that God moves everything… like pawns in  a chess game, or puppets on a string.” This could be the epicenter of the album as Carolyn insists (humbly) that God’s involvement in history is redemptive, not coercive.

Nothing Can Separate – a very singable folk/Celtic anthem of confidence in the scriptural promise: No foe – neither depth nor height… can separate us from the love of Christ.

Never Say Goodbye – you’ve already heard this one above. May I just point out once again the great job I did of the back-ground vocals

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Love Was Here First is scheduled to be released October 20.  I hope you’ll check it out.

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

Faye Hall

by Faye Hall, staff at Signpost Music who looks after web and retail sales as part of her many duties.

I can’t help but feel exhilarated and inspired as the Canada geese fly so low over my  house that I can hear their wings. The world God has made is so awesome – mere words can’t describe it. Mary-Kathryn recorded her own unique version of the old hymn “This is My Father’s World” on her newest album Dreams and Visions, called My Father’s World. The song really stood out to me as I listened to her arrangement which, combined with her beautiful voice has a ethereal quality to it that makes me think of heaven. Your can listen to this song by clicking the small arrow on the player…

It seemed a strange coincidence – but then again, there aren’t any coincidences where my heavenly Father is concerned -  that today I am recommending the album of the woman who originally wrote Unto the Least of These, another of my favourite songs on Steve’s Simple Songs album. I used the song as part of my first husband’s funeral service in 2002.

Mary-Kathryn

Mary-Kathryn’s new release, Dreams and Visions, is a little different than what Signpost has carried in the past. The genre is called World-Fusion and has an exotic quality and spacial ambiance  that is quite intriguing.  Lyrically, Mary-Kathryn tends toward intimate devotion and Scripturally-inspired hope and worship.

The legendary Marsh brothers, Hugh (violin) and Fergus (Chapman stick) who you may remember from several of Steve’s projects and tours, accompany Mary-Kathryn on the album.

We’re delighted to have Mary-Kathryn as the newest member of the Signpost family.  As an introductory offer, this album will be available in our store for the next few weeks at a special price. Listen to her music for yourself.

To view album and hear more song clips click HERE.

If you missed last week’s introduction to MK and a chance to hear the lead track from her album, click HERE

Mary-Kathryn’s Artist Bio

Steve Bell first met Mary-Kathryn and her husband Elliot in a hotel lobby in Nashville, Tennessee while attending a conference of Christian music industry professionals back in the mid-90′s.  Back then, Elliot ran an up-start record company called Rhythm House Records which ended up introducing Steve’s music to the US.

Mary-Kathryn

Mary-Kathryn is an accomplished singer/songwriter. She once invited Steve to sing a duet with her on a song she wrote called Unto the Least of These. Sound familiar?  Steve eventually taught it to his 16 year old daughter Sarah, and that song became her recording debut (on Simple Songs) which, in turn, led to Sarah and Steve recording a whole project together – Sons and Daughters.

All this is to give a bit of background to a long-time friendship and musical camaraderie.

Now Mary-Kathryn has a new project out and has given us permission to carry it at Signpost Music.  This new release, called Dreams and Visions, is a little different than what we’ve carried in the past. The genre is called World-Fusion and has an exotic quality and spacial ambiance  that is quite intriguing.  Lyrically, Mary-Kathryn tends toward intimate devotion and Scripturally-inspired hope and worship.

The production and musicianship on this project is excellent. Check it out for yourself. Click on the play button below to hear the opening track of the album. And yes, you are hearing the legendary Marsh brothers, Hugh (violin) and Fergus (Chapman stick) who you may remember from several of Steve’s projects and tours.

We’re delighted to have Mary-Kathryn as the newest member of the Signpost family.  As an introductory offer, this album will be available in our store for the next few weeks at a special price. But don’t just trust us.

Listen to the first track, Incense of Praise:  

To view album and hear more song clips click HERE.

Mary-Kathryn’s Artist Page

A delightful evening topped off with an outstanding performance.

Rei Hotoda debuted her much anticipated CD ‘Apparitions’  Thursday, December 4/08, at the Alexus Gallery in Winnipeg.

Rei Hotoda - CD Launch

A crowd nearing one hundred fans of the solo-pianist came to enjoy an evening that began with sushi prepared by the Japanese Cultural Society of Winnipeg (under the direction of Rei’s mom) and wine pairings poured by Fine Wines Manitoba. The gallery itself was visually stunning and prominently displayed the work of local artist and curator ‘Alexus’ of the Alexus Gallery. Alexus had begun work on two new paintings ‘Metamorphosi’ , and ‘Reflections In The Water’, inspired by the correspondingly titled songs on Rei’s album. Both paintings were displayed during the performance.

Rei Hotoda - CD Launch

Barbara Sedun (Manager, Sound Recording Programs/Manitoba Film and Sound) summed up the feeling of the guests nicely in this email: “Just wanted to thank you all again – I had a fabulous time last night – one of my most favourite music nights in a long time!!”

You can get more information on Rei Hotoda at reihotoda.com, or purchase the disc in the Signpost Music Online Store.