Read about it here now!
Meghan Patrick releases Grace & Grit with “Nothing but a Song”
Debuted during the closing ceremonies of the 2015 PanAm Games in Toronto, “Nothing but a Song,” cowritten by Meghan Patric, Hill Kourkoutis, Chris Perry and Andrea England was released on April 29, 2016 on Patrick’s debut smash, Grace & Grit, which hit #1 on the iTunes Canadian Country Chart on its day of release!
Get Grace & Grit on iTunes here!
Zameer releases “Take” single & video in the U.S.
Jack Daniel’s Presents “Four Chords and The Truth” Songwriter Series
FOUR CHORDS &THE TRUTH: New series of “in the round” sessions featuring songs and songwriters starts June 18 @ Dakota Tavern
QUICK SUMMARY
A new quarterly series of “in the round” sessions with leading songwriters — modelled on Nashville’s famous Bluebird Cafe sessions but with a greater range of musical genres — debuts at Toronto’s Dakota Tavern on June 18. The series is called Four Chords & the Truth.
Organized and hosted by songwriter Andrea England, the series has an accurate descriptive subtitle: Where Songwriters Sing and Tell. The first concert will feature Colin MacDonald, the lead singer of The Trews, hit writer Liz Rodrigues (who’s contributed to records by Eminem, Pink, Dan Hill and Celine Dion among others), and blues-based songwriter and harmonica player Paul Reddick.
The next event in the series will take place at the Dakota on September 17.
FAST DETAILS
WHO: Liz Rodrigues, Colin MacDonald, Paul Reddick and Andrea England.
WHAT: Four songwriters share the stage and tell stories about the songs they’ll sing.
WHEN: Thursday June 18, 7 p.m. sharp — 9.00 p.m. (doors open 6:00 p.m.)
WHERE: Dakota Tavern, 249 Ossington at Dundas St. W.
TICKETS: $12.00 in advance at Ticketfly: https://www.ticketfly.com/
BACKGROUND STORY
Inspired by the “in the round” sessions on Canada’s East Coast and in Nashville, Andrea England wanted to established a regular grass-roots series in Toronto, but wanted to present a wider range of music.
“It’s a rare opportunity to hear bare-bones versions of songs — from different genres — and the stories that inspired them,” said England. “When you break songs down this way, it’s easy to see that at the end of the day, they’re all ‘folk’ songs and we’re all just folk singers.”
The first participants are:
• Liz Rodrigues has contributed to some of the biggest selling records of the past decade, including Eminem’s Grammy-winning #1 album, Recovery, Celine Dion’s The Ultimate Collection and Pitbull’s Rebelution.
• Colin MacDonald is the principal songwriter and lead singer of Juno-nominated and multiple ECMA-winning Canadian band, The Trews. His co-writing credits include songs with Tim Chaisson, The Meds, Simon Wilcox, Gordie Johnson and Gavin Brown.
• Paul Reddick is a blues-based singer, songwriter and harmonica player with a music career that goes back 20 years, with seven albums of original music. A frequent Maple Blues Awards nominee, he recently founded the Cobalt Prize to honour contemporary blues compositions.
• Andrea England, Nova Scotia-born and Toronto-based, will host the series. She works successfully in two different music worlds, recording and performing as a solo roots/country artist while placing songs with pop stars and emerging country artists. She’s earned honours in the John Lennon, NSAI, USA and the International Songwriting competitions, and her songs have been featured in major TV series as well as feature films.
The series is presented in partnership with Jack Daniel’s Canada, and supported by SOCAN (the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada).
For further information, contact Richard Flohil & Associates or Andrea England
To sign up for the Four Chords & the Truth Mailing list, follow this link!
Four Chords and the Truth: Andrea launches new songwriter series at the Dakota Tavern
Four Chords and the Truth: Where Songwriters Sing and Tell is a series of songwriter showcases to be held quarterly in Toronto at the Dakota Tavern, featuring a blend of top notch songwriters and songs in an intimate environment. Each show is hosted by award-winning songwriter Andrea England and will feature 3 three nationally and/or internationally acclaimed songwriters (and maybe a surprise guest or two). The songs are performed “in the round,” a style made famous by Nashville’s Bluebird Café, in which all four songwriters share the stage at once, each introducing and performing one song acoustically per round for a series of 3 rounds.
The first show in these “Dakota Confessions” features Liz Rodrigues, Colin MacDonald, and Paul Reddick. For more information on these songwriters and the show, click on the poster image!
Twin Kennedy releases “It’s A Love Thing” with two Andrea England cowrites
West Coast dynamic duo Twin Kennedy released their new album “It’s a Love Thing” today, cracking the Canadian iTunes top 100 right out of the gate. The album, produced by George Canyon and Graham Sharkey, contains two tracks cowritten by Andrea: the energetic album opener,”Get Back Up Again,” a collaboration between Carli & Julie Kennedy, Andrea and David Leask, and the album’s emotional closing track, “I Never Will,” written by the twins and Andrea.
Buy your iTunes copy today!
Hope & Other Sins – #1 on FolkRoots chart!
After spending a number of years writing songs for pop stars and indie country, pop & blues artists, Andrea England is riding the wave of her critically acclaimed CD produced by award winning producer/ guitarist Colin Linden (Blackie & the Rodeo Kings, Bruce Coburn, Emmylou Harris) and featuring such special guest musicians as Bruce Brody (Lone Justice, Rickie Lee Jones), Dan Dugmore (James Taylor), Carolyn Dawn Johnson (Miranda Lambert) and Gordie Sampson (Carrie Underwood, Kacey Musgraves).
“Hope & Other Sins,” has topped the GalaxyFolk Roots chart late and was the fifth most played album on their year-end chart. With roots radio support across Canada and critical acclaim from US and Canadian press, England is set to release her first US single, “Laundry” to radio in June 2014.
Here’s what folks are saying:
“Andrea continues to prove her talent with words is no flash in the pan. The stories are decorated in wonderful images and turn of phrase. Many songwriters sing and write fairly good melodies but to catch that ear with a clever line in a lyric over and over is talent of a rare kind. Joni Mitchell has it, Dylan, Leonard Cohen, John Prine, Lucinda Williams and several others – who are famous. Despite still flying below their radar, Andrea deserves the special attention for her detailed, concise writing ability and fine voice. She is economical in her approach but the recipe is flavorful, consistent and memorable.” – John Apice, No Depression
“…This makes the world a better place. If there’s a Juno for unaffected innocence it should go to this second release by Sand Point, Nova Scotian born singer/songwriter, coming off a seven year hiatus since the 2005 debut release of her debut, Lemonade. Hope & Other Sins 10 neatly crafted country leaning-songs are tunefully melodic and believable in their straightforward narratives. The now-Toronto based artist has the enviable quality of sounding exactly like the characters she’s created…” – Peter Goddard, The Toronto Star
For more info, visit www.andreaengland.com!
Roveena records “Love will Light the Way”
Toronto-based Roveena has recorded “Love Will Light the Way,” written by Andrea England, Liz Rodrigues, and Luke McMaster for her debut recording, Perfect World, and the reviews are in:
“The debut EP of Sri Lankan born Roveena is intoxicating, dramatic and emotionally provocative” (Ponoka News).
“This sets it apart from the majority of pop music churned out by record companies these days” (Yorkton This Week).
Buy your iTunes copy today!
Killer Love goes GOLD in the UK!
Earlier this week, Andrea was excited to receive a gold record certification for her contribution of “Casualty” (A.England/Liz Rodrigues, Maven Boys/Bo-i1da) to Nicole Scherzinger’s (Pussy Cat Dolls) debut solo album Killer Love, which has sold well in excess of 100,000 records in the UK!
Melissa Bel’s “Don’t Forget to Breathe”
I’m excited to introduce you to Melissa Bel’s new record “Don’t Forget to Breathe” which contains 3 songs cowritten by Melissa, me and Arun Chaturvedi. Check out “Homeless”, “All the Wrong Things,” and “C’est La Vie” here!
