Artists
Leak of the weekEach week from January 4 - May 3 we will be announcing a festival artist on our 2010 roster. It's a great chance to familiarize yourself with new artists. This week:
Roberta Flack
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Natacha Atlas(Belgium) - Musically and geographically, Natacha Atlas has always been an itinerant. The daughter of a neurology lecturer of Egyptian descent and an English costume designer, Atlas was born in Belgium and grew up in a Moroccan suburb of Brussels, learning French, Arabic, Spanish and English, studying singing and the raq sharki (belly dancing) techniques she uses to dramatic effect today. The Anglo-Egyptian singer has spent more than a decade fusing electronic beats with North African and Arabic music, finding links between seemingly disparate musical genres, exploring new and different sonic settings and working with a wealth of like-minded collaborators, from Sarah Brightman to Transglobal Underground, Sinead O’Connor, Jah Wobble and avant-garde classical composer Jocelyn Pook. Presiding over it all is Atlas’s extraordinary, sensuous voice, which bridges Middle Eastern and Western styles, to create music that’s a triumph of true multiculturalism and a testament to the richness and accessibility of Arabic culture. |
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Greg Brown(USA) - With his road beaten Gibson, Brown is the folksinger of his generation and a gifted spokesman for it. His career spans over 40 years and 24 records and he’s also the founder of Red House Records, a key American independent folk music specialty record label. He's an open bible preacher's son and grandson of a poet. His roots run deep: to the land, to family, and to the richest and oldest veins of American music. Hillbilly country, black blues masters, and the history of American folk all resonate in his music. There are grooves from the Delta, from the plains and from the hills and a worldly hillbilly's take on the poetry of love. A wickedly sharp observer of the human condition, his songs have been performed by Willie Nelson, Jack Johnson, Carlos Santana, Michael Johnson, Ani DiFranco, Shawn Colvin, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Iris Dement and Joan Baez. |
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Roberta Flack(USA) - Respected and loved internationally as one of the greatest songstresses of our time, Grammy Award winning Roberta Flack has a wonderful ability to tell a story through her music. Her songs bring insight into our lives, loves, culture and politics, while effortlessly traversing a broad musical landscape from pop to soul to folk to jazz. Classically trained on the piano from an early age, Ms. Flack received a music scholarship at age 15 to attend Howard University. Discovered while singing at a Washington, DC nightclub, she was promptly signed to Atlantic With a string of hits (The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, Where Is the Love, Killing Me Softly With His Song, Feel Like Makin' Love, The Closer I Get to You and more) Ms. Flack has built a musical legacy. Very active as a humanitarian and mentor, Ms. Flack founded the Roberta Flack School of Music at the Hyde Leadership Charter School in the Bronx, providing an innovative and inspiring music education program to underprivileged students free of charge. |
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Shakura S'Aida(Switzerland / Canada) - Calling both Switzerland and Canada home since leaving the U.S. as a child, her involvement in the Canadian music scene spans 20 years, enriching the jazz, blues and classic R&B communities with her soulful voice, vibrant personality and commitment to music as an art form. Her dynamic live performances are infused with her signature voice and sultry musical interpretations. Whether she’s giving life to ‘40s and ‘50s blues, performing original songs that push the boundaries of that genre with her funky band, performing in stage productions, or acting in plays and film, she’s a force to be reckoned with. |
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Timber Timbre(ON) - Timber Timbre is Taylor Kirk, whose moniker is a play on the sound of his beat-up guitar (timbre) and the noise his father would yell (timber) when trees crashed on the Ottawa farm where he was raised. The elements are deceptively simple: a confident but hushed voice, understated guitar, strings and keyboard flourishes, and a subtle percussive beat for a sound that has evolved from dusty, low-fi bedroom blues to the sophisticated, cinematic studio work found on his third self-titled record on Arts & Crafts. |
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Ian Tyson(AB) - With ‘legend’ and ‘icon’ thrown around like loose change, Ian Tyson is a rare artist that can lay claim to these labels. His career began in the ’60s when he and Sylvia evolved into pioneers of country-rock with their band Great Speckled Bird. Over the course of his long career, this authentic, durable artist has forged a trail of musical innovation. He has hosted a TV show, recorded wonderful folk albums and been a rodeo rider and rancher before quitting the business and then returning to it with a vengeance in the mid-‘80s. Tyson has been able to combine his two separate lives in new songs that explained the reality of “western culture” and the mindset of a cowboy in a sometimes-alien world on his 2008 album Yellowhead to Yellowstone. They cover a range of emotions, personal reflections and stories around Alberta’s cultural landscape and the disappearing cowboy. |
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Respected and loved internationally as one of the greatest songstresses of our time, Grammy Award winning Roberta Flack has a wonderful ability to tell a story through her music. Her songs bring insight into our lives, loves, culture and politics, while effortlessly traversing a broad musical landscape from pop to soul to folk to jazz. 
