Set it Free - New Single from Land and Sea

The first single off Sarah's new double album Land and Sea is "Set It Free." The single is due for rotation on May 2nd according to recent article in Chart in which they met up with Sarah on the red carpet of the Junos.

At this time these is no other information on this song other then it coming from the Land album.

The interview also confirmed the exact album release date of Land and Sea being September 27, 2011.




Update: Dose.ca has put up a short red carpet interview of Sarah at the Junos talking about her performance and the new album.

Sarah playing at the Junos

As you may have heard Sarah will be playing at the Juno music awards this Sunday.  Details of the performance have now been released.

Sarah Slean and Jim Cuddy perform “If You Could Read My Mind” by Gordon Lightfoot.  The song is part of tribute titled Love Letter to Toronto.

More details can be found in this release:
http://ctvmedia.ca/ctv/releases/release.asp?id=13615&yyyy=2011

Sarah's New Quartet piece for Lucy Rupert

Yesterday was the first time Sarah's new string quartet piece for dancer Lucy Rupert was heard.  The free concert at The Canadian Opera Company's Richard Bradshaw theare was packed with an audience made up of both the young and old.

15 minute excerpt of the 30 minute piece was performed.  The title of the dance that will be shown at the Enwave Theatre is titled 'The animals are planning an intervention.'  The music that was was very well received was most closely comparable with The Disarm Suite.  In the Q&A session following the dance Lucy advised the first time she heard the song being played in rehersal she had a connection with it.

The song has been recorded by some familiar names of Sarah's past albums with  Drew Jurecka (The Baroness), Karen Graves  (Day One/Orphan Music/Blue Spruce) Kathleen Kajioka and Amy Laing (Art of Time).

Danceworks performance of the entire piece on April 7-9 at the Enwave Theatre.

Past Concerts at Hugh's Room

It appears that Sarah may have played in a tribute concert to Burt Bacharach last month at Hugh's Room in Toronto.

Sarah's name is not listed on the event flyer but is listed on the Hugh's Room event page.

"Singers Lori Cullen, Serafin, Coco Love Alcorn, Kathryn Rose, Kurt Swinghammer, and David Matheson join forces for one night to celebrate this rich sonic world. They’ll be interpreting timeless classics such as Close To You, I Say A Little Prayer, The Look Of Love, and Always Something There To Remind Me, and they’ll be backed up by an accomplished band comprised of Jann Arden, Ron Sexmith, and Sarah Slean alumni."

Last time Sarah played Hugh's Room was a benefit concert for Green Peace.  It happened to fall around the same time of the G20 summit in Toronto.  A review of that concert has been posted here:

Sarah covered Joni Mitchell's Woodstock once again.  Sarah also accompanied a 7 year old girl in what was described as very moving performance.  There was some indication that Greenpeace Canada may post a video of the act at some point.

Sarah to play with Symphony NS in 2012

On Friday April 13, 2012 Sarah returns to the Rebecca Cohn in Halifax for her debut performance with Symphony Nova Scotia.  The concert is part of their Maritime Fusion Concerts and tickets are currently available to season ticket holders.  General ticket sale starts on August 2nd of this year according to their program that got released today.

Symphony Nova Scotia's collaborations with other song writers in the past including Buck65 and Jenn Grant have been recorded by the CBC and the same might hold true for this concert.

At the time of the concert Sarah's double album 'Land and Sea' will be out and feature orchestrated arrangements for the Sea portion.  Not much else is known about this show at this time but I will post updates closer to key dates as the information comes available.

Sarah has had a history of playing with Orchestras across the country.  In 2004  she played a few of her songs from Day One with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.  Months later she would play the song The Score with National Arts Centre Orchestra at the Govenor General Awards.  In 2007 Sarah payed tribute to Joni Mitchell's music with the CBC Radio Orchestra and a year later she would play with Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.  Over the last few years Sarah has played a multiple of different shows and put out an album with The Art of Time Ensemble.  In May this year she will play with them again and in June she will do a live recording for album 'Sea' with Orchestra London (ON).

Sarah Slean covers Metric, Plaskett, Harmer (Video)

Last Saturday was the Juno Decades concert celebrating Canadian music of the 00s at the Horseshoe Tavern.  The sold out show featured a long list of Juno nominees and winners.

Sarah came on stage at various points in the night taking lead vocals to do covers of Sarah Harmer's "Basement Apartment", Joel Plaskett "Nowhere With You" and Metric's "Combat Baby."  In addition Sarah and Royal Wood supported Justin Rutledge on his cover of Arcade Fire's song "Wake Up."

Here is a video we can share of Sarah channeling her inner Emily Haines with Metric's Combat Baby.



Sarah Slean, Royal Wood and Darcy Yates (Great Lake Swimmers) did a Q&A last week with the National Post covering how the Canadian Music industry has changed from the 90s into 00.  You can read the article here.  http://arts.nationalpost.com/2011/03/02/road-to-the-junos-what-the-aughts-meant-for-canadian-music/