Sarah recordes with the Art of Time Ensemble

Sarah Slean played 2 concerts with Sarah Slean in 2007. The first show was the Schubert Source and Inspiration concert and the second show was Sarah covering her favourite Toronto song writers with the backing of the classical musicians.

When this year's similar concert was being done with Steven Page, Andrew Burashko,
the director of Art of Time was quoted in the June 20th Globe and Mail saying:

"We did it last year with Sarah Slean, which worked like a dream, and we just recorded that." - Globe and Mail

A follow up on that quote revealed that Sarah recorded the "Toronto Song Book" songs with the Art of Time Ensemble in February with the album release date for 2009.

I'm sure more information will be available closer to the release. We have seen release dates of projects come and past without releases for The Tales of The Baroness DVD, Black Widow DVD, and Sarah's score book. Keep an eye on littleslean news for more information.

Both Concerts Sarah did with the Art of Time Ensemble were commissioned by the CBC and were played on CBC Radio 2 and hosted online. The links to those concerts have been removed but here is the text for the Toronto Song Book.

1 Hey That's No Way to Say Goodbye - Leonard Cohen (songwriter), Gavin Bryars (arranger) 4:21
2 Lodestar - Sarah Harmer (songwriter), Roberto Occhipinti (arranger) 5:56
3 Dandelion Wine - Ron Sexsmith (songwriter), Aaron Davis (arranger) 6:26
4 To Cry About - Mary-Margaret O'Hara (songwriter), Bruce Cassidy (arranger) 6:13
5 Stride - Hayden (songwriter), Finn Manniche (arranger) 4:23
6 Monarch - - Leslie Feist (songwriter), Cameron Wilson (arranger) 6:07
7 Old Photographs - Christos Hatzis (composer) 10:58
8 Tango a la Burashko - Phil Dwyer (composer) 10:36
9 I Don't Need More - Kathryn Rose (songwriter), Phil Dwyer (arranger) 5:59
10 Black Flowers - Lynn Miles (songwriter), Kevin Fox (arranger) 5:16
11 Eyes Are the Flowers - John Southworth (songwriter), Michael Occhinpinti (arranger) 7:21
12 No More Named Johnny - Hawksley Workman (songwriter), Shelly Berger (arranger) 6:22
13 I'll Never Tear You Apart - Martin Tielli (songwriter), Johnathan Goldsmith (arranger) 6:22
14 Dress Rehearsal Rag - Leonard Cohen (songwriter), Jim McGrath (arranger) 9:01
15 Lonely Side of the Moon - Sarah Slean (songwriter) 5:05

Montreal Interview with Sarah Slean (Video)

A video of Sarah playing and being interviewed at Club Soda during the Montreal Jazz Festival has been put online.

You can view the video here in English or the version en Francais.

A show a charitable show she did later that day was played live on Q92 FM in Montreal.

Secondly, it does not appear that Sarah Slean's sets at Hillside are part of CBC Radio 2's presentation from Hillside being played this Friday.

Beautiful Noise / The Berkley Sessions Air Date

Sarah's TV recorded performance from The Berkley Church in Toronto will be played on Bravo! TV on September 24th. We first reported this show in March as part of the Beautiful Noise taping taking place April 1st. The news alert seems to support that Sarah's performance will not be part of the Beautiful Noise series but under the new program "The Berkley Sessions". The show was filmed in high definition and Sarah played almost a complete set with her band.

THE BEREKLEY SESSIONS
(World Television Premiere) – Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT, beginning September 10
Taped at Toronto’s intimate Berkeley church, this series showcases musical performances from an eclectic group of singers and musicians. The six-part series features performances by indie-rock father-son duo Bill and Joel Plaskett (Sept. 10); alt-country artist Jon Langford (Sept. 17); pop singer Sarah Slean (Sept. 24); neo-southern country-gothic artist Jim White (Oct. 1); and acoustic guitar virtuoso Kaki King (Oct. 8).

- CTV / Bravo media Alert for September 2008

Sarah Slean covered on Canadian Idol (again)

Last year Sarah Slean's Sweet Ones was covered on Canadian Idol. Sarah looked up the video on YouTube to see Carly Ray Jespen's version. The song was also covered during the Toronto Week editions.

This week Theo Tams covered the track.




Idol was not the only place to spot Sarah's been promoted lately.

Today posters of her promoting the Baroness were up in Toronto. Lady Dedlock on Sarah's forum also noted that a clip of Sarah from the Get Home video was projected over the Parliament Buildings. Lastly, Alanis Morissette appears to be continuing to praise Sarah and the album The Baroness.

Update 2008-09-15
Theo did win Canadian Idol and has gone back to playing Sweet Ones on a few occassions to which some have been posted on YouTube. Here is a link to him playing it live on Canada AM.

Sarah added to the BC Roots and Blues Festival

Following performances at the Montreal Jazz Festival and Guelph's Hillside Music Festival, Sarah has been added to the Roots and Blues Festival according to the festival site.

The Festival takes place August 15-17th.

At the time of publishing, this date has not been confirmed on SarahSlean.com. This show has been confirmed on SarahSlean.com as of August 1st.

SarahSlean.com has confirmed that Sarah will be playing at the Niagara Grape and Wine Festival in St. Catharines, ON on September 21, 2008.

Sarah Slean - Hillside 2008 Set Lists

hillside 200
Originally uploaded by Flare

As promised, here is a review for both of Sarah's Hillside sets this year.

Saturday 2008-07-26, 5:45 Main Stage Show

1. California
2. Euphoria
3. Get Home
4. Hopeful Hearts
5. Lucky Me (Jazz ver.)
6. When Another Midnight (Jazz ver.)
7. No Place at All
8. Notes From the Underground
9. Sound of Water

Sunday 2008-07-27 - 4:00 The Sun Stage

1. All My Trials (Bahmian lullaby, v. Joan Beaz)
2. Looking for Someone
3. Untitled (A minor, G, F, A minor) - Sheila Grunner with Sarah on Piano
4. Abide With Me (Henry Francis Lyte, 1847)

Both sets seemed to end very shortly and Sarah appeared to be ready to play another song during her Sunday set but was out of time. For Saturday's set Sarah sat at mini grand piano and was joined by the same band that joined her on the Books and Ballgowns tour. For the Sunday workshop she played an electric piano and was sometimes joined by Sheila Grunner (Black Cabbage) playing violin.

Saturday's main set was filmed in entirety by a professional camera. I was not able to confirm with the camera man how the recording will be used as he was always busy recording other sets when I saw him. There was no mention of CBC presenting either of Sarah's sets but all stages are recorded and CBC Radio 2 will be doing a highlights special on I believe August 22.

More photos of Sarah at Hillside can be found on Flickr. The photo featured, hillside 200 was Originally uploaded by Flare

Sarah @ The Hillside Music Festival

Sarah's back at the Hillside Music Festival in Guelph Ontario this weekend. In addition to her Saturday night main stage show, she will be playing hosting lullaby workshop on Sunday.

Sunny Stage Lullabies Sarah Slean (host) with Nabi Loney, Hayley Sales, Sheila Gruner & friends. - Hillside 2008 Program (PDF)

Tickets for the festival have now been sold out.

CBC Radio 2 in the past has played back some of the sets from Hillside in the weeks after the festival and have hosted some of the concerts online.

I will update following the festival.

Sarah's iTunes Playlist

Sarah is one of the many celebrities to have added their playlist to iTunes. Sarah goes through each track and being on iTunes you can sample and purchase them too. View Sarah's July 7th playlist by launching the celebrity playlist in iTunes.

1. Dress Rehearsal Rag - Leonard Cohen
2. Lover, You Should've Come Over - Jeff Buckley
3. God's Song - Randy Newman
4. Backdrifts - Radiohead
5. The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face - Roberta Flack
6. A case of You - Jone Mitchell
7. God Knows - El Perro del Mar
8. Man-Sized Sexet - PJ Harvey
9. Mr Brightside - The Killers
10. Glory Box - Portishead
11. Desire - Talk Talk
12. The Tourist - Radiohead
13. Leather - Tori Amos
14. Strange Fruit - Billi Joliday
15. Joga - Bjork
    
16. Shine - David Gray
17. Powder Blue - Elbow

Thanks to Kyall for the heads up on this and the image is from the current iTunes Canada homepage.

Update 2008-07-22:
As people outside of the Canadian iTunes store can not view the playlist, by request I have included a screen print of Sarah's comments.

Sarah's Tour Journal

As Sarah did for her touring of Day One, she has shared her tour journal as she plays across the country.

Read it over here: http://www.sarahslean.com/about/SS_journal.aspx

The journal indicates that she played a private show in Banff on May 2, 2008. A few years ago Sarah stayed in Banff and had completed some new paintings. Not sure if that's related. The official page indicated that "Sarah Slean had the day off".

Want to read more from Sarah? The following two featured interviews published this week both captured great quotes of Sarah.

Mike's 23 Questions With Sarah Slean
(From reality TV to to her fans)

It Goes Beyond Speaking - The Scope, publish 2008-05-08
(Answers why she went to Paris)