Land & Sea Tour - 3 Days Deep

The Land & Sea tour kicked off in London ON this week with dates that followed in Peterborough and Hamilton.  Positive reviews have come in so far from each night for the concerts and over the VIP pre-show meet and greets.  There has been a surge of press the last few days that can be found with a quick google news search or via Twitter.  I will post the highlights and for those following Sarah on facebook they have been getting steady updates.

The band members for this tour are,
Lyle, Paul and Derek Downham.  She's also been joined by songwriter Karen Kosowski who been providing back up vocals and shared duties on the keys.

The opening show in London had the following set list provided by user 'nevermind' and full review can be found in Canadian Interviews.

Life
Everybody's on TV
Set It Free
I am a Light
Duncan
Notes from the Underground
The Day We Saved the World

-Intermission-

Everything by the Gallon
My Eyes & Your Eyes
New Pair of Eyes
Girls Hating Girls
Euphoria
Get Home
Sweet Ones
Society Song
Sound of Water

Encore:
Attention Archers
Amen

Euphoria was played as a request so it might pop out of the set list.  The show in Hamilton featured Sarah playing The Right Words.

For those interested in collecting set list and show reviews, the heavily ad supported site SetListFM has been having shows updated and it has some neat tools.  SongKick.com that shows most of Sarah's current concert listing also supports show reviews and set lists.

Here is video that Sarah did with City News yesterday to promote this Saturday's concert in Toronto at The Winter Garden Theatre.  http://www.citytv.com/toronto/citynews/videos/165909

Aside from the concerts and press, Sarah played an early show at PCVS (Peterborough Collegiate and Vocational  School).  The school is currently facing closure for re-purposing.

Land & Sea - The First Day

Today marked the first day of the release for Land & Sea!

Throughout the entire day glowing feedback was being tweeted @sarahslean on twitter with reviews of the album.  Sarah responded back and RT a number of them.  I wasn't able to locate anything other then sharp praise for both Land & Sea on twitter, facebook and forums.  It's not clear which of the 2 discs is preferred the most at this time, but some have found this their favourite work of hers to date.

Although delays were expected with the iTunes release internationally, fans outside of Canada where able to download the album in their local iTunes or Amazon stores.  Sarah's tweets provided an updates that the digital distributor hit a snag that effected international pricing that was being resolved.  When it came to the deluxe edition, questions remained on its availability and the digital booklet.  What did come appearant as the day went on people where going out and buying in stores and Sarah was added to the international streaming services of Spotify and Rdio.

This morning Sarah did a live interview on breakfast television.  A stream of it was under the video section.  http://www.cp24.com/mshow/

Some highlights from the interview was Sarah confirming that the tour will mostly focus on Land and that in the end it should each the East coast of St. John's.  She described the musicians recording on Sea and playing at her Harbourfront concert as exquisite and in a change, the interviewed put his shoes aside and Sarah kept hers on.

Source: SarahSlean's Twitter Image

The hand made editions of Land & Sea also went into the mail but where first photographed by Sarah and tweeted.  50 album cases where made for both Land & Sea putting the total number at 100 unique covers.  They are similar to how the work was done for the Beauty Lives special edition with the exception of the sides not being labeled.

Lastly, Sarah's website was updated with VIP packages for Nelson, Edmonton and Vancouver.  Most tour dates that are not already on sale will go on sale this Friday.  Some of the shows have pre-sales.

Will keep my eyes and ears out for any media appearances over day 2.  I hope very much that the littleslean readers enjoy their albums of Land & Sea as much as I do.  Thanks for reading and sharing.

CBC (Radio Canada) TV Appearance Today

Another interview and preview of the new albums is to be shown today on CBC Radio-Canada TV today according  a tweet from CBC's Kevin Sweet. A follow up tweet indicates that it will be shown on Channel 12 (CBLFT) in Toronto at 6:00pm. The following web stream may work for international viewers trying to catch it live. The FAQ says they stream at 300kbs and archive most content for 14 days at 500kbs.  This post will be updated with an archived link if one is able to be found.

Tweets between Sarah and Kevin thought this month have been very positive.

Explore Music Interview (Video)

Sarah's Interview with Explore Music sheds new light on the album, recording with Joel Plakset and tour plans following these dates in November. When it comes to touring, Sarah has announced most dates for her fall tour for Land & Sea with additional dates being released yesterday. In the interview Sarah mentioned how it will be 'Land' focused and has previously stated it will be a bit more of a rock. US dates and a series of concerts to play 'Sea' seem to be the cross hair for next year. Tickets for the concert in Halifax with Symphony NS are currently on sale as mentioned here on littleslean.

Sarah Slean Played New Songs on CBC

Sarah Slean's interview and live performance from earlier this week was aired today on CBC Radio 1.  Half of the 1 hour show was dedicated to Sarah combing interviews and music from the new album.  The 3 news songs played live by Sarah where done solo on a baby grand piano.

Unfortunately it does appear that this show is podcasted or will repeat but I hope some of the littleslean twitter followers got the live tweet reminders.

• Sarah spoke fondly of her 10 great years with Warner.  
• The origins of her family piano where revealed as belonging to an aunt who deceased died in her mid 40s.  Sarah wouldn't share the name she had given the piano.
• She came back to the "woosh" factor just like in in the Harbourfront interview.

Music

1. Life (Album recording)
2. Attention Archers (live)
3. The Day We Saved the World (live)
4. Your not Alone (live)

Sarah Slean on eTalk: Album, Relationship, Interviews (Video)

On August 15th Sarah Slean was on eTalk.  The segment showed tape from the recording of the Sea side of the album.  The entertainment show went into the personal side of things mentioning Sarah's marriage with fellow musician Royal Wood.  Sarah also talks about her plan for touring the album distinctly but those plans seem to have since transformed.  For those who follow littleslean on twitter, you may have noticed a RT for an upcoming concert in Winnipeg.  Will make a new post as further tour details come up.

View the unlisted video below.



A second interview concerning Land & Sea was done with Harbourfront and Sarah Slean.  It can be read over here.

On Day 2 of the Pre-Order some items have sold out like the Limited Edition hand made versions of Land & Sea.

Sarah Slean and Jorane Create New Music Together

On April 2nd Sarah Slean and Jorane played together for a CBC special that airs May 10th. Jorane who plays chello toured across Canada sharing headling roles with Sarah in 2005. On the day of this recording Sarah tweeted "Created melancholy music on-the-fly today with the wonderful @Jorane chez Maison Radio-Canada. How I love Montreal..."

The following information comes from CBC's Rendez-Vous who have a video trailer and pictures of the event up. After May 10th they will be adding videos, songs and interviews.

"Sarah Slean and Jorane seem to have a mutual artistic connection. They both create very expressive, evocative and sometimes theatrical songs. So it is no surprise that when we hear them performing together it feels so natural.

For this session, the wonderful Jorane delivers new versions of her songs, accompanied by a string quartet and piano, in arrangements created especially for this recording.

The very talented Sarah Slean was also quite courageous to accept to perform some of Jorane's songs and to go where no other singer has dared gone before! And this is where Sarah Slean's passion for French culture pays off as we hear her sing in French for the first time ever.

Together, Jorane and Sarah create a brand new song, inspired by one of Sarah's personal experiences in Paris. The result is extremely touching.

Let yourself be carried away by this dreamy, friendly, wondrous and luminous Rendez-Vous session.

Check back after 4 p.m. ET on May 10th to enjoy videos, songs and interviews from this episode."

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/

Sarah covers The Right Thing (audio preview)

At 2008's Canwest Cabaret Festival Sarah was involved in multiple work shops including Toronto Sings Breithaupt Brother Songbook. In the fall of 2009 that concert was put out as a live album with Sarah singing the lead track, The Right Thing.

You can find the song on Amazon.com and iTune's Canadian store.

Thanks to reader Sean for giving me this tip sometime ago.

If you're able to visit the Canadian iTunes Store, they do have an 8 minute long video interview with Sarah likely recorded on 2006-12-11 where Sarah played live on MTV Overdrive. The interview discuses why she did Orphan Music as a live album/bside album, how she ended up cover Pink Floyd and what she thinks of blogging. You can download it free from iTunes here.

PS- Sarah's official site has been lively with news the last few days.

New Interview - Riveting Riffs Magazine

A new interview with Sarah has been published online by Riveting Riffs. The piece touches on many of Sarah's different artistic projects over the years. It is also one of the rare interviews where she has spoken about the Baroness Redecorates and Warner.

The 2 Page interview can be found here: http://www.rivetingriffs.com/sarah_slean_%2709.htm

Radio Interview - Star93.3 (mp3)

Sarah did a 10 minute interview with radio station Star 93.3 in promotion of her upcoming Art of Time concert in Peterborough.

The interview is available for download on the Star 93.3 site.

Topics covered included the songwriting process, The Art of Time Ensemble and what Sarah appreciates about her achievements over the last 10 years.

Update 2009-10-23:

Lucid Forge did a print interview that covers many of the same topics. You can read it here.

Sarah in School (National Video) & Tour

CBC's The National has conducted an excellent interview with Sarah that they aired yesterday. Sandra Abma at CBC attended a class with her at the University of Toronto, talked to her about here influences and even approached Sarah on some of her personal struggles.

A rehearsal with Andrew Burashko shows Sarah singing Lenard Cohen's That's No Was To Say Goodbye with him. They point out that both Sarah and the Art of Time Ensemble will be doing a tour together in the fall to support the album.

Through the interview live footage from many past events are shown. Most of them I recognized with the exception of the one shown at 2.37. Please leave me a comment if you know anything about that performance of Get Home.

See the video here:
http://www.cbc.ca/national/blog/video/arts/sarah_slean_at_school.html

The video can also be found around 33 minutes into the Friday episode of The National.

Sarah on Bravo, Arts & Minds

An interview with Sarah will be on Bravo's, Arts & Minds tonight.

March 25 at 8 p.m. ET – ARTS & MINDS – Hosted by Seamus O’Regan, the special half-hour will feature Interviews and performances from Canada’s top talent: Molly Johnson, James Ehnes, Elizabeth Sheppard, Divine Brown, Don Thompson, Serena Ryder, Daniel Lanois, Ron Sexsmith, Sarah Slean, Elysabeth Sheppard and kd lang.

Source

The Details of Sarah Going Indie

On February 17th issue of Sarah official mailing list, she announced that she was going independent again and be "the master of my(her) own destiny."

Dose magazine had the chance to speak with Sarah about her being an independent artist during the tail end of Canadian Music Week before Sarah presented at the March 13th Canadian Radio Music Awards.

The full article, Sarah Slean Goes Indie, written by Leah Collins and published today is a great. There are a few points of it I would like to highlight.

"The Baroness Redecorates, was released last December, marking the end of her stint as a major-label artist."

I presume any re-releases or other distribution options of the EP may still be done by Warner. The Baroness (album) is currently still being promoted in Germany.

"I couldn't just record this song with so and so. It would be this big nightmare because they own your recorded output. I couldn't just make a short film with my animator friend because the music and the name and everything was partially owned," she explains.

The film referred to here is Tales of the Baroness done with Nelson Chan. The first part of the film was shown on TV and an advertised sale of DVD was offered but never delivered on. On the October 20, 2008 Q and A session when Sarah was asked about it's release on DVD she responded, "That I don't know. Maybe when we have more visual material we'll put together a proper DVD and that can be a bonus track...".
Other projects Sarah has mentioned that she is working on are, a film for Modern Man, Boy Wonder the play and the release of her sheet music.

Sarah nominated for Juno Award

Congratulation to Sarah for being nominated for the 2009 Juno award for Adult Alternative Album of the Year.

Other nominee's include:

• Between The Beautifuls - Hawksley Workman
• Asking For Flowers - Kathleen Edwards
• Exit Strategy Of The Soul - Ron Sexsmith
• is it o.k - Serena Ryder

As mentioned on Sarah's official page, Sarah was present for the nomination announcements this morning at the Royal York. Links to video are available on the CTV page and further media info is likely to be available on shows such as Etalk. Update, Access Magazine has put this video on to YouTube where she comments about her nomination. Sarah was also quoted in the Globe regards to the diversity of Canadian talent.

A full list of nominated artists can be found here.

Update 2009-2-4:

You can see Sarah's clip of announcing nomination's here on the CTV website.

Chart magazine has put up a short interview with Sarah on YouTube.

Canada AM in the West Coast did a short interview with Sarah. She spoke about it being her third nomination, that she looks forward to attending, and if she has ever prepared an acceptance speech.

Upcomming air dates of Creative Block Interview

CBC's Creative Block aired an interview with Sarah in August.
Repeats of Sarah's on CBC Bold's Creative Block in November. Air dates include:

Sunday November 9th, 18:00
Thursday November 13th, 13:00
Thursday November 13th, 16:00

CBC bold scheduale

If you do not receive this specialty channel, I believe by calling Rogers you can get a free preview of it for 3 months.

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.

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)

Sarah on CBC Bandwidth this Friday

A prerecorded interview Sarah did with CBC Bandwidth will be aired this Friday at 5:05. The show is played all through Ontario except Toronto. You can listen live online at the CBC Bandwidth
but it does not appear that they keep archives/podcast of the show.

The theme of the show is Lessons Learned.

The Books and Ballgowns tour kicks off today in Vancouver.

Small Note on Sarah's Second Book of Poetry

Recently the Current Magazine published a cover article and interview with Sarah. Some good questions were posed, including with regards to her second book of poetry. Unlike Raven's, Sarah has decided to "focus this time on keeping this book very much about the text and I'm not going to put any paintings in it, I'm going to try to separate those two worlds."

There is no mention of the release date of this book or any other side projects. A side comment is made about completing her musical someday or a symphony.

You can read the full article here in PDF Format on page 13 or as unformatted HTML.