At any given moment, there are so many sounds competing for our attention that it’s easy to get overwhelmed and hear nothing. But, every now and then, a voice comes along that cuts through all the random noise and clatter, a voice that makes you stop and really listen because whatever you were doing up until that point isn’t as important as listening to it and letting it take you where it wants to go.

Colleen Rennison has a voice like that. A voice that channels power, tenderness and a range of emotions that seem like they couldn’t possibly come from a singer who’s only 25 years old. Colleen has a voice that can floor you, and envelop you, and bring all of the pain and struggles of your life crashing down on you like a tidal wave. It’s a voice and phrasing that took Etta James decades to properly control, that Aretha Franklin had to go to Hell and back to even go near. Yes, it can hurt to listen to Colleen sing, but it’s a hurting you’ll want to go through over and over again because of how much feel better, lighter, cleansed you feel every time you hear it.

For the past few years, when she’s not acting in movies and television, Colleen’s been the lead singer of No Sinner, a raucous Vancouver band whose legendary gigs have given her the chance to holler, belt and shimmy like a church on fire. For her debut solo album, ‘See The Sky About To Rain’, Colleen had something a little different in mind. She wanted to back away a bit from the wild and shambolic intensity of ‘No Sinner’ and take it down a notch or two and take the opportunity to sing some of her favourite songs from childhood that have stayed with her. In her words, ‘the album gave me the chance to really go back to the time when a singer was a singer and a songwriter was a songwriter and a musician was a musician. I am in awe of each of these songs and have done my best to honour them and find the truest way to sing them.’

And she has succeeded in doing that beyond anyone’s wildest expectations. By going back through the great Canadian songbook and selecting iconic songs from Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell and the Band, aside from totally nailing each performance, she shows us that no matter how many times we’ve heard a particular song, in the hands of a master interpreter, there’s always something new to experience. When Colleen sings lyrics that you’ve heard a thousand times before as she does in ‘Stage Fright’ or ‘Coyote’, she reveals new shades and colours in her phrasing and inflection that make these standards sound as if they were written yesterday.

(excerpt from her record label Black Hen)

LINKS:

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• Spotify

Bring a picnic and some refreshments! Please be sure to put any waste in its place (a garbage bin). This event is free, however we will be collecting donations mid-show if you wish to support the arts.

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