NOW Magazine - Local player - Serena Ryder

HOME GAMES Plays a sold-out show at the Mod Club Saturday (February 24). $18.50. 416-588-4663.
NICKNAME Beans ("My dad used to say I'm full of 'em").

TEAM MEMBERS Kris Craig, Mike Thompson, Deepen Pandya and Dan Siljer.

ROOKIE YEAR Started playing guitar at age 13; claims she first performed in front of an audience at the ripe old age of two (there's photographic evidence). Released her first CD at age 16 after burning up Peterborough's coffee house circuit.

LEAGUE Richly belted jazz-inflected roots.

STATS Serena Ryder Live (independent) 2002, Unlikely Emergency (Isadora) 2004, Live In Oz (Isadora) 2005, If Your Memory Serves You Well (EMI) 2006.

SPECIAL TALENTS Used to pole bend and barrel race as a kid. Won a trophy for most improved player in her dart league. Has phenomenal three-octave vocal range.

NOW Magazine, Toronto

Serena Ryder Serenades Waterloo

CORDWEEKLY.COM

Wilfred Laurier Univeristy's Offical Student Newspaper Online

APRIL ROBINSON

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Serena Ryder strolls onstage with confidence as her short, playful skirt sways along with her. She sips wine and sets down the glass. A small, attentive audience murmurs by candlelight.
And then she sings.
It’s a sound that’s bigger than her 24-year-old presence; bigger than the room. It has depth and breadth. The fullness of her voice sends a hush over the crowd as she sings a soulful opener without instrumental accompaniment. It raises the hairs on the back of my neck.
With these opening notes, she sets the tone for the evening at Starlight Lounge in Uptown Waterloo.

Ryder continued her Canadian tour last week on February 21, following the November 2006 release of her major-label debut, If Your Memory Serves You Well. The album follows Unlikely Emergency (2004) and a live EP from 2002.
She has a powerful, expressive voice that sounds like a cross between Janis Joplin, Patsy Cline and Fiona Apple.
Her vocal stylings are reminiscent of a sexy singer in a smoky jazz bar: deep and husky but beautiful – capable of three octaves. It’s soulful and mature.
It was a perfect canvas for her new album, a collection of vintage Canadian-made tunes from the past century, which, with her artistic touch, she makes her own.
The small-town girl from Millbrook, Ontario followed her fiery a capella opener with a handful of original pieces, playing acoustic guitar, and for one song, the harmonica.
Her four-piece band then joined her to break out songs from her new album including Leonard Cohen’s “Sisters of Mercy” and “This Wheel’s on Fire”, co-written by Bob Dylan and Rick Danko of The Band. These tunes continued to capture the audience, picking up the tempo and the mood of the performance. But Ryder’s voice continued to outshine any instrument.
The momentum continued with her latest single, “Good Morning Starshine”, an uplifting tune celebrating the simple joys of song. The anthem was originally written by Galt MacDermott for the 1967 hippie musical Hair. The song is breaking through radio and television airwaves. And she recently filmed her first video for it, which, she confessed to the crowd, was a little embarrassing.
“They told me to dance with random people on the street,” she said with a laugh.
On a recent tour with Canadian greats Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman (formerly of The Guess Who), Ryder worked with Bachman to write “Out of the Blue”.
“It’s the first full-on pop song I’ve ever written,” she said, before playing the tune at the Starlight last week. But the bouncy and simplistic love song was a little too poppy and radio-friendly compared to her repertoire of folk-blues. It doesn’t exemplify the songstress’ full capabilities.
Following that, Serena dug deep into her blues roots for a charming performance of Zal Yanovsky’s “Coconut Grove” complete with xylophone keyboard sounds and an articulate guitar solo.
Ryder didn’t fail to impress with two more original songs, also found on If Your Memory Serves You Well.
“Just Another Day” was a powerful and inspirational tale of self-determination. And “Weak in the Knees” was convincingly heart-wrenching in both lyrics and music.
A percussive finish with “Sing, Sing” from her last album – a toe-stomping, hand-clapping a capella piece – was enough to bring Ryder out for two encores.

Kyle Riabko was the opening act of the evening.

Live to air !!

Today at 4:20pm Serena will perform an acoustic version of 'weak in the knees' live on Mix 99.9 FM, followed by an interview with host Steve Anthony.... www.mix999.com

and she will be on 104.5 CHUM FM with Cory Kim between 7:00pm and 9:00pm tonight ..... www.chumfm.com

tune in !!
cheers

ECHO Weekly

Remembering Music and Magic

By Adam Grant
At the young age of 24, Serena Ryder has already managed to cover a lot of ground within the musical landscape. It all started during her formative years in Millbrook, Ontario when Ryder would sing songs by others as a child, which eventually led to being inspired to write her own. After honing her craft and compiling enough original material to record a live, 2002 EP, Ryder was seemingly on the right path. In fact, it would be this specific concert soundtrack that would lead her to one of Canada’s most intriguing musical minds, Hawksley Workman.Upon hearing some of her songs on CBC radio, Workman decided to drop Ryder a line in the form of contract that would link her up to his Isadora Records label. She would soon accept, and put together 2004’s Unlikely Emergency. Her strong folk and soulful vocal style would garner some attention and lead Ryder to touring opportunities throughout North America, as well as the land down under – Australia. However, it wouldn’t be until one chance encounter at the 2005 Canadian Songwriter’s Hall of Fame press conference that Ryder would be offered a concept that would change her life forever.After meeting up with Canadian music publisher Frank Davies following her performance at the aforementioned conference, a deal was in place for Ryder to tackle a project that would feature her expanding vocal talents within classic songs that have been in this country’s heritage for about a century. From the outside looking in, this would seem like an unenviable task for a yet to be established artist, but for Ryder, she saw this as a way to engulf herself in songs that she could not only enjoy performing, but also learn something from.“For me it wasn’t about making these songs mine or making them consciously different than what they were – and I didn’t actually really think about that,” contends Ryder. “People have been asking me some questions like ‘what process were you going through when thinking about singing these kinds of songs?’ They’re amazing songs so I really just had a great time singing them.

pics from the road....

Serena on the Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos

Ryder CD a love letter to Canada - Jam! Music

By Mark Daniel
TORONTO -
"Whoa," Serena Ryder exclaims, with the phone to her ear. The thin drumming of her tour van's engine whistling in the background, as her driver overtakes a truck somewhere between Winnipeg and Regina, "driving in the prairies is really quite interesting," she continues. "It's windy out here and we kind of lost control for a minute. Where were we?"
Two albums into her burgeoning folk-rock career, the 23-year-old singer-songwriter, is turning back the clock, uncovering a slate of Canadian musical gems for her recently released major-label debut, "If Your Memory Serves You Well."
Her soulful whisper broods through the Band's "This Wheel's On Fire" and her piano-led version of Paul Anka's "It Doesn't Matter Anymore." And her beautifully plaintive take on Bonnie Dobson's "(Take Me For A Walk In The) Morning Dew" builds on Lanois-like atmospherics that give way to a Wainwright-y blast of popera on her plucky rendering of "Boo Hoo," a campy 1937 number co-written by Guy Lombardo's brother Carmen.
Sounding like a less emotionally ground-down version of Fiona Apple, the Millbrook, Ont., native also glides through Leonard Cohen's "Sisters Of Mercy," Percy Faith's "My Heart Cries For You" and Sylvia Tyson's "You Were On My Mind."
"I love Canada," says Ryder, on day two of a cross-country tour that continues throughout the month. "Since I was seven-years-old, I've been singing other people's songs, so it was an easy decision for me to embrace my influences and embrace where I come from.
"I thought it was a beautiful project to do, so I did it."


Recorded in Toronto and Vancouver the album got a bit of a kick-start from veteran music publisher Frank Davies, who founded the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, hot on the heels of Ryder's 2004 indie debut, "Unlikely Emergency," which was released with some help from Hawksley Workman.
"I really wanted to hear material that I'd never heard before, and Frank has that well of information where he's able to find all these rare Canadian songs," she says. "We started with over 500 songs, but how I chose which ones to cover was by listening to myself singing them.
"Seeing how the song fit vocally, seeing if I could put myself in those shoes and seeing if I could really believe in what I was singing? The songs I was able to do all those things with, popped out right away and ended up being the ones I picked."
But "If Your Memory Serves..." isn't strictly a spin through some classic Canadian covers; Ryder also drops three originals, one of which was co-written with Randy Bachman, at the end of the 15-song set.
"I've been writing a lot," she informs proudly, "but I'm not quite sure what the next record will sound like 'cause I'm constantly changing my mind about what my ideas of what I want to do or what I want to sound like is going to be.
"Usually when I record a record it's a snapshot of a certain time. It's a snapshot of a moment in my life."
The mostly all-covers album, usually reserved to fill an artist's schedule when they've stumbled into a case of late-career writer's block, clocking in early for the songstress, Ryder says she's happy to be interpreting a slate of other people's material to listeners across the country.
"I don't even think of my own songs as my own songs," she admits. "I think of music as belonging to everybody. That's what art is. It's a universal language that doesn't belong to any one person."
And the reason she chose to cover strictly Canadians?
"That's all I really know," she says. "That's where I come from. So I figured this was the best place to start."

Social Intercourse - U of Alberta

Serena Ryder With Lindsay Ell
Friday, 9 February at 9pm
Sidetrack Cafe
Tickets Through Ticketmaster

With vocal cords that command a striking three-octave musical range, Toronto chanteuse Serena Ryder can simultaneously belt out bluesy folk medleys, make Josh Groban cry like a little girl and call her dolphin friends if she’s in danger. She’s touring to support her new record, If Your Memory Serves You Well, a collection of covers from Canada’s past during the years 1867–1967. Ryder covered classics by Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie and the favourite Canuck crooner Leonard Cohen among several others, reviving these pieces while instilling in each her own distinct, youthful voice. If paying tribute to Canadian standards and signalling heroic aquatic mammals doesn’t convince you that Serena Ryder is hip, then consider this: judging by pictures on her MySpace page, Ryder has met George Stroumboulopoulos in person. This fact alone gives her additional, second-hand coolness.

SERENA RYDER WEARS BAD CLOTHES AND TALKS SMART (WHEN SHE CAN) - Vue Weekly

SERENA RYDER WEARS BAD CLOTHES AND TALKS SMART (WHEN SHE CAN)
BRYAN BIRTLES / bryan@vueweekly.com
There’s no doubt that the life of a touring musician is a hard one, but when you’re seemingly plucked from indie obscurity and placed on a year-long international tour the way Serena Ryder has been, the challenges can start to affect you physically.“I lost my voice last night,” she tells me as she whispers into the phone from a ferry taking her from the Island to mainland British Columbia. “This is the first I’ve talked all day.”After relating a story about silently ordering coffee from a concession on the beach, Ryder takes a moment to reflect on her increased activity over the last year.“It’s about an 80 per cent increase in my busy-ness,” she says. “I’ve been touring a lot in the last five years, but nothing like this.”
Most of the increase can be attributed to Ryder’s decision to switch from Hawksley Workman’s independent label Isadora Records to the major EMI. While some musicians are leery of the majors—a fact Ryder is well aware of—she maintains that there hasn’t been a downside to her decision.“A lot of people ask me about working with a major record label, but they forget that people make choices,” she says. “It’s just sort of a bigger community, a bigger family. I don’t have to worry about a lot of things I used to have to worry about, plus I can connect with a lot more musicians.”Connecting with musicians is something Ryder is doing quite a bit of these days as this tour differs from many of her others in that she is bringing a band with her. The whole group was recently spotted in a restaurant by a rather astute server.“As we were paying the bill,” Ryder explains, “the guy asked, ‘Are you guys musicians?’ and we asked, ‘How did you know?’ and he said to us, ‘Well … you talk smart, but you don’t dress too good.” V
Fri, Feb 9 (9 pm)Serena RyderWith Lindsay EllSidetrack Café, $15

Serena Ryder Delivers a Lesson in Canadian Music History

andPOP -

Serves You Well," reads like a history in Canadian songwriting.There's "Sisters of Mercy," written by Leonard Cohen, "It Doesn't Matter Anymore," written by Paul Anka and performed by Buddy Holly, and "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream," performed by everyone from Johnny Cash to Bruce Springsteen.It won't be long before a new artist covers one of her songs.Ryder spoke to andPOP recently about the album, growing up in Millbrook, Ontario, her ultimate tour horror story and much more. Watch the interview to learn more about her.

http://www.andpop.com/player/index.php?bcpid=464021234&bclid=464024873&bctid=474425097

Serena Ryder covers Canadian classics - Winnipeg Sun

Serena Ryder covers Canadian classics
By DAVID SCHMEICHEL -- Winnipeg Sun


She's only two albums into a wildly promising career but on her latest folk-rocker Serena Ryder is already taking things back to the beginning.
The result -- the recently released If Your Memory Serves You Well -- is a (mostly) all-covers disc that sees the 23-year-old Ryder tackling such Canadian-penned classics as The Band's This Wheel's on Fire, Leonard Cohen's Sisters of Mercy, and Paul Anka's It Doesn't Matter Anymore.
"It's where a lot of my beginnings came from -- my influences and why I write the way I do is because of these songwriters," says Ryder. "So this is about embracing those influences, instead of doing what a lot of people try to do, which is reinvent themselves into something they're not."
Often, when artists release albums comprised entirely of covers, critics wonder whether they're resting on their laurels or, worse, fresh out of ideas. That's not the case with Ryder, who says she used the exercise as an opportunity to kickstart her own creative process.
"Luckily, I haven't had anyone say that to me," she says. "For me, I think this record was to influence my songwriting and to embrace what came before us ... And, as a result, I've been writing more than ever. A lot of these songs spoke to me in a way that even my own songs don't, so I've been really influenced by listening to them."
Of course, If Your Memory Serves also includes three Ryder tunes, plus a recording of her first performance ever, at the ripe old age of seven. She's been writing songs ever since, but her career really took off in 2004, when eclectic cabaret-rocker Hawksley Workman heard her singing on CBC radio and then offered to produce her debut album Unlikely Emergency.
"That was a huge honour and a huge blessing, to have been taken under his wing like that," she says of Workman. "He's so inspiring."
Over the summer, Ryder joined local boys Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings for their cross-Canada tour together, wowing audiences with her bluesy pipes and picking up a new songwriting partner in the process.
"I'd watch their banter on stage, where they'd talk about how one of them would write half a song, then send it off to the other one, and they were always joking about being really good at writing half-songs," she explains. "I finally got up the nerve to tell (Bachman) that I had half a song, and he was like, 'Get in here, let's finish it off together.' "
Cummings, too, assumed a mentor-like role with Ryder, treating her to the spoils of his decades-spanning music collection.
"He travels with three or four 80-gig iPODs," she laughs. "He says he has to, because he needs all his music with him wherever he goes!"

Serena Ryder Takes Off On Another Musical JourneyMonday January 29, 2007- Chartattack

Peterborough, Ontario's Serena Ryder surrenders to nostalgia with her If Your Memory Serves You Well debut full-length album, which pays homage to Canada's rich landscape of musicians with a collection of covers compiled to form her own tower of song.
Ryder's three-octave throaty powerhouse voice revamps Leonard Cohen's "Sisters Of Mercy," Percy Faith's "My Heart Cries For You" and Paul Anka's "It Doesn't Matter Anymore," among many other seasoned Canuck classics.
"The album's title references how we have 100 years of Canadian songwriters on my album," says Ryder, calling from her home in Toronto. "It's a lyric I lifted from a Bob Dylan song I cover called 'This Wheel's On Fire.'"
As a teenager, Ryder kicked around Peterborough — a bohemian city of nearly 70,000 an hour-and-a-half north of Toronto — lending her multi-dimensional talents to the likes of The Silver Hearts and Fire Flower Revue. In the midst of her early twenties, Hawksley Workman snatched up the petite, doe-eyed brunette and her larger-than-life voice to re-release her independent Unlikely Emergency debut.
"It's been very natural working with Hawksley," she says. "The moment I met him, we were very friendly. He's kind of like a big little brother at times."
The last time Ryder trekked across this vast country of ours, she was opening for Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings. Just a few days before her current tour began, she gently reminded herself mid-interview to pack her yoga mat and a packet of sage.
"I'm really looking forward to getting back on the road," she says. "When I'm not on the road, I don't know what to do with myself. People say it's like getting off schedule to go on tour, but for me it's getting on schedule."
Ryder combines a fresh, dream-like perspective of the world with a voice that melds Southern gospel choirs and belt-heavy blues performers. The daughter of a former go-go dancer/back-up singer, Ryder embodies the fairy-like, carefree spirit of Janis Joplin and the qualified, skilled talents of Etta James.
"Inspiration is just something that is out there," offers Ryder. "I don't have a formula for writing, I just get started.
"It's usually gibberish to begin with. I make music because it's what I'm meant to be doing. It's really to share a truth with people, break down the barriers."
Check out Ryder in the following cities:
Jan. 30-31 Duncan, BC @ Duncan Garage
Feb. 1 Victoria, BC @ The Central
Feb. 3 Tofino, BC @ Tofino Legion
Feb. 4 Vancouver, BC @ Media Club
Feb. 6 Kimberley, BC @ Bean Tree Cafe
Feb. 7 Lethbridge, AB @ Tongue 'n' Groove
Feb. 8 Red Deer, AB @ Elks Hall
Feb. 9 Edmonton, AB @ Sidetrack Cafe
Feb. 10 Saskatoon, SK @ Amigo's Cafe
Feb. 18 Guelph, ON @ Albion
Feb. 21 Waterloo, ON @ Starlight Room
Feb. 22 Hamilton, ON @ Casbah
Feb. 24 Toronto, ON @ Mod Club
Feb. 26 Ottawa, ON @ Barrymore's
Feb. 28 Whitehorse, YK @ Acto Place
March 7 London, ON @ London Music Club
March 8 Montreal QC @ Petite Campus
—Shannon Webb-Campbell

Serena Ryder's strong point is being out of step -- Vancouver -Georgia Straight

Serena Ryder’s strong point is being out-of-step
By Mike Usinger
Publish Date: February 1, 2007
Serena Ryder doesn’t mind confessing that she was something of an oddball during her early teens. For a good idea of what she listened to during those years, you need only consult the 23-year-old singer’s major-label debut, If Your Memory Serves You Well . The album art—right down to the ’70s-style graphic announcing that the recording is in “Stereo—The Modern Sound”—is a throwback to a time when vinyl was king, Simon and Garfunkel were almost hip, and Carly Simon was still kind of sexy. As for the tracks, 12 of the 15 are covers, with Ryder delving into the songbooks of Leonard Cohen, the Band, Paul Anka, and even Billie Holiday. That’s led more than one critic to suggest that the Ontario-based singer is a little out of step with others her age, something she doesn’t deny.
“In public school, for sure I felt like a black sheep,” Ryder says, on the line from her home base of Toronto. “Everyone was listening to New Kids on the Block, and I was listening to Roger Miller. But then I was lucky in that I got into a fantastic arts school in Peterborough. There were a lot of eclectic souls there who really liked all kinds of art.”
One listen to If Your Memory Serves You Well and it’s obvious why Ryder didn’t fit in. Offering more than a poor man’s Jewel with an acoustic guitar, the disc finds the smoky-voiced singer aiming for something well beyond a Wednesday-night slot at the Café Deux Soleils of the world. Shot through with delicate mandolin, Ryder’s rendition of “Sisters of Mercy” will make you wonder what you ever saw in Leonard Cohen. “Good Morning Starshine” sounds like an artifact from the Age of Aquarius, “Some of These Days” does Depression-era blues with a panache that would impress Lady Day herself, and “Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream” is a Wilco-style art-rocker that’s powerful enough to raise the questions of what the hell the western world is doing in the Middle East.
“I never consciously think about music as a style unless it’s 100-percent obvious—like old country stuff like Hank Williams,” Ryder says. “People will sometimes say to me, ‘You haven’t really found your one style yet,’ but I don’t ever really see that happening because I like all kinds of music.”
The singer’s three MOR–oriented originals on If Your Memory Serves You Well suggest that Ryder’s days of performing songs written before she was born will soon be coming to an end. For now, though, she’s happy being a modern-pop oddity: a songwriter who’ll happily admit that she’s more than a little indebted to the artists she grew up listening to.
“I first started playing shows when I was seven, eight, nine, and 10—before I was writing,” Ryder says. “The songs on this album are the kind of songs that inspired me to do my own writing. A lot of people spend so much of their time trying to be absolutely original, like ‘My voice is my voice, and I can’t be compared to anybody else.’ Everybody has their own influences, and I’ve embraced mine. What you hear on my record is where I’ve come from.”
Serena Ryder plays the Media Club on Sunday (February 4).

Ryder's memory serves her well - Edmonton Journal - Feb 9th, 2007

Ryder's memory serves her well

Mari Sasano
The Edmonton Journal
Friday, February 09, 2007

SERENA RYDER,
Sidetrack Cafe, 10238 104th St.
tonight at 9,
tix/info: 451-8000
- - -
Not only is Serena Ryder preparing herself for another tour, she's also moving apartments. She answered some questions by phone from her old apartment, while in various stages of packing.
What's in your record collection?
SR: I have a lot of CDs. Pretty much everything I could tell you is on my iPod: Aerosmith, Arcade Fire, Bat for Lashes is a band from the U.K., Beck, Bill Monroe, the Byrds, Etta James, Fats Domino ... .
Did you always have a love of older music?
SR: When I first started performing, I was seven years old. I have a lot of old stuff; old, old country songs. When I started listening to jazz, it was Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. It was really natural; I've always performed other people's songs. Not always understanding them when I was so young, but trying to figure out where my voice sits in them.
You write your own songs too, right? How are they different for you to perform?
SR: (If Your Memory Serves You Well) is the first record I've done that isn't my own songs. It's different. When I first write them, I feel too close to them. There's some stuff from five years ago I'm more comfortable with because they feel like they belong to me less.
How did you make the songs on your album modern?
SR: I think when I was picking them, I couldn't listen to the originals too much. I didn't want to copy them. It wasn't a conscious decision to make them more modern. I'm from this time, so they're going to be modern!
Is there a song that you wish you had had a chance to cover?
SR: I love everything! The one genre I didn't explore as much was country, which was a pretty big influence on me. Hank Williams, Conway Twitty, Dolly Parton -- Jolene! That's one of my favourites.
Interview with Serena Ryder.
© The Edmonton Journal 2007

Ryder Rides To Fame - Red Deer Advocate Jan 26, 2007

By PENNY CASTER

Advocate staff

Jan 26 2007
Canadian singer Serena Ryder believes she’s better known in Australia than her own country.
But the tour she’s about to embark on, which brings her to Red Deer’s Elks Lodge on Feb. 8, may change all that, along with her new album, If Your Memory Serves You Well.
“I just got back from Australia,” she said during an interview from her Toronto home.
“It was great. That’s kind of my main marketplace.”
It turns out they like Ryder so much in Oz that she’s been there nine times during the past three years. In 2004, she opened for Steve Earle in Australia.
All the same, her voice, described as deep and bluesy, has been acclaimed in her native land and comparisons to Aretha Franklin, Janis Joplin and others have been made.
Her new album, her first with a major label, is an eclectic collection of Canadian-penned songs and the result of an idea by Canadian music publisher Frank Davies, who founded the Canadian songwriters Hall of Fame.
About 500 songs were considered for the album before it was narrowed down to the 12 “oldies” that are on it now, plus three written by Ryder. Of those, one shares writing credits with Randy Bachman.
The album includes Good Morning Starshine, by Galt MacDermott, written for the 1967 hippie musical Hair; Ed McCurdy’s 1949 anti-war song Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream; Sylvia Tyson’s You Were on My Mind; Sisters of Mercy by Leonard Cohen; and Morning Dew, made famous by Rod Stewart and The Grateful Dead but written by a Toronto folksinger Bonnie Dobson.
“Somehow my voice found its home with older music,” said Ryder, 24.
She puts her own stamp on the songs.
“I didn’t listen to the original versions too much before singing them live in the studio with the band.”
Ryder grew up in the Peterborough, Ont., area.
Her family was very supportive of her musical endeavours and her dad bought her a guitar when she was 13.
Ryder gave her first public performance at the age of seven, she said at a Halloween gathering.
Ryder began writing her own music after she got that first guitar. She was influenced by a slew of musicians including John Prine, Linda Ronstadt, Supertramp and Leonard Cohen.
She always knew she would be a performer when she grew up.
“My family has really been there and been really supportive of that.”
Ryder’s show begins at 8 p.m. Tickets, from Ticketmaster, are $26.50 plus service charges.

Winnipeg Sun (December 1, 2006)

When you've got a voice like Serena Ryder, you can sing pretty much anything and everything. So that's exactly what the Toronto singer-songwriter does on her second album If Your Memory Serves You Well.

OK, maybe not everything -- but with the help of a crackerjack band featuring guitarists Kevin Breit and Kurt Swinghammer, the 22-year-old phenom does give her soulful pipes a workout on an impressively eclectic slate of covers. Leonard Cohen's Sisters of Mercy becomes a fittingly downbeat ballad; Hair's Good Morning Starshine is a shimmery slice of folk-pop; The Band's This Wheel's on Fire is given a bluesy setting; the jazz classic Some of These Days is updated with the dusty production, gypsy accordion and twangy guitars of Tom Waits; Paul Anka's It Doesn't Matter Anymore becomes a piano-and-organ gospel ballad; and Sylvia Tyson's You Were on My Mind becomes a lilting reggae groover. Ryder closes with a trio of Alanis-like originals just to remind you she can do a pretty mean job on her own songs too.

Either way, this is a disc guaranteed to stick in your memory for a long time.

By DARRYL STERDAN

WATERLOO RECORD (Nov 30, 2006)

Anyone who's seen Peterborough singer Serena Ryder on stage knows that she has a whopper of a voice, rich with Southern gospel influences and on par with the best blues belters.

M.B.

APPLAUD! (Nov 25, 2006) SIGNED, SEALED AND TO BE DELIVERED SOON

She's been hailed as an upcoming star for almost four years, and now 23-year-old Serena Ryder's first major label project has been earmarked for international release this month.

IF YOUR MEMORY SERVES YOU WELL is a collection of a dozen classic Canadian pop songs going back more than 100 years, plus three of her own tunes. It's being released this month by EMI, first in Australia, and a week later in Canada.This first single from the project is "Good Morning Starshine", one of the hits from the Galt MacDermot/Gerome Ragni/James Rado musical Hair, while other tracks include Leonard Cohen's "Sisters of Mercy", the Rick Danko/Bob Dylan song "This Wheel's On Fire", and Bonnie Dobson's classic "Morning Dew", made famous by The Grateful Dead.

The album will be released in the US in April on the Manhattan Label.

SUGARCAIN ENTERTAINMENT-Toronto/Vancouver (November 23rd, 2006)

Serena Ryder, the 23 year old native of Millbrook, Ontario released her debut album If Your Memory Serves You Well with EMI Music Canada this month. (Novemeber 14)Blessed with a 3 octave range that has been described as both bluesy and soulful, Serena’s powerhouse of a voice has been compared to Janis Joplin, Jewel and Aretha Franklin. Accompanying Ryder on the album are some of Canada’s finest musicians including Kevin Breit, Kurt Swinghammer, Steve Mackinnon and Doug Riley.

If Your Memory Serves You Well is a tribute to Canadian songwriters and the songs included span nearly 100 years. The concept for the album came about when Serena was invited to perform at the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame press conference in 2005. Frank Davies, founder of the CSHF, was so impressed by Serena that he suggested she record a collection of Canadian songs. Steve Mackinnon joined Ryder and Davies as producer and the song selection process began. Starting with a list 500 songs they soon narrowed it down to 45 before deciding on the final 12. Some of the songs featured on the album are Leonard Cohen’s ‘Sisters of Mercy’, Bonnie Dobson’s ‘Take Me For A Walk In The Morning Dew’ and Raymond Levesque’s ‘Quand Les Hommes Vivront D’Amour.’

The albums first single is Galt MacDermott’s feel-good tune ‘Good Morning Starshine’ from the 1967 hippie musical Hair. Ryder is also an accomplished songwriter. If Your Memory Serves You Well features three of her originals; ‘Weak in the Knees,’ ‘Just Another Day’ and the Randy Bachman co written song ‘Out of the Blue.’

Her 2004 release Unlikely Emergency, produced by Hawksley Workman, garnered rave reviews while she toured as the opening act for Bachman-Cummings and with Missy Higgins during one of her many visits to Australia.Ryder is currently on a 20 date tour of Australia, her ninth visit down-under, in support of the November 18th Australian release of If Your Memory Serves You Well. The tour will include stops in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne.

If Your Memory Serves You Well will be made available at traditional record retail on November 14th as well as digitally from iTunes, Puretracks, Yahoo! Music Engine, Napster and Archambault. ‘Good Morning Starshine’ is currently available digitally.

by Orlena Cain

eVent Magazine – November 22, 2006Canada’s

Serena Ryder has always been unpredictable, but never more so than with her latest recording. While most singer-songwriters wait until the twilight of their careers to cover other writers’ songs, Ryder decided to do so with her major label debut.

If Your Memory Serves You Well covers vintage Canadian songs, some written more than 70 years before the 23-year-old musician was born. It’s a daring move, but she pulls it off, putting her own stamp on all 12 covers. In the process, she shows old hacks like Rod Stewart and Barry Manilow that covers don’t have to be uninspired knock-offs of the originals.The choices here bounce all over the place, from Leonard Cohen’s Sisters of Mercy to old nuggets like Ed McCurdy’s 1949 anti-war anthem, I Had the Strangest Dream, the latter sounding as relevant today as the day it was written.

The album only offers glimpses of Ryder’s three-octave range. However, the power of her voice soars through many of these songs. Blues and jazz standards are revisited as well — Bonnie Dobson’s (Take Me For a Walk In the) Morning Dew and Shelton Brooks’ Some of These Days, for example, are injected with Ryder passion and conviction.The best here, perhaps, is her rendition of Percy Faith’s My Heart Cries for You, previously recorded by Ray Charles and Ben E. King.

The 15-song album closes with three of Ryder’s own tunes: Just Another Day, a declaration of self-determination, Weak at the Knees, a heart-wrenching confessional number, and Out of the Blue, an infectious love song Ryder co-wrote with Randy Bachman.There’s also a hidden track, a recording Ryder made of Buddy Holly’s That’ll Be the Day when she was only seven. A few lucky people caught this dynamic performer in an intimate setting at the now-defunct Costello’s on Abbott in Kelowna a few years ago. Many more saw her opening for Bachman and Cummings at Prospera Place last summer.

Have no doubt, the next time she comes to Kelowna she’ll headline her own show.

By Andre Wetjen

HELLO! (Nov 20, 2006)

Not many singer-songwriters making their major-label debut would dare issue an album featuring mostly songs by other composers - one written almost a century ago. Few would think it a wise way to make one's mark on the contemporary world stage. But Serena Ryder has done just that with the extraordinary IF YOUR MEMORY SERVES YOU WELL, a collection of Canadiana a old as Shelton Brooks' 1910 classic "Some of These Days" and as recent as Leonard Cohen's 1967 gem "Sisters of Mercy".

The 23-year-old Ryder, a native of tiny Millbrook, Ont., delivers these vintage songs with a raw, three-octave voice that's been compared to Janis Joplin's. She gives a spooky performance of Bonnie Dobson's apocalyptic folk ballad "Morning Dew" and a giddy rendition of Carmen Lombardo's vaudeville nugget "Boo Hoo". Two of the strongest cuts are among the album's most unexpected covers: a wildly passionate version of Percy Faith's "My Heart Cries For You" and an infectious update of Galt MacDermot's "Good Morning Starshine", from the hippie musical Hair.Ryder also serves up several astonishingly good originals. Her "Just Another Day" is a forceful declaration of self-determination, while her confessional "Weak in the Knees" is deeply heart-wrenching.

Mature well beyond her years, Ryder has an abundance of talent that seems certain to make her a major star. By showcasing her own compositions among songs by Raymond Lévesque, Paul Anka and others, she proves herself both a powerful vocalist and a formidable composer in her own right.

NICHOLAS JENNINGS