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.
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.
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