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
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