Farrell Spence

Farrell Spence is a Canadian Roots/Americana singer and songwriter who hails from Vancouver, Canada.[1]

In April 2007 she released her first album, A Town Called Hell. It was received well and garnered positive reviews from various UK, Irish and American music magazines who focus on the Americana/Bluegrass scene and artists within it.

Spence has performed to houses in her hometown of Vancouver as well as in Ireland, the UK and Italy. In Vancouver in 2008 she joined an ensemble band with Trish Klein and Frazey Ford of The Be Good Tanyas, Simon Kendall of Doug and The Slugs, Rob Wilson, Mark Beatty, Khari McClelland and John Raham for a series of live gospel shows titled The Sweet Sounds Gospel Show.

In June 2008 Spence moved to Cork, Ireland to write the songs for a new CD in a new environment. She worked with several Irish musicians from Eoghan Regan and David Murphy, to famed Dublin slide-guitar player, NC Lawlor. While she wrote most of the material for her second CD, Song for the Sea, in Ireland, in the end she decided to work with Italian guitar player and lyricist, Francesco Forni, to complete the project. The two had found a sound and a tone together that was unrivalled in previous shows and recordings.

In the spring of 2009 Spence and Forni began playing live dates in Italy, Ireland and Northern Ireland. They were then invited to an interview and live performance on BBC Radio in May 2009 after they were seen performing at The Errigle Inn in Belfast. The two then collaborated on the recording of Spence's second album, Song for the Sea, which they recorded in room 501 of Ripa Hotel in Rome, Italy. Spence and Forni were seeking an organic and natural sound when they set out to record the second album and the result was exactly that. They released the much anticipated recordings from Song for the Sea to packed houses at live shows in Rome, Italy, on 8 and 9 September 2011 at Teatro Valle and Riunione Di Condiminio.

Song for the Sea will be released in North America in October 2011.

Two of Spence's songs were licensed for Showtime's 'The Chris Isaak Show' and she can be heard on regular rotation on CBC Radio in Canada, RTÉ Radio in Ireland, BBC Radio in the UK and a myriad of college and independent radio stations and net-stations broadcasting from the USA, Canada and Europe.

Discography

Reviewers' comments

Nowadays it is common for songs to be over produced, so it is comforting to hear the simplicity that can be found in Farrell's honest and exposed vocals and lyrics as well as guitar playing, yet still get a very confident delivery of an album.
—Fiona Clark, Maverick Magazine (England)
She has a haunting quality all her own which hints at longevity and suggests shows of this nature will become a thing of the past as her popularity grows. Discover her before she moves to the next level.
—Tim Peacock, Suite 101 (Ireland)
Farrell Spence delivers an album of sweet backwoods ballads charting the claustrophobic relationships and stunted dreams of isolated prairie town life: "Nothing ever happens in a town called hell". She's no Judith Chalmers that's for sure. It has a dusty wind blown lonesome flavour with clear and crisp playing of acoustic and steel guitar and occasional fiddle; sweet sounding but at the same time an indie album that steers clear of schmaltz and over production.
—Andrew Duwall, The Line of the Best Fit (England)
A Town Called Hell - A stunning debut album from Canadian-based singer-songwriter Farrell Spence, whose songs of life on the edge are both real and completely compelling. Real songs, real feelings / raw songs, raw feelings…this is an album for those of us who know the world around us is not and is never going to be perfect, but for as long as we have the Farrell Spences of this world giving us just that flicker of hope in their vocals that maybe, just maybe, there's a chance it might just get better, we should support and cherish the music they make that gets the rest of us through. A stunning debut and a collection of songs that deserved to be heard.
—Malcolm Carter, Penny Black Music Magazine (England)

References

  1. ↑ Sgritta, Alessandro (28 August 2007). "Farrell Spence al Cantiere il 31 agosto con Ciccaglione, De Nuzzo e Acustimantico" (in Italian). Musicalnews.com. Retrieved 15 June 2010.

External links