Tag Archive for: Amelia Curran

Amelia Curran’s Powerful Video on Ending the Stigma of Seeking Treatment for Mental Health Problems

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Amelia Curran is a great singer/songwriter from Newfoundland. I bought and love two of her earlier albums, “Spectators” and “Hunter, Hunter.” She has a new album due out this month and has chosen this time to make and release this powerful video advocating for the end of the stigmas attached to treatment for mental health conditions, and for increased funding for treatment. Implicit in her plea is improving efforts at suicide prevention. I tweeted to her that it’s great, and not just for Newfoundland/Labrador, though her plea is specifically for NL. It’s a very moving video with sung parts taken by about two dozen musicians (like Alan Doyle of Great Big Sea) and many local people. It’s crowd-sourced in the best way, and Amelia put it all together with good people. Very eager to hear her new album, “They Promised You Mercy.”


http://youtu.be/nOqbTHl7b1M

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New Music for the New Year

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Every year on Boxing Day the online music seller Zunior.com, which specializes in Canadian indie music, has a half-price sale that prompts me to splurge on lots of new tune-age. Album downloads, normally $8.88, become $4.44 for the day. Here’s a list of what I bought this past week.

  • Two albums by Newfoundland singer songwriter Amelia Curran, “Hunter, Hunter,” released in 2009, and “Spectators” from 2012. I love her voice, lyrics, and spare instrumentation, especially on “Hunter, Hunter,” which includes the memorable ballad, “Bye Bye Montreal.”
  • Danny Michel’s 2012 “Blackbirds Are Dancing Over Me,” which was recorded in Belize with the accompaniment of the Benque Players, aka the Garifuna Collective. As explained on his website, instrumentation on this album includes “Maya guitar,  turtle shells,  donkey jaw-bone and traditional Garifuna segunda and primero drums.” There’s a great Caribbean vibe to the whole album, heard for instance on the opening track, “What Colour Are You?”
  • The Gertrudes, a 10-piece outfit from Kingston, Ontario, are a kind of folk orchestra, or as I’ve recently seen it put, a “folkestra.” Their 2011 album “Till the Morning Shows Her Face to Me” opens with the great song “Derby Girl” and also includes the instantly likable “Summer Plans.”
  • The Japandroids’ are a rock duo whose “Celebration Rock” was one of the hit albums
  • Mo Kenney
  • The Guthries
  • The Wooden Sky
  • Justin Rutledge
  • Matt Mays
  • The Constantines Kensington Heights
  • Mohawk Lodge Damaged Goods
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