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SINGLE 'THE DANCE' HERE
Award-winning singer-songwriter and contemporary composer Carmen Braden shares her new album, A Hard Light, out now on all digital streaming platforms. Listen here. Carmen is also featuring 'The Dance' as the fourth single from the album, following previous singles 'Voice In The Dark', 'An Invite' and 'Really Pretty'.
With her latest single, 'The Dance,' the Yellowknife-based musician gives us a soul-soothing roots blues track that feels like a fresh breath of air from a bygone era. With its laid-back acoustic strumming and emotive yet abrasive delivery, the song evokes a nostalgic, almost cinematic vibe that would fit right in with the folk-rock gems of the 90s. The song was birthed during the isolating days of the pandemic, when Carmen, like many of us, found herself navigating moments of personal frustration.
"I wrote the core idea for 'The Dance' during the COVID lockdown," says Carmen. "One day I had a shift in attitude about something that was frustrating me, it might have been something with my really young kids, a relationship, the state of the world - I can’t even remember now exactly what! I decided instead of being frustrated and upset with it - ok, mostly with myself - I would treat it like a chance to play, to invite this frustrating thing closer and see what happens."
Carmen's new album, A Hard Light, is the latest collaboration with her longtime producer and friend Mark Adam. Two years in the making, it's a full, groove-based, up-front album diving into 9 beautifully sonic-crafted omnivorous songs. The album grew out of her 2021 Seed Songs album and songwriting process, evolving beyond into fuller creations. A couple of the tracks are “grown-up” versions of the little seeds. Like 'The Dance' which grew into a deeper, fuller track with a grittier groove; or the song 'The Weather', which was originally a 1-minute stripped-down version called 'Grief Wine Whiskey' and is now much more expansive. Other tracks, like the first single 'Voice in the Dark', were songs that Carmen waited years to bring to fruition in the studio.
Says Carmen: "I love the strength of the rhythms and textures of this album, and the courage that I’ve gained through making this album with Mark. When I listen, I can hear that courage, and the trust between us in the spaces between sounds, in the mistakes that we kept in that somehow fit perfectly, and in the balance of simplicity and depth."
A Hard Light is available now on Spotify, Apple Music/iTunes, and other digital retailers and streaming services worldwide. For more information, please visit carmenbraden.com.
Tracklisting:
Carmen Braden - A Hard Light
(Independent)
01. An Invite
02. Voice In The Dark
03. Daughter
04. Really Pretty
05. The Dance
06. The Weather
07. 8 Ball
08. The Fall
09. Patience Of The Cactus