Lorelei Loveridge

Artist Information

Biography

LORELEI LOVERIDGE AND THE ‘MULTI-CULTURAL TOUR-DE-FORCE’ BAKHOOR

Canadian artist Lorelei Loveridge lived for 11 years in Saudi Arabia, pre and post 9/11, and loved it. She experienced religious zealots, compound invasions, a terrorist chase, earthquake, tsunami, war in Lebanon, crazy drivers, nutty expats and more, and survived to tell the tales in story and song.

Her physical, personal, and musical journey is documented in Bakhoor, a 4-year, 15-song album project recorded in India, Canada and Saudi Arabia. It features some of the finest players from across the globe including Brian Hughes (producer of Loreena McKennitt), Harry Manx and Lester Quitzau.

A contemporary acoustic songwriter who draws comparisons with Tracy Chapman and Joni Mitchell, Loveridge pairs a passionate political sense with an understanding of the complex personal stories that go beyond politics. Loveridge and Canadian producer Rob Hewes have woven the sounds of tabla, oud, darbuka, Tibetan overtone chants, violin, bazouki, Latin/African/slide blues guitar into a richly-textured, multicultural tour-de-force.

While “Home is Where the Heart Is”—a song about the pain of a mother and her Palestinian daughter—is the first single off of the album, U.S. songwriter and 35-time Grammy award-winning guitar legend Dick Wagner says this of Loveridge and Bakhoor: “Her vocals are hauntingly emotive, her songs are beautifully structured folk/pop creations and her musicians are world-class interpreters of her musical vision…The brilliant ‘Oh, India’ sets the tone and atmosphere for this musical journey…a journey you won’t forget. I personally love Lorelei’s music and recommend it to all seekers of sophisticated yet accessible music.”


SHORT BIO

Lorelei Loveridge is a published songwriter, recording artist, performer, world-traveller, teacher, activist, arts manager, coach, consultant, writer, photographer, director of theatre, marketer, and jill-of-all-trades in the wonderful world of independent music making. She originally hails from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and is now based in Doha, Qatar after eleven years in Saudi Arabia and three years in Manchester, UK. Loveridge is the founder of Performing Songwriters United Worldwide (PSUW) with a current membership of nearly 3,000. Orderly Bazaar Records & Publishing is a globally mobile boutique label, music adventure company and multi-media publisher specialized in ‘roots, rock, ethnic, jazz, fusion and other travel-related shenanigans’.


QUOTES AND REVIEWS

"Lovely voice...be very proud of where you have taken your music." - David Kershenbaum (Producer, Tracy Chapman), USA

"Astounding talent." - Julian Lewry, Julian Lewry Music, UK

"The album is brilliant." - Dave Ward, CKUA Radio "The Afternoon Edition", Canada

"Wonderful, new Middle Eastern influenced album. A wonderful outing." - Grant Stovel, CKUA Radio "Alberta Disc-overies", Canada

"It's serious stuff." - Mike Sadava, Penguin Eggs Magazine, Canada's Folk, Roots, and World Music Magazine

"A wonderful recording and project throughout. I really appreciate the commitment, attention to detail, production quality, songwriting skill and performances by everyone involved." - Holger Peterson, President, Stony Plain Records, Canada's Roots, Rock, Country, Folk, & Blues Label

"Like the fragrance of foreign lands, the most memorable quality of the album might be the intangible social insights that seep out from between the lines of Loveridge's songs, on top of the potent images and stories she has woven into this entertaining travelogue...Despite the entrancing music, the greatest strengths of Bakhoor might be in the storytelling. Loveridge was in a unique position to observe the overlap of eastern and western cultures, clashing religious beliefs, rich and poor, terrorism and war, and documents the humanity with an acute vision." - Roger Levesque, Edmonton Journal, Canada

"A 15-track opus. Wow, this gal gets around!" - SEE Magazine, Edmonton, Canada

"Beautiful. Fantastic CD. So listenable, there's so much in it. The front cover is fantastic: 36 small pictures. Every time I look at the CD, I'm seeing something different. They're telling me a story. Oh, India is my favorite. I'm just so envious of the life she's led. " - Ali O'Brien, 'Ali O'Brien's Sounds of Folk', Oldham Community Radio, UK

"Lorelei Loveridge's gig at the Blue Chair was phenomenal! She is one of the best storytellers around. Beautiful voice, her song writing is spectacular and the patter between songs both heartfelt and enlightening. In all, just a mesmerizing performance!" - Sarah Pocklington, Asani, Award winning Aboriginal women's vocal trio, Canada

"Finally Lorelei Loveridge, our visitor from Canada, entertained us royally with some from her latest album of which I Need To Go and Home Is Where The Heart Is...were outstanding." - Don and Heather Davies, Sale Folk Club News, UK

"Wow!! I’m sincerely enjoying these songs and can’t believe how well she tells a story in the lyrics. It’s clear she’s actually spent time in some of these places. Lived it. Not just travelled through in a 5-star." - Daniel Thompson, MyExpatRadio.com, Dubai, UAE

"A female version of Paul Simon insomuch as experimentation, openness and confidence in her music as well as musical ability. I think she'll go far!" – Ursula, 'The EXR Unsigned Show', 96.9 FM The Real Voice of Manchester, UK

"Don't miss her world; don't miss her." - Debbie Busby, Folk Northwest, UK


MANAGEMENT

• Canada/US: Thank you to Ted Crouch of Acoustic Avenue Music (Bill Bourne/Tri-Continental) for 2008-09 support. Tour support in Canada is now provided by Marsha Wright of Canmore.
• UK/Europe: Orderly Bazaar Records & Publishing
• India/Middle East/Africa: BEAMS of Bajaj International (Kitaro) from 2008-2010. Presently, Orderly Bazaar Records & Publishing

CURRENTLY INVITING APPLICATIONS FOR MGMT AND/OR TOUR SUPPORT, WORLDWIDE.

Instrumentation

Lorelei Loveridge - vox/acoustic guitar/bouzouki (on occasion)

Discography

• Bakhoor (2008) - 15 song 'multi-cultural tour-de-force' produced by Rob Hewes and Lorelei Loveridge; recorded in India, Canada and Saudi Arabia over 4 years.
• Endless Contradictions (1995) - 5 song EP produced by Jamie Kidd (kd lang); track 1 'To You' licensed for synchronization by the producers of 'Party of Five' and 'Dawson Creek'.

Links

• MySpace
• Facebook
• Twitter
• YouTube
• Reverbnation

Audio

• Oh, India
  Listen  
• Home Is Where The Heart Is
  Listen  
• Not Like Us
  Listen  
• I Need to Go
  Listen  
• You Live
  Listen  
• Nepal
  Listen  
• Imshee Ma'aia (Walk With Me)
  Listen  
• We Party On
  Listen  
• You're the One
  Listen  

Lyrics

• Oh, India
• Home Is Where the Heart Is
• Not Like Us
• I Need to Go
• You Live
• Nepal

Video

Photo Gallery

Press

• Lorelei Loveridge - Bakhoor [+ Show ]
  

  Her name may sound like a Harry Potter character, but Loveridge is actually a well respected Canadia...Her name may sound like a Harry Potter character, but Loveridge is actually a well respected Canadian singer-songwriter. Well respected and well travelled. Coming together over four years and recorded in and drawing on the cultures of India, Canada and Saudi Arabia, the latter her home for 11 years (having travelled around over 20 countries she now lives in England), it marries the personal and the geopolitical with instrumentation that includes tabla, ourd, bazouki, violin,African guitar, mandolin, and congas.
  Her ability to seamlessly blend musical cultures is evident from the opening Oh, India, a yearning for spiritual escape that finds tablas, sitar and mohan veena stirring a Bollywood rhythm while the melody line and Loveridge's crystal stream vocals conjure vintage folksy Joni.
  
  Mitchell's a recurring comparison, indeed 30 Seconds To Save Your Life could have come from Ladies of the Canyon or Blue while Home Is Where The Heart Is, a song about a Palestinian woman, her mother and the futility of martrydom, harks to her later, jazzier tinged work. You might hear shades of Tracy Chapman too on Not Like Us, a rant against religious zealots and the blinkered war-mongers that mingles banjo and Tibetan chanting, the romantic Funky Funky Fingertips surely harks to a record collection featuring music by Carole King, Chi Coltrane and Rita Coolidge.
  
  Covering the musical map You're The One welcomes Brian Hughes to bring rippling African guitar grooves, We Party On (written on a Saudi wildlife reserve) is a spoken club groove with Indian drone, and Imshee Ma'aia is an instrumental fusing the Arabic and Indian.
  
  The lyrics strike too. You Live is a tribute to Saudi women (perversely featuring a flamenco mood Spanish guitar), Liberty Is A Bus observes how the Cuban revolution (and by inference others where politics became more important than the crusade) did little for the ordinary man, What You've Seen is a poignant response to the 2004 Tsunami in Malaysia (where she was staying at the time) and Is It Deep Enough moves from a fire that killed pilgrims in Mecca and a public beheading to images of the haves and have nots in an existential meditation on the world.
  
  A tremendous combination of words, music and voice, this is an album to seep under the skin and become part of your musical blood stream. The title refers to a heady Arabian incense burned as a purification. Breathe her songs in deeply and you'll understand why it's so appropriate.

• Singer-songwriter brings worldly message home: New CD draws on experience of living abroad [+ Show ]
  

  It's welcome back week for Lorelei Loveridge, the Edmonton-raised singer-songwriter who has returned...It's welcome back week for Lorelei Loveridge, the Edmonton-raised singer-songwriter who has returned home to launch an album after more than a decade abroad.
  
  Even before you hear any of the tunes on Bakhoor, it's apparent she has been busy seeing the world, given the exotic passport stamps and photographs in the CD graphics.
  
  A note explains that Bakhoor is a type of Arabian incense, and the title seems entirely appropriate as you gradually sniff your way through the hour-long, 15-track collection.
  
  Like the fragrance of foreign lands, the most memorable quality of the album might be the intangible social insights that seep out from between the lines of Loveridge's songs, on top of the potent images and stories she has woven into this entertaining travelogue.
  
  "Somewhere along the way I realized I really wanted to travel the world," explains Loveridge. "I'm trained in English and drama so it's always been natural to put my experiences into stories, and all of that filtered into my songwriting. In the end, it took about four years to bring it together in the way I wanted to on this album."
  
  An initial EP of Loveridge's songs drew notice before she left Edmonton in 1996, with the intention of settling in Britain after a short tour of the Middle East. Instead, she wound up working for 11 years in Taif, a small city in Saudi Arabia, teaching at an American international school, using her extended holidays to travel around the region and further east to India, Nepal and Bali. She finally followed up on her original plan and moved to Manchester, England, in 2007.
  
  Loveridge had already pursued an interest in world music before she left, taking vocal lessons with local Indian music and dance instructor Usha Gupta.
  
  When she first went to India on a break from her teaching in 1998, more lessons in guitar and vocals expanded the musical possibilities.
  
  She met various musicians in India and even recorded some demos there.
  
  The tunes she dubs "roots rock ethnic jazz fusion" were recorded partly in Saudi Arabia, India and Canada during her holiday breaks.
  
  Locally, she was able to get guitarists Brian Hughes and Lester Quitzau to guest on some tracks, while co-producer Rob Hewes adds guitar and keyboards, Anna Beaumont and Gupta add vocals, and Cathy Chalmers plays drums and percussion. But some tracks have a deeper ethnic feel, like Imshee Ma'aia (Walk With Me), which features several Arabic percussionists, and the opening song Oh India, which includes Harry Manx on Mohan Veena and extra players on tabla and conga drums.
  
  Despite the entrancing music, the greatest strengths of Bakhoor might be in the storytelling. Loveridge was in a unique position to observe the overlap of eastern and western cultures, clashing religious beliefs, rich and poor, terrorism and war, and documents the humanity with an acute vision.
  
  Guitarist Hewes, bassist Travis Switzer and drummer Matthew Atkins will join Loveridge for the CD release party tonight at the Blue Chair Cafe.
  __
  
  
  BY ROGER LEVESQUE, FREELANCE
  MAY 7, 2009
  
  LORELEI LOVERIDGE BAKHOOR CD RELEASE
  
  Where: Blue Chair Cafe, 9624 76th Ave.
  
  When: Tonight at 8
  
  Tickets: $15; reservations recommended at 780-989-2861
  
  © Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal

• Bakhoor, Lorelei Loveridge, Orderly Bazaar Records & Publishing [+ Show ]
  

  The arrival of Lorelei Loveridge’s CD brought with it a warming Oriental breeze to dispel the shiver...The arrival of Lorelei Loveridge’s CD brought with it a warming Oriental breeze to dispel the shivers induced by a frosty early Yorkshire spring. Featuring absolutely superb musicans from across the globe complemented by truly stunning production values this is a musical world to immerse oneself in.
  
  Lorelei Loveridge was born in Canada but soon felt the need to travel and these songs evoke the sounds, sights and even smells of these journeys. Her simply beautiful voice is perfectly supported by glorious washes of sonic colour, with oriental instruments often supporting or leading the musical discourse.
  
  Though the recording works best as an entity, stand out tracks include ‘Home is Where the Heart Is’ about a quest for justice in the holy land; ‘Nepal’ where the accompaniment of tabla & violin works perfectly and, possibly most memorably, ‘You Live’ where the nylon strung guitar weaves a magical spell around the poetry of the words.
  
  The four years of commitment in creating this beautiful piece of work, where the lavish production values also extend to the CD booklet and label, was worth every minute. I have no hesitation in urging you to head to Lorelei’s MySpace site to capture some of the magic for yourself.
  
  My only regret is that I had to miss seeing Lorelei at Raggalds Acoustic in April but I very much hope she will return to West Yorkshire soon.
  
  - Joe Grint

• Lorelei Wows a Royal Exchange Crowd [+ Show ]
  

  On Friday 27th February in the Royal Exchange's Great Hall, Lorelei Loveridge treated her audience t...On Friday 27th February in the Royal Exchange's Great Hall, Lorelei Loveridge treated her audience to a vibrant, challenging musical experience. With simple but effective accompaniment, Loveridge delivered a distinctive performance.
  
  Her songs are full of rhythm and pace, her voice both yearning and knowing. Her work is steeped in a sense of place - finding yourself in place in 'Oh, India' and the surrendering of self to the experience of place in 'Nepal'. The pull of heart pulses through her music. In 'Home Is Where The Heart Is' the music soars away from and then back into the unflinching lyric - "there's your man, locked in a jail in Jerusalem". Her lyrics wrestle artfully with multi-dimensional experience as in the question "what good will martyrdom do?" addressing simultaneously the personal and the political, and in "a little deprivation, so that I may gain" holding the material and spiritual in an ever-changing balance. They also address the specifics of a place. In "Nepal" we are given the "songs of the dogs and the fiddlers sound" to run with and "an ode to the mountain, and an ode to the man". The human predicament is ever present.
  
  Loveridge reaches out to her audience; there are moments when she releases a note, head arched back, and in these moments we are given something from the inside, something of pure spirit. Most of the songs she sang on Friday night are taken from her new CD "Bakhoor". If you get the chance to see her, please do. It will open your mind in a new and invigorating way.
  
  - Alan Spencer

• Lorelei Loveridge Live at the Astley Arms, Dukinfield on January 6th, 2009 [+ Show ]
  

  “Lorelei Loveridge is playing the Astley Arms in Dukinfield on January 6th" said an e-mail. I had he...“Lorelei Loveridge is playing the Astley Arms in Dukinfield on January 6th" said an e-mail. I had her cd, I’d seen her live before, I loved
  her music and her presence, “I’m going”, I decided. I hadn’t been in Tameside for a while; I asked work colleagues if they knew the
  venue, or at least the road: “Leave the motorway where that shopping centre is”...er…“Go past that pub where they have the quiz on
  Thursdays”...ummm…they didn’t get how unfamiliar I was with “Ducky”.
  
  I checked a route planner, and set off. Left the motorway and arrived at a pub called the Astley Arms – it seemed too small, quiet, as I
  entered. The kind lady at the bar explained pityingly to me that this was the “bottom” Astley, and I was probably looking for the “top”
  Astley (the next day a friend was to enlighten me that Dukinfield is the proud owner of a “top”, “middle” and “bottom” Astley). Like
  Goldilocks, I found the Astley that was just right; a beautifully imposing white building at the top of a hill, next to an impressive church.
  
  I hadn’t paid full attention to the e-mail: it was a folk night, with a number of artists doing their things; Lorelei was their guest singer. I
  surprised myself by enjoying everybody who sang, though I don't know why I was surprised, I dip in and out of the folk scene quite
  frequently and am always moved by the sincerity of the performers and the beauty of their songs. Lorelei, of course, was no exception.
  She is a world traveller of the most open-hearted and generous persuasion, and her songs are of people, events and emotions
  experienced across many continents and in many times. Her sweet, strong, sensual vocals combined effortlessly with a guitar sound
  layered with feeling, purity and depth. Poised and impassioned, she sang about a young girl torn between home and the love of a
  freedom fighter; she challenged our perception of those who do battle for “their” land; we celebrated the intensity of India; and
  witnessed the beauty and tragedy of a Nepalese village. In an unnervingly poignant “Not Like Us”, Lorelei held up a mirror to the “boys
  with stones” who have grown up to send deadlier missiles across their borders, and I found myself recalling recent images I'd seen in
  Gaza streets and hospitals. "Some of Us" touched me deeply when I first heard it, and all but tipped me over the edge this time,
  reflecting the unbearable pain of loss in many forms. It must surely speak to so many who are moving through their own grief.
  
  In her songwriting, not a word is wasted, wrongly chosen, or misplaced. As she sang to us, she was so supremely sure that every note
  would emerge perfectly on key, in tune, with the sweetest expression, and so it did. But it wasn’t simply the beauty of the songs
  themselves that made Lorelei’s presence spellbinding: in between her gifts she regaled us with tales of her travels: occasions she’d
  witnessed, people she’d met, moments she’d shared. As with her songs, so with her impromptu eloquence; every next word the perfect
  choice to take us with her on her many journeys. So many of her reflections of Middle-Eastern culture resonated with me, sending me
  back to my own travels among the Arab diaspora; I longed to head right back there.
  
  Lorelei has called her latest album Bakhoor (incense). See it, feel it, smell it, be it – incense can move anywhere. Bakhoor will take
  you to many places, in many times. Lorelei took us there from Dukinfield – where will you travel from? Don’t miss her world; don’t miss
  her.
  
  - Debbie Busby
  

Setlist

Currently performing songs from the 'multi-cultural tour-de-force' Bakhoor with a smattering of other newer and older material plus the odd cover tailored to the needs of each audience.

Basic Requirements

Calendar