Valery Gore

Artist Information

Biography

Valery Gore possesses the ability to dissolve the boundaries between age, time, and music. She is as in love with the past as she is obsessed with the modernity of strange, subtle noises and how a piano is meant to sound when its keys fall under her fingers.

Valery began piano lessons at eight years old in a white wooden house on a quaint tree-lined street, by the public school in the small town of Ridgeway, Ontario. She was the girl exposing four-hundred peers to F.E. Vanderbeck, Queen and Chopin at her school assemblies. Classically trained, schooled in Jazz at Humber College, and raised on pop and soul, the young Valery is already a songwriter to be reckoned with.

Gore has toured and shared shows with acts such as Joel Plaskett, Jorane, Josh Ritter, Peter Elkas, Luke Doucet, Justin Rutledge, Jill and Matt Barber, Tracy Bonham, Lindy, Esthero, Simon Wilcox, Brian Byrne, Dallas Green, and many others.

In the weeks following its Canadian release, Valery Gore's debut album reached college charts between Fredericton and Victoria.

Gore's self titled debut was released in the Benelux (Six Shooter/Bertus) June 2006, and Germany (Six Shooter/Cargo Records) in September 2006 to excellent reviews. Around the same time, the video for Dancing (VideoFact) spent a few weeks on Bravo Video's Top 30.

Valery recently toured Tokyo and performed with many Japanese artists. Now working away to record her second album in early 2007, more release details are on the way.

Prominent influences for Valery have been Tori Amos, Ben Folds, Elliott Smith, Fiona Apple, Bjork, Laura Nyro, Rufus Wainwright, Van Morrison and Paul Simon.

Instrumentation

Joshua VanTassel - Drums
Devon Henderson - Bass
Christine Bougie - Guitar
Valery Gore - Piano/Vocals

Discography

Valery Gore - S/T April 2005
Valery Gore - New Album to be released in 2007
streaming audio available at http://www.myspace.com

Official Website

http://www.valerygore.com

Audio

Video

Photo Gallery

Press

• NOW Magazine NNNN Critic's Pick [+ Show ]
  

  There's nothing more potent than a gal and her piano. Tori Amos redefined how we look at the instrum...There's nothing more potent than a gal and her piano. Tori Amos redefined how we look at the instrument, Sarah Slean made her concerto-like soundscapes accessible, and now Gore is breaking new ground with this worthy debut. Her quirky, poetic verse is delivered in a voice with earthy roots and cabaret flair. It's hard to grasp where the songs are heading, but this is Gore's strength. She goes from gritty tavern-blues ballad to tiptoeing as a delicate songstress, quietly chiming the piano keys. Attention to detail textures the album with a style that's confident and playful.
  -Jessica Russell

• NXNE SIX QUICK PICKS - EYE MAGAZINE [+ Show ]
  

  This local chanteuse's self-titled debut album, just a month after release, has already achieved the...This local chanteuse's self-titled debut album, just a month after release, has already achieved the ultimate benchmark for all intriguing artists: it instantly divides listeners between enthusiasts and antagonists. But Gore's cryptic cabaret-tone poems are a revelation for those who prefer their pop with some assembly required.
  
  - Stuart Berman
  

• Umbrella Music [+ Show ]
  

  It's easy to become skeptical towards the persona of singer/songwriter these days. Though artists li...It's easy to become skeptical towards the persona of singer/songwriter these days. Though artists like Rufus Wainwright and sarah Slean have brought some new blood to the title, they are but a few of the best who soar over a sea of bland imitators. Valery Gore, a jazz trained but rock reared pianist and vocalist who has recently joined the hallowed ranks of Six Shooter Records, clearly breaks through this lower bracket with her self-titled debut.
  
  This record accomplishes two things: first of all, it proves that she can, out of nowhere, put out a record that ranks alongside the quality of legendary label mates like Luke Doucet and Martin Tielli. Secondly, it might just bring some new fans to the label's audience, as Gore brings her eclectic tastes and experiences to forefront of her songwriting and performing talents.
  
  Though only 40 minutes in length, the album takes the listener across a melodious tapestry that defies expectations. The opener "Elliott Goes" immediately perks the ears, blending Victorian austerity with playful staccato rhythms. While she gets a lot of help from her backing musicians on some of the record's more notable moments, numbers like "Delorla" and "Song for Six" showcase her ability to hold a listener's attention with her quick fingers and dynamic singing voice only. "White Pills" marks a jazzy departure from the rest of the material, while the strongest effort on the release is "Waded", a beautifully arranged series of motifs that are sure to evoke a thoroughly emotive response from listeners.
  
  While it's true that much of the album could be mistaken for Sarah Slean or Regina Spektor, it remains clear throughout the record that Ms. Gore has an already polished and professional style of her own that will undoubtedly develop into something much more powerful over future efforts.
  
  Rating: 7
  - Steve Birek

• Toronto Star Article [+ Show ]
  

  MAKE WAY FOR VALERY GORE She is more than just a singer/pianist Resemblance to Sarah Slean is co...
  MAKE WAY FOR VALERY GORE
  She is more than just a singer/pianist
  Resemblance to Sarah Slean is coincidental
  
  Valery Gore, as a young, female singer/songwriter who plays the piano, has already attracted her share of comparisons to Tori Amos and Sarah Slean - with more of the same expected now that her eponymous debut has been released by Six Shooter Records.
  "A lot of people think I'm trying to copy her," says Gore, 22, of the resemblance to Slean who, in turn, had to face her own barrage of comparisons to Amos. "There is just something about a woman singing and playing the piano that seems to bring that out."
  Listening to the disc's opening track, "Elliott Goes," with its dramatic singing and cabaret-style piano, the similarities to Gore's predecessors are unavoidable. Gradually, other touchstones also emerge, from early Elton John to jazz pianist Keith Jarrett, until they all blend together into something that gradually emerges as her own.
  Gore, who grew up in the Niagara Peninsula town of Ridgeway and moved to Toronto five years ago, is also the sum of her musical experience, a conservatory-trained classical pianist who took her first tentative stabs at writing pop music while studying jazz at Humber College. The piano is not an incidental element in her compositions.
  "People are always telling me that I don't have to play so much," she says. "But that's where I came from. I'm a pianist first.
  "I was a secret singer for the longest time. I didn't have the confidence to do what I wanted to do, but every time my parents left the house I would get on the piano and sing. They never really heard me sing until my third year of college."
  By then, Gore had started working on some of the 11 songs that appear on the disc, which has its official launch with a live set tonight at the Super Market in Kensington.
  "I didn't really write songs before I started playing jazz," she says. "It really teaches you a lot about that. You have to be brave. I used to have these improv classes where you just had to suck it up and do it. You knew that it sounded awful, but that's how you learned.
  "I was going through a lot of transitions when I wrote the songs for this album. That's why a lot of the songs deal with themes of family and transition."
  
  - VIT WAGNER - Pop Music Critic

• Exclaim Album Review
  

  Gore has the chops and talent to be a serious competitor.

• PureTracks.com [+ Show ]
  

  Valery Gore is the type of musician that draws one in with musicianship and then owns you with her i...Valery Gore is the type of musician that draws one in with musicianship and then owns you with her intelligence and imagery

Setlist

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