Andrea Curry

By Chris Connors


CHARLOTTETOWN It s a pretty safe bet that few people were more excited than Andrea Curry when the nominees for the annual East Coast Music Awards were announced Wednesday and for good reason. With nominations in three categories, the Sydney-born singer-songwriter instantly went from relative unknown to rising talent, a fact that wasn t lost on her when she received the unexpected news in between classes at Dalhousie University.

"Whoooooooooo! People are looking at me jumping up and down!" Curry, 25, said during a telephone interview from the a lounge at the Dalhousie Arts Centre where she is studying music.

"It's extremely exciting. I had this sort of feeling of dread every once in a while this week. I kept trying to forget about it because it was this constant feeling of not wanting to be disappointed and wondering if any of your hard work is paying off."

Now that she has a chance to walk away with the awards for female artist of the year, rising star of the year and pop recording of the year, all for her full-length debut album If It Doesn t Break Me, Curry said it feels "like somebody noticed what I was doing."

One person who has always noticed what Curry was doing was Barb Kowalski, her mother and biggest supporter. A well-known local union leader, Kowalski died of cancer just weeks before her daughter was slated to perform at the Sneak Peek Rising Stars showcase a last year s ECMAs in Sydney. Although she briefly considered bowing out, Curry soldiered on, dedicating what turned out to be a show-stopping performance to her mother, who she figures will be with her in spirit when the awards are handed out Feb. 27 in Charlottetown.

"Mom still is there," she said. "Every time I play, I still fell like she s there, giving me that extra nudge: Come on, Andrea, put yourself into it. Always, I feel this sense of calm before I play that I never really felt before. I always have a feeling that she's kind of there with me, kind of there listening and looking down, coming to all the shows she missed, making up for lost time."

Nova Scotia rockers Matt Mays & El Torpedo and The Trews lead the list with five nominations, followed by Cape Bretoners Gordie Sampson and J.P. Cormier who joined Lennie Gallant with four nominations each.

Sampson is up for three for SOCAN songwriter of the year awards and the single of the year award while Cormier is nominated for eligible for album, entertainer, single and folk recording.

Other multiple nominees from Cape Breton include the Barra MacNeils, who are nominated for group, entertainer and roots/traditional group recording, and Aselin Debison, who could win for female artist, single and pop recording.

Mary Jane Lamond was nominated in the female artist and roots/traditional solo recording categories, while Forever drummer Keith Dawson has a two chances to win the aboriginal recording award with nominations for his solo albums Energy, as well as Together Alone, which he recorded with Project A.D. partner Bruce Aitken.

"I'm really excited," said Dawson, adding that his biggest concern was whether there would be enough nominees to justify the category at this year s awards.

As president of the National Aboriginal Recording Industry Association, he said the nominations help as he tries to convince musicians in First Nation communities that there are opportunities for them in the music business.

"It definitely helps. It gives you credibility. Everything you say is backed up by proof. It s like actions work way more than words and that s pretty much how I m living my life. I try to go out and prove we can do it and then I can go back to our people and say this is how I did it."

Cape Bretoners with single nominations are Slowcoaster (alternative recording), Matt Minglewood (blues recording), Celtic & Traditional Lullabies from Our Cape Breton (children s recording), John Gracie (folk recording), Tom Roach (jazz recording), Jason MacDonald (pop recording), Glen Graham (roots/traditional solo recording), and Natalie and Buddy MacMaster (roots/traditional group recording).

Nominations for the ECMA 2006 Industry Awards, which recognizes the people who toil behind the scenes of the East Coast music industry, were also announced Wednesday in Charlottetown.

Among the nominees from Cape Breton are Jack Bonaparte (industry professional of the year and media person of the year), Andree Gracie (industry professional of the year and manager of the year), Cheryl Smith (graphic designer of the year), Celtic Colours International Festival (event of the year), Canso Causeway 50th Anniversary (event of the year), Fred Lavery (industry professional of the year), The Coast 89.7 FM (small market radio station of the year), Lakewind Sound Studios (studio of the year), Soundpark Studios (studio of the year), and Jamie Foulds (technician/engineer of the year).

The ECMAs begin Feb. 23 and will be capped off with the ECMA Gala Awards broadcast, hosted by the Trailer Park Boys, on CBC-TV Feb. 27 at 8 p.m.

Tickets for ECMA 2006 events, including showcases and the concert series at the Confederation Centre of the Arts, go on sale this Saturday and can be purchased by calling the ECMA 2006 ticket line at 902-569-2006.

For more information and a full list of nominees, visit www.ecma.ca.

cconnors@cbpost.com
- Cape Breton Post

CD Review by Stephen Richardson
Andrea Curry, If It Doesn't Break Me, Independent

Andrea Curry first hit the Maritime scene with her popular EP "Easy Street." Her full length debut is also done in top style. If It Doesn't Break Me is a musical effort that is sure to finally garner the respect she deserves. It is an astounding album reflecting diverse influences such as jazz, pop and rock and/or roll.

The production of Jamie Foulds of Sound Park Studios bring an intimate soundscape to each song. Sonic production combines with the singer's introspective lyrics to make it seem as though she is right in a quiet room with you. A delicate caress brings the listener Dust On My Wings, a prime indication of Miss Curry's harmonic sensitivity. The infectious Tom Petty and Me is sure to be a hit once the video hits the glass teat. Each song of If It Doesn't Break Me is a well crafted delight that makes repeated spins in the CD player a pure pleasure.

Miss Curry was careful to craft this well rounded vision and employed a Spinal Tap-esque drum section to bring out a wide range of rhythmic colors. Drummers Ashley Chalmers, Bruce Aitken and Matt Foulds fit together seamlessly. Matt Gray's jazz/rock/fusion guitar style brings the spunk and sass of tunes like Human Complexity and Representation to new echelons of eclectic electric excellence--or something to that effect. Multi-band bassist Carl Laudadio too proves his incredible musical flexibility with an unobtrusive low end while Jamie Foulds provides such a sensual musical slathering of vocal harmonies that each tune would seem naked without him.

Overall Andrea Curry is ready to take the scene by storm with the
release of If It Doesn't Break Me. Don't miss her performance
when she begins to tour; it is going to be well worth the wait.
- Stephen Richardson (Indie)

Andrea Curry was between classes when she heard the good news about her first East Coast Music award nominations. A Cape Breton Post reporter had requested an interview with the Dalhousie music student, just as the nominations were being announced. "I thought it was really odd, so i called him back and asked "did I get one?" and he said "no, you got three!" I was jumping up and down in the halls, practically incoherent," she recalls. Based on the strength of her debut album, If it Doesn't Break me, Curry is a contenter for three major awards this year: female artist, pop recording, and CBC Galaxie Rising Star. The gala awards show, hosted by the cast from Trailer Park Boys will broadcast live across Canada on Monday, February 27 at 8pm. If she wins on Monday, she won't have much time to celebrate -- "i have to come back and do a midterm right away!"

It's tricky finding time to build career momentum as a fulltime student, she admits, "but the professors help you, so you don't get too far ahead of yourself. It's a fine balance there." Curry spent the first two years of her degree studying jazz vocals at St. F.S. before switching to Dal last fall. She's expanding her technical and performance toolbox with courses like Oral Perception, which "really strengthens your ear, and what you're hearing." she says. Dalhousie is also a great place to assemble a new band and star recording a new album. Curry's curren tlineup inclues Dal music students Kinley Dowling on viola, Craig Jennex and Ben Duinker on Percussion, alumna Kerrianne Ryan on cello and St FX grad Nick MacLean on electric guitar. Music has always flowed freely through Curry- as a tot, she sung herslef to sleep and even now, many of her songs first appear as dreams. Her father is musical and her mother, who passed away last year, w"was a huge part - she was my main support." Curry played the piano and trumpet in her school band, but things gelled when her mom gave her a guitar at age 16. " I wrote a song - it was the first thing I did. I wasn't wasting any time on other people's music!" she says. "Growing up in Cape Breton, it never really occured to me that music was anythign special. It's so normal there. There are ridiculous amounts of talent, but often it never gets beyond the basement."

So the move to Halifax was a good one, but going home is always a good way to chart progress, says Curry. She hadn't played a Sydney show in more than a year, and on her last trip home, "people who hadn't heard me in a while were saying things like, "oh you can sing now!" ... - Dalhousie University Newspaper

Among the Multiple nominees at this year's East Coast Music awards in Charlottetown, among familiar names like Matt Mays adn El Torpedo, the Trews, Lennie Gallant and Gordie Sampson, one artist stood out due to her rookie status among these ranks.

Sydney singer-songwriter Andrea Curry picked up three nominations on Jan 11 - for female artist, rising star and pop recording of the year -- and over coffee at the Ardmore Tea Room, the Dalhousie music student confessed she was as suprised as anybody at her prominence among the nominees.

"I was pretty shocked, standing in the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium talking to a guy from the Cape Breton Post and jumping up and down," she laughs, "people around me must have been wondering, "what is she on?' while I'm going "AAAAAAAAAHHHHH Whaaat?"

"I checked my email, and htere was one from a guy at the post asking if i wanted to do an interview. I forgot it was the WEdnesday the nominations were coming down, and I though "why on earth would he want an interview?" So I called him on my cellphone and he told me the nominations were about to be released and wanted to talk to me, and I asked him, "Do you know something I don't know? Did I get one? Did I get one?'

" 'Well, actually you go three,' he told me. I was a basket case for the rest of the day."

Now, the determined singer is about to embark for Prince Edward Island for her first ECMA weekend as a nominee, and a hectic schedule that includes a late night showcase tonight at 12:50a.m. in the Musicstop room in the Delta. That's followed by a Saturday that starts with a 10:30am slot in the 72 hour Jam at Myron's, then a 5 p.m. instore at Music World, a 7 p.m. show with Slowcoaster adn Kakhuna Movement at Brennan's Pub, then a Sunday night 1:30am slot at Music Nova Scotia's late night suite and, most imprtant of all, a song in the pre-telecast portion of the Awards Gala at the Charlottetown Civic Centre on Monday evening.

She's bracing herself for the whirl of activity, and getting her CDs adn promo kits together, but Curry says she's already seeing the benifit of a trio of ECMA nominations in terms of work and publicity.

"It helped me get the Hawksley Workman Show!" she smiles, talkign about her opening slot at Workman's March 9 appearance at the Membertou Trade and Convention Centre. "But now I can apply for gigs and get them. OR have people call me to play. Do you know how excited I was in the fall when I saw my name in the Coast? 'Oh my God, I"m in the listings!"

"It's still going, I still get that feelign, when I see my name next to my ppers. It's just a little thing, but it's a sort of reassurance that I'm doing something right."

A warm mixture of jazz and folk, full of lyrical Images, Curry's music is easy to get into, with a voice full of personality. But she admits that her CD If it Doesn't Break Me is more a snapshot of where she was musically a year or two ago, and of late she's been reworkign arrangements and redefining her sound, and most notably while working on demos with Slowcoaster percussionist Darren Galop.

The biggest musical change has come from her studies at the Dal music department, which has helped her stretch her wings even further. I've learned a lot about vocal technique, and how to do a lot more with my vocal range, and get things out that I've wanted to get out for a long time but wasn't able to, "she explains.

"this is after studying jazz at St. F.X. and working with jazz chords and incorporating those into my songs."

Lyrically, the past year has seen Curry broaden her horizons by exploring new territory on songs like th emusical landscape of Barcelona or her humourous party piece about life as an online chat addict. Part of the shift towards more expansive lyrics comes as a result of coping with the los of her mother Barbara, to whom If It Doesn't Break Me is dedicated.

"When I wrote my early songs, I was still sort of a kid, and something like your mom dying makes you grow up really fast," says Curry. "It smacks you in the face, you say, "ok time to grow up."

"I think i talked to her every day of my life, I dont' think there was a day when I didn't and now I have to make all my own decitions, not that I didnt maky my own decision before, but now it's all me, and I do a little writing about that type of things . Sometimes it seems like I can't write unless there's some sort of tragedy or drama in my life."

And while she moved to Halifax to be with her mother, Curry still considers herself part of the Cape Breton independent music scene, with a foot on both sides of the Canso Causeway.

"I still feel like I'm officially part of Cape Breton. I mean, I'm here in halifax and I love it, but I'm very strongly tied to Cape Breton all the time. When people ask me where I'm from, I always say Cape Breton, Never Nova Scotia.

"It's almost as if I've got my own nationality, deeply rooted in green tartan."

scooke@herald.ca)

Feb 25, 2006 - Halifax Herald

If you were to say Andrea Curry has not had an easy year, it would be an understatement. It has been an eventful and emotional past year for the 25 year old musical artist Upon releasing her CD in fall of 2004, her mother fell ill. One week before her first ECMA showcase Andrea lost her mother to cancer. She has had many accomplishments this year including showcasing at the 2005 ECmas and at MIANS nova scotia music week. The announcement of Curry's three 2006 ECMA nominations for Female Artist of the year, CBC Galaxie Rising Star of the Year, and Pop Recording of the Year have secured Andrea that her music has been appreciated. Andrea has just released her first single, Tome Petty adn Me, off her CD if it doestn' break me, to readio and is set to release her second single, Afraid of the Dark. If you want to see her perform she will be featured on Global Television on the new Noon Show February 6th. This year's EMCAs have Curry performing a showcase, at th e72 hr jam, and various shows on the island, as well as during the Award Show pre-show, when many of the awards are handed out. Although that portion of the Awards show is not televised, Curry feels privileged to have been asked to perform her song, break the ice (which ironically is thename of this year's ECMAs), off her CD, if it doesn't break me.

Ken Chisholm - Boardwalk Magazine, Cape Breton