Cori Brewster

Yet another distinctive and talented Canadian ready to be discovered
Canadian Cori Brewster is a musical treasure just waiting to be discovered. On this, her third album, she deftly weaves threads of country, folk, bluegrass and roots music into a rich and compelling tapestry. Most of the songs are self-penned and explore the simple joys of life. Don’t take that to mean that this is lightweight fare. Far from it, there’s a real depth to this woman’s writing.
The opening Look For the Sun has an optimistic vibe driven by an infectious melody, intuitive lyrics and first-class vocalising. There’s a compelling country feel here, the kind that the Nashville mainstream lost to heavy-handed rock production years ago; melodic Dobro, banjo, mandolin and acoustic guitars and light-as-a-feather vocal harmonies. Just as memorable is the lyricism of What Casanova Told Me. Great subdued electric guitar, an accordion way back in the mix help to enhance Cori’s warm and heartfelt vocals. She turns in a neat rendition of Cheryl Wheeler’s Gandhi/Buddha, one of only two outside songs; again it is clothed in a sensitive musical arrangement and with delicate vocal harmonies. Ethereal Dobro picking opens Dark Country a gorgeous evocation of the wildness of her Alberta homeland, Then there’s the wondrous She’s Still Beautiful all about a young woman who turns her back on a promising singing career to settle down to the hard graft of being a rancher’s wife. Told so simply and sensitively it is the ideal closing track on a captivating and impeccably produced album that has you immediately reaching for the repeat button. Alan Cackett

- Maverick, UK

It’s been several years since Cori Brewster last released a disc. Parenthood will gobble up time quickly like that. Those in that phase of life generally return with a new-found appreciation for music and what it can mean. Brewster has a sweet voice of positivity that lends itself well to the self-penned tracks of life, love, time and discovery. Once dabbling in the Nashville country realm, she has resurrected with a style less confining that allows her to slip in and out of genres as they suit her mood. Musically, the recording is solid to the core with some very nice inflections that please the ear and never succumb to excess. Brewster professes in the liner notes to be heading out on the road to discover corners of Canada she has yet to experience. When you live in Canmore, AB, though, leaving can be a hard thing to do” Chris Martin Penguin Eggs
- Penguin Eggs

The large bird leaving in the title of Cori Brewster’s new CD is definitely not a trumpeter swan since her calls are not limited to mating for life. No, this bird's songs have an expansive range and are more like a great grey owl with its wisdom or a blue heron with its precise and patient step. Flying over land that feels both recognizably Canadian and new and unfamiliar, the CD reflects the whimsical and layered imagination of an eclectic and mature songwriter. Large Bird Leaving meditates on both beauty in a dark country and its underside, the darkness lurking in beauty. From songs like “Dark Country,”“She’s Still Beautiful” and “Look for the Sun” that explicitly address such themes, to the more existential and spiritual reveries, the CD’s overall tone could be best described oxymoronically as cynically optimistic. Neither sweetly optimistic nor darkly cynical but rather, a cross-breed between them, Large Bird’s maturity dwells in its acknowledgment of life’s limitations while it still dares to hope. Like the speaker of “Broken Compass,” Large Bird Leaving is “looking for the beauty/ looking for the meaning/ looking for some sort of sign” yet has the intelligence to recognize such meaning and signs come in small bursts of sun, often coupled with clouds of ambiguity and imperfection. The point is not to arrive at meaning, but to wink at the Buddha lurking in the back yard and to be brave enough to hop on its back for wherever the journey takes you.
Brewster’s mature imagination is not only displayed by her explicit themes though it is there too: for instance, in the difficulty of balancing domestic and creative lives, in the acknowledgment of loss, and in the brooding irony behind the “Good Catholic Girl”. However, her unlikely marriage of comedy and tragedy also emerges when tragic lyrics are paired with comic music or vice versa. This dissonant mood is perhaps strongest felt listening to “Philosopher King” where the quick cheerful rhythm is matched with the story of a homeless man, Cal Leavitt, who died on the streets of Calgary. The result is a brilliant testament celebrating Leavitt, his accomplishments and his eccentricity, yet one that also recognizes the politics of poverty. A more naive and earnest voice would have rendered Leavitt’s story a didactic lesson but Brewster’s vivacious song breathes both beauty and darkness into his life. I hear a similar tension in “Push you Away,” my favorite song on the CD, where the desire to break away from a lover is accompanied by a steady whispering drum beat that reminds us there is a before and after to ourselves outside of our relationships (the song, itself, has an after in that I kept humming it for days after I heard it).
The darkness in these songs – the “imperfection” Brewster sings about so sweetly you almost forget that the world is imperfect – is not answered with grand polemics or superman tactics (though her songs often have a political edge and superman does make an appearance in “Let’s Fly” even if only to fall down like us all). The antidote to darkness is life’s gift of spontaneous and random acts of beauty: the gift of friendship in “Gandhi/Buddha,” the “beauty behind the lines” in “She’s Still Beautiful,” and the sun “through the pouring rain” in “Look for the Sun.” The trick is to “open up your eyes,” and to listen to Casanova who counsels us to “be brave enough to lose your way,” to rip up the map, never travel the same way home and journey into the unknown. You might be surprised by what you find when you do not look with purpose but rather open yourself up to seeing – and, I would add, open yourself up to hearing Large Bird Leaving.

Katherine Binhammer
Music Lover
Professor of English, University of Alberta
- Three Sisters News

Sitting on Cori Brewster's deck in South Canmore on an unseasonably warm May afternoon, one word comes to mind as I listen to her talk about her life and her music. That word is spitfire. Although she comes in a small package, she seems to have more energy and electricity coursing through her veins than most people expel in a lifetime.

With two albums already under her belt, the singer/songwriter is working on her third album.
"This album has a lot of songs on it about home," explains the petite, athletic blonde. "I haven't settled on a title yet, but one I'm considering is The Long Ride Home."It's appropriate because it has been a long ride home for Brewster, who left Banff where she was born and raised to experience some of life's rich pageant.

"I've spent a lot of time based near Edmonton," she says. "I lived in Manitoba, Vancouver -- lots of places. "Most of that time was spent pursuing her musical career. As a self-described music lover of all genres, her own sound is a mixture of bluegrass, roots, folk and country. Her songs are largely narrative. "I hate using those labels, but how else could you explain to a person whether they'd like an artist or not," she says.

Things changed seven years ago when Brewster's son, River, was born.
"I wanted him to go to school here and have the advantages of growing up in the Bow Valley," Brewster says. "So we came back. "That was five years ago, and now she is releasing her first album since returning. "It's time now," she says. However, just because she has not put out an album does not mean she has not been busy with music. She has also developed a large repertoire of material to choose from in that time, and has won a songwriting award. "I don't call myself a musician. I don't consider myself a musician," she says. "I'm a singer/songwriter who plays guitar." Co-writer and sometimes band mate Bob Remington agrees. "Cori called me and asked me to play backup at a show for her, and I said 'sure,' so she sent me some of her music," says Remington, who is a mandolin player. "After listening to some of her songs, I was fairly intimidated. The production quality was very good and the songs are intricate. She has a distinct style of writing and they aren't easy songs to play." Remington and Brewster won an award at the Calgary Folk Festival songwriters competition for best Alberta song. "I'd wanted to write a song about William Twin for a long time," Brewster said. "Bob was receptive to the idea, so it worked out well." William Twin was a Stoney First Nation member who was close to Brewster's ancestors. The experience was a first for Remington. "I'd never collaborated on a song before," he says. "So the process was new to me. We each brought different ideas to the table -- she had her interpretation of my work and vice versa, and in the end, this is the product. I actually quite like the song."Brewster's high-profile family has been a blessing and a curse for her in her adult life. "My family casts a large shadow, and I don't mean that negatively, in the area. They are very supportive and I'm grateful for that," she says. "We are constantly having to explain that we no longer own Brewster Transport. We all work very hard in the businesses and professions we are involved in."

With a degree in physical education, she now manages her family's nine-hole golf course, Brewster's Kananaskis Guest Ranch."I'm probably the only person who likes it when it rains in the summer," she says with a laugh. "It means I can sit down and write a song." To that end, Brewster is dedicated and determined. "I'm constantly writing something down and listening to conversations for ideas," she says. "It's a long process and it doesn't all just come out at once for me. I go back to a song over and over again." The lyrics in her songs make her a truly Canadian songwriter. "I write what seems meaningful to me and what I care about," she says. Remington says it's a unique gift. "Cori plays about 90 per cent of her own stuff per show," he says. "That's something a lot of artists can't do. It's definitely a strength. She also writes meaningful lyrics and has a social conscience. It takes a certain amount of courage to put your heart on the line the way Cori does." So armed with a new arsenal of songs, Brewster is playing Acoustically Speaking at artsPeak on the evening of June 9. She will be playing with Brent Saklofske. Look for Brewster's new album sometime in fall. She will also be playing in the Yamnuska Mountain Series she helped to create. The dates and other artists have not yet been released.
- Banff Crag & Canyon

Canadian Cori Brewster and New Zealander Lindsey Shields combine to make a complementary duo.

Cori and Lindsey, both singer-songwriters in the folk musician mould, brought their own experiences into their song writing, which gave a personal, and at times poignant, social commmentary. Delightfully refreshing, honest, enjoyable and most entertaining, these talented singer-songwriters displayed their skills effortlessly.

Songs with lyrics which one can listen to, comprehend and had some substance, was a great advantage when trying to engage an audience. Their talent as songwriters was possibly more skilful than was readily apparent, since out of their programme there was variety and interest without ever having to descend to cliche material to pad out the uninspired moment or the need to sing other composers' music.

Andre Buchanan-Smart
- Waikato Times

“Through her songs, it’s obvious that for Brewster to write lyrics and to sing is an essential element of life, like breathing. From the opening chords of the CD’s first song, Look for the Sun, Brewster’s music bursts to life like the first pasque flowers of spring thrusting through the last remnants of winter snow… Like a child’s laugh, or a songbird’s serenade, Large Bird Leaving is a joy to listen to”. Lynn Martel Rocky Mountain Outlook

“Cori, you've done a lovely job with What Casanova Told Me. If I could
have written a song, this would be it! Thank you for this rare and
beautiful compliment. I very much enjoyed the whole CD too. You should
go on Sounds like Canada with your album and talk to Sheila Rodgers
about your work, warm wishes”. Susan Swan Canadian Author

“What I've heard of the new album sounds really good and I'm excited that you've sent me a copy I can take to the cabin where I now live and produce The Road Home. I hope you find a good chunk of time to promote this new music. It has lots going for it Cory. Well done” Bob Chelmick CKUA

”The large bird leaving in the title of Cori Brewster’s new CD is definitely not a trumpeter swan since her calls are not limited to mating for life. No, this bird's songs have an expansive range and are more like a great grey owl with its wisdom or a blue heron with its precise and patient step. Flying over land that feels both recognizably Canadian and new and unfamiliar, the CD reflects the whimsical and layered imagination of an eclectic and mature songwriter. Large Bird Leaving meditates on both beauty in a dark country and its underside, the darkness lurking in beauty.” Katherine Binhammer, Three Sisters News

"Cori has hit her stride as a songwriter... a real and defined sound that crosses the delicate fence between folk and roots country music...a major find for the Americana music programmer"
Tom Coxworth, CKUA Folk Routes

"Don't be fooled by her sly smile, what lies underneath is a wilderness of rocky paths, twisted undergrowth and undiscovered treasures...She has an important voice in today's world and her own viewpoint reflects upon her own true self"
Jennifer Gibson, Singer/Songwriter

"I think this is a real winner in CD's released this year...it has a whole twelve tracks of absolutely tremendous recordings...I'm dead impressed with it...one of those recordings I've been listening to over and over and over again"
Tom Coxworth, CKUA Folk Routes, Alberta

"A collection of fresh and captivating songs by an authentic contemporary Canadian voice...The original songs are socially and spiritually relevant without being heavy handed"
Ginger Mason, Xtra West, Vancouver

"Judging from her release of Stones, she is a talented singer-songwriter with country roots and a folk/bluegrass sound...An album full of feeling and integrity"
RoseAnna Schick, Connect, Winnipeg

"The album is appealing on many fronts. The cover artwork is like a painting which you'd find in the Whyte Museum...Cori's sense of humour explodes in Katie, a song about a high maintenance woman whose existence is run by the Barbie world of multiple marriages, high priced toys and Martha Stewart"
Rochelle Rochelle, Wildlife, Banff

- Various

In the business of music, the go getters always seem to stand out from the pack and one the hardest working in showbiz in this city has to be Cori Brewster.

The singer-songwriter is always onteh go, finding new, refreshing angles, to promote her music and that of her musical friends. She just doesn't do it on her home turf either as she's been making her way back adn forth across this country and Europe on a pretty regular basis lately.

One ongoing Brewster-inspired project has been dubbed with the handle Sonic Sistahs and its latest incarnation unfolds tonight at Orlando Books over on 101st Street and Whyte Avenue. This time around Brewster will be in the company of Jennifer Gibson and Maria Dunn the show acts as a warm-up to a two-week swing of central Canada the ladies are about to embark upon.

"Cori stared the Sonic Sistahs up a few years ago and you know that she also hosts a radio show of the same name on CJSR every Tuesday evening," says Dunn of Brewster's double barreled project.

"The first one was at the Media Club with Sharon Anderson, Cori, Terry Morrison and myself, and I did another one with Kerri Anderson, Alix Bean-Sedmack, Lynn Elder and Cori. The shows are run as a song circle and have a really nice, informal feel. There is a bit of collaboration and I'm going to be adding accordion and whistles to some of Jennifer and Cori's songs," added Dunn who will be hitting Sudbury, Picton, Toronto, Kitchener-Waterloo, Stratford and a festival in Tilsonburg as part of the upcoming tour.

The trio leave in early June although Dunn has to make her way back a bit before Brewster and Gibson to play the North Country Fair.

"We decided to take it on the road and it works out well as we all have relatively new discs to promote and it halps to share the expenses and some good humour," says Dunn who will be playing tunes from her fine debut disc From Where I Stand along with some new material. For a minimal $5 cover tonight, you'll aslo hear selections from Brewster's '98 release titled Stones and Gisbson's latest effort Be The Woman. The Sonic Sistahs start singing and playing tonight at 8 p.m.

Peter North - Roots Music
- Edmonton Journal

Cori Brewster personalizes her home town
By Roger Levesque, June 4, 2009 (Calgary Herald)

Encountering the amazing geography of the Rockies really makes you think about great expanses of time and space, and how it was for the first travellers and settlers in that part of the world.

Maybe it was inevitable that Cori Brewster would tell some of those stories in song. She grew up in the mountains, so it's not surprising that the gifted singer-songwriter has come up with an album of tunes inspired by the pioneers who lived around her hometown, Banff.

"There's always been a storytelling element in my work," says Brewster, "but this album felt like a new type of storytelling, maybe because you want to get things right when you're dealing with true-life stories."

Dubbed Buffalo St. (after a street in Banff), it's a fascinating set of historical portraits translated into song, an aural artifact that does much to disprove the notion that Banff is just another tourist town.

Brewster acknowledges that some people might tune out the town's history. "I can understand how some people have sort of a love-hate relationship with Banff because it has become so commercial in a sense, and if you just come through to go snowboarding and have a few beers it might seem that way. But there are so many interesting details behind all that. I guess that was part of the reason for this project, to help fill out the underlying historical significance of the area."

Brewster's own ancestors played a notable role in the Banff area going back to 1886, when her great-grandfather John Brewster arrived there. They were the founders and original owners of what is now a key vacation and touring service known today as Brewster Inc.

The Buffalo St. project took root in 2006 when Brewster and her musician friend Bob Remington, who is also a Herald columnist, collaborated on a song about William Twin. Twin was a member of the Stoney-Nakota first nation who befriended John Brewster and helped start Brewster's guide services out of the original Banff Springs Hotel in the 1890s.

That song is told from her grandfather's point of view, as an imagined eulogy for Twin.
Thanks to a Canada Council grant, Brewster became a regular fixture at the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies in Banff, drawing on the archives for inspiration to pen the other nine songs on the album. She also credits the museum staff for adding to the ideas she eventually translated to an evocative set of all-acoustic folk songs.

Buffalo St. features a rich collection of characters, with numbers dedicated to the legendary mountain man Bill Peyto, entertainer Louis Trono, the mountain sherpas, a look at native injustices committed in the settling of the area, a tune about WhyteMuseum founder Peter Whyte, and even a piece about the Irish potato famine, which prompted her family's move to Canada.

Brewster credits her producers Adrian Dolan and Dave Clarke for helping with the additional musicians, the sound quality and arrangements, but the most important part might be that she avoids a dry historical approach, personalizing her songs with atmosphere, imagery and entertaining details.

While Brewster says music was always a passion in her family, she was a bit of a late bloomer.
"Like any young adult, I think I had to leave home for a while maybe to find out who I was.
"When I did decide to do this, knowing the territory as I did helped out a lot."

It was only after graduating from the University of Alberta in 1985 and spending time as a physical education instructor in Manitoba that Brewster moved back to Edmonton in 1993 and made her first CD the next year. Canmore has been her home for eight years, but she visits her parents in Banff
- Calgary Herald/Edmonton Jouranl

Brewster set to unveil Buffalo Street
By Rob Alexander

If it isn’t handled well, history can be boring, crusty and pointless, but in the hands of the likes of Banff-born singer-songwriter Cori Brewster it can be interesting, meaningful and even emotional.

Brewster is days away from releasing her fourth album, Buffalo Street, a 10-song album inspired by the rich history of the Canadian Rockies, at a CD release party at the Canmore Miners’ Union Hall, Friday (June 19) at 8 p.m. as part of the Seventh Annual Canmore artsPeak Arts Festival.

The Canmore resident is also performing at the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies on Saturday (June 27) at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15 and are available at the museum. Brewster, also the festival’s honorary chair, is proof that history – when approached with passion – can be given a fresh creative spin with a broad range of appeal.

Through the 10 historical songs, Buffalo Street tells a story about some of Banff’s most colourful and intriguing figures, including William Twin, Bill Peyto, Louis Trono, Peter Whyte and Catharine Robb and members of the Brewster family. “I didn’t really realize, until I was flipping through the CD jacket, how much of a tribute it is to the Brewster family. I didn’t approach the project like that at all. I did let one story go into the next, but it just so happens that the stories do tie in some way or another to the Brewster family,” she said.

“In our case, business was family, everything we did was part of our family and upbringing. We never did a very good job of separating the two.”While each song tells a different aspect of the heritage and history of the Rocky Mountains – along with two poignant and powerful songs featuring people of the Stoney-Nakoda First Nation – Brewster is clear on one point, she’s not a historian, but a storyteller.
And as a storyteller she gave herself a certain amount of creative license with the history and the songs, tweaking a few of them to suit the story.

“I love the expression ‘don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story’. If someone comes up to me and says this isn’t quite historically accurate, I can say to them, you know what, it isn’t. I’m a storyteller and that’s an important aspect of it,” she said, adding the facts are equally important, but at times difficult to work with.

“Buffalo street corral, 1881? Maybe I needed a rhyme!” she said with a laugh. Banff was founded in the fall of 1883 when rail crews with the Canadian Pacific Railway arrived. “I’m always open to people coming up to me and saying, ‘Cori, that’s not how it really happened’.”But, she said, if the storyteller has done their job in keeping the historical aspect relevant while bringing in the emotional aspects, the linked approach serves to draw in listeners.

“People can really relate to stories. Storytelling certainly has a way of tying us all together. There’s value to music that enriches our identity as Canadians or Albertans and that as well gives us back our history.”The idea of using music to reclaim history began with the song “William Twin”, which appears on Buffalo Street and honours a Stoney-Nakoda man who became a good friend of the Brewster family, after it placed as a finalist in the Best of Alberta category as part of the Calgary Folk Festival’s song writing contest.

“It was neat the story has come full circle because the story I wrote about William Twin in 2006 was a finalist in that same competition. That’s how the project got started. That song was really well received and that’s when I thought maybe I should be doing an entire historical project,” she said.
More recently, “My Familiar Sky”, which explores the romance of Peter and Catharine Whyte, placed third in the 2009 contest. And to ensure the stories have a life beyond the album and the gigs, Brewster plans on building on the project. “It’s really important to do everything I can to ensure the stories have some longevity,” she said.

To do that, Brewster hopes to take the songs into area schools and she’s considering a book and possibly a documentary. The evocative songs, rich in detail, speaks volumes to the time Brewster spent researching her stories in the archives of the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, turning over numerous rocks for those beautiful little kernels that Brewster has not only hung her album from, but allows her to remain excited about her upcoming gigs.

“Especially with this CD, it really helps to be in the moment and in character and the more I sing these songs the more I realize that I am really personally vested in all of the songs. “I think when you write them you want to write the best song that you can, they hold a lot of personal meaning to me and that certainly helps to perform them live,” she said.
- Rocky Mountain Outlook

Herizon Magazine
Review by Cindy Filipenko

Cori Brewster writes songs that capture the essence of a place better than most. As usual, her subject is one of Canada’s natural national treasures: Banff. The Brewster family settled in the area in 1886 and according to the liner notes of Buffalo Street, they never left. A family residing in one place for more than 100 years generates its fair share of stories and Brewster has handily managed to turn these narratives into engaging folk songs.

Brewster’s mellow alto draws the listener in close to the tales, evoking strong visual imagery, whether she’s singing about running the Stoney/Nakota Aboriginal people out of the national park in the title track, or pining for a long forgotten homeland in “Take Me Back to Ireland.” The musicianship on Buffalo Street is top notch, with producers Adrian Dolan and Dave Clarke getting the most of the more than 25 artists who join Brewster here.

Buffalo Street is a small album, but an important one, as it represents folk music in the truest sense, recording history through lyric and melody, so that a culture’s important moments are not lost. Give this woman an Order of Canada for telling us about what Banff was before it became just another tourist Mecca.




- Herizon Magazine