Sunday, December 16, 2007

New: Song to download, site, mailing list, promo pics, and more.

Lots of news has recently generated regards to Sarah Slean and more updates and stories will be forth coming.

Sarah Slean website has gone through another slick overhaul (edit). The new site uses Edwin Tse's photography that we had noted in April. That post has been updated to note 3 more promo photos that have now surfaced and respective links.

At this time, some pages have been removed on the official page such as Sarah's vitamins (recommended arts), her blog entries, lyrics, and fan pictures. These changes have also disabled the syndicated links used on the side of this news page.

With the launch of the new site, Sarah has made available a demo version of her new song Get Home. She recently described the song as being regards to another relationship gone sour which the lyrics are rather clear about. To hear the song join her new mail list and receive an mp3 link or head over her to her myspace page to stream it.

The launch date for the new album has also been confirmed for March 2008. I have updated the post to Everything Currently Known on the New Album to reflect 5 additional song titles, the record producer, and tracks that have been showcased.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Sarah provides Poetry to Dance Work

Sarah wrote a poem, "The Abecedarian", for dance choreographer and artist Lucy Rupert's. The work was premiered as part of Wrecking Ball IV shown November 8-11 at the Theatre Centre

The Abecedarian (world premiere) choreographed by Lucy Rupert
Award-winning artist and artistic director of Blue Ceiling Dance, Lucy Rupert uses email, webcasts and film footage to create a duet from afar with dancer Kyle Abraham (New York/Pittsburgh). Songstress and poet Sarah Slean provides the words which are captured along with Abraham’s dancing in projected images which provide the sound score for Rupert’s live dancing. - The Wrecking Ball (retrieved Nov 13, 2007)
An entry from Lucy Rupert's blog seems to indicate that words to the poem might be added to sarahslean.com at some point in the future. At the time of publishing, no updates were noted to Sarah's official website, blog, or myspace.

Friday, November 09, 2007

Sarah plays @ Cavalcade of Lights

Sarah is scheduled to play at this year's Cavalcade of Lights opening celebration at Natahan Phillips Square in Toronto on Saturday November 24. Thanks to Sweetone's on the Sarah Slean forum that posted regards to the show being announced via a Chum news letter earlier today.

For those that can not make it down, City TV has announced that they will broadcast this year's event starting at 7:00pm. Sarah is scheduled to play after 7:25pm.

In other news, the Sarah Slean Peterborough concert has now been confirmed on the official tour page of sarahslean.com.

Update (Nov 23, 2007) - Sarah is set to play two seasonal songs.
Update (Nov 24, 2007) - CP24 will be showing the event live. CityTV may show it at a later date as the program is set to repeat.

Update (Dec 16, 2007) - CP24 did air the broadcast but Sarah's performance was not shown to TV viewers as they cut away to air a montage of the days news and commercials. Sarah was shown partially in group number of Walking in a Winter Wonderland. The non aired songs were What Child Is This? (Available on Women and Songs Christmas album) and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. I could not find any re-air dates.

Monday, November 05, 2007

November Tour

A few tour dates confirmed and unconfirmed have been announced.
Note that the format of these shows are still unknown. Sarah's last known public performance was with with a Trio opening for James Blunt on October 1, 2007. Suggestions have been requested on sarahslean.com to be emailed to Sarah with regards to what format you would like to see at this year's December shows at Harbourfront.

12/16/07 upate: Sarah did play the 3 above dates. No news has surfaced regards to the set lists of the Peterborough or North Bay shows.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Sarah's New Album - Everything We Know (12/16/07)

While Sarah continues to work on her new album, blog and play a few shows; I have put together what is known about the new album. This information has been updated with noted changes.

Working Title: The Baroness

A glance at cover art and promo images was previously posted in our news entry of April 24, 2007. Sarah's website, myspace, and blog have had new imagery supporting the Baroness and replacing the imagery seen with Day One. 12/16/07 upate: Sarah's official site now has been overhauled once again, this time reflecting the promo images taken from April. These Changes have also disabled any of her blog entries.

Tracklisting: (not sequenced and not final)
  • The Rose - "This string arrangement will break your poor heart into tiny bite-sized pieces." An earlier version of this song was recorded with Sarah's show with the Art of Time Ensemble as part of the Schubert 'Source and Inspiration Show" - Audio, Lyrics.
  • Compatriots - is a manic parade through circus-ville... - Played in 2007
  • Good Night Trouble
  • Notes from the Underground 12/16/07 upate: Played live in 2007
  • No Place At All - Played live in 2007
  • Willow
  • Looking for Someone - Sarah has played this song a few times live dating back to Fall of 2006 and with the addition of Strings at the December Toronto show. The song was recorded and played on CBC radio as part of their recording of the Socan Songwritters Circle at this year's ECMA.
The above song titles and quotes were excerpted out of Sarah's July 21, 2007 blog entry. The italicized notes and links were inserted by myself.

Additionally considered tracks:
  • My Song - Played in the Spring of 2005, recorded as part of CBC's FUSE tapping alongside Buck 65.
  • Parasol / Sweet Virginia - Played in 2006
  • So Many Miles - Played in 2006
  • No Place At All - Played in 2007
  • Remember (Rescue?) Me - Played in 2007
  • Get Home - Played in 2007. 12/16/07 upate: A rough demo is now available through her new mailing list and can be streamed on Sarah's myspace page.
12/16/07 upate: The five (4) following songs were listed on her Novermber 22, 2007 setlist although they have been yet to be played live.
  • Modern Man
  • The Right Words
  • H Hearts
  • Please b g time
These are just some songs that stand not to be 'orphaned' for the new album. In Sarah's blog entry of June 28, 2007 she mentions having 18 songs set for the album. In that same entry it indicates that this is a home recording. The co-producer mentioned is Jag, who I presume is the Jagori Tanna from the band I Mother Earth. Jag also did the engineering and mixing on Sarah's latest release, Orphan Music.

12/16/07 upate: The album is being mixed David Bottrill (Tool, Muse) according to Sarah's December site message.


Release Date:

12/16/07 upate: Updates to SarahSlean.com announce the release date of March 2008. I have been made aware that other projects are set to be released around the same time.

Rumoured to be February 2008. In Sarah's July 5, 2007 post entry she references 5 songs at stage near final completion.

Her score book and book of poetry, Raven's volume 2 are both scheduled for November of this year according to another of her blog entries. Do take these dates with a grain of salt things do tend to slide around.



Unrelated:
  • Sarah's blog is far more then just news on her new album and daily musings. Some very poetic and personal posts are contained there. Her myspace page syndicates most of the blog posts but at times it will have separate entries such as "Moan Hall".
  • At the time of publishing the parent site to this news page, www.littlelsean.com is down. I don't know anything else regards to that other then new entries will still be available on the littleslean news page as it is hosted independently.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Unconfirmed Show - July 27 (BC)

I have posted unconfirmed show for July 27, 2007 at Gibson Auditorium (Camosun College - Landsdowne), British Columbia to sarahslean.com forum.

Please review the information, supporting links and any updates in that thread.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Watch Sarah Slean on AOL Sessions (Canada)

AOL Sessions Canada latest session is a concert with Sarah Slean and is available for viewing (for those in Canada?). Sarah is joined by Blue Spruce Quartet with Mary-Katherine Finch substituting Alex Grant on Cello.

The setlist is made up of all songs featured on Orphan Music including the along awaited bside of Last Year's War. The session also includes Q & A and backstage video where members of the Quartet are interviewed.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Sweet Ones Covered on Canadian Idol

The promo for next Monday's Canadian Idol performance shows a clip of one of the 200 contestants who made their way to Toronto covering Sweet Ones, by Sarah Slean. The clip showed one of the male competitors playing it on the piano in a way that sounded simular to Sarah's. You can check for TV times here.

If your interested in hearing two great and unique takes on Sarah's Sweet Ones now, the following two really stood out for me:

  1. Dan Hardin plays an accoustic guitar version accompanied by a very smooth voice. Watch it hear and let him know what you think.
  2. The second video comes to us from South of the Canadian boarder where "Case Western Reserve University's all female acapella group, Solstice" perform their arrangement of Sweet Ones. View it here.

Interested in doing your own cover? Sarah's Sheet Music is being compiled for release. If your interested in lyrics, including two of Sarah's new songs of this year; The Lonely Side of the Moon and The Rose are up on the official site.

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

ECMA Awards Songwriters Circle - CBC June 9, '07

The songwriters circle that Sarah participated at this year's East Coast Music Awards will be played on CBC radio for those out East and available worldwide online. The stated broadcast time is Saturday, June 9, 2007.
Mark Bragg, Sarah Slean, Amelia Curran, Stephanie Hardy and Bruce Guthro trade songs and stories in Round Two of the ECMA/SOCAN Songwriter's Circle, recorded live at the 2007 East Coast Music Awards in Halifax.
- CBC
Sarah played songs from her album Day One and a new song, Looking for Someone, if your interested in the titles you can view this thread.

Update: June 13, 2007
The showed played 2 songs of Sarah, Looking for Someone and Pilgrim.

Friday, May 25, 2007

Sarah contributes to Noah 'Arkweld' Mintz Album

According to a recent Chart Magazine article with Noah Mintz, he states that Sarah Slean has contributed work to his latest album.

Read the article: here

Noah plays in Toronto tonight at the Rivoli.

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Sarah unconfirmed Dates out West.

Although I will not be naming concert dates here, websites have included Sarah's name on dates out West. Speculated cities include stops in Seattle, Victoria, Edmonton, Regina, and Calgary.

A visit to Sarah's forums may provide you with additional information. For confirmed dates visit SarahSlean.com

For those reading this Saturday May 19, 2007, a reminder that Tales of the Baroness will be airing on the A-Channel in selected regions at 7:30pm.

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Tales of The Baroness - Coming Soon to TV


A reminder that the film by Nelson Chan and Sarah Slean titled, Tales of the Baroness shows this Friday on Bravo TV with following air dates on City TV and the A channel over the weekend. With promo posters indicating it's "Part One" I'm uncertain to if the runtime will be longer then 15 minutes and how many segments the complete feature will be.

For complete times, trailers, and downloads visit: www.talesofthebaroness.com

Image used with permission.

Friday, April 27, 2007

Art of Time Ensemble - Music Archived on CBC Radio 2

Last week we announced CBC Radio 2's broadcast of the Art of Time Ensemble featuring Sarah Slean. For those that missed it, Normal on the SarahSlean.com forum pointed out that the show has now been archived over on the CBC Radio 2 site. Most the recordings seem to be featured from the second night of performances.

Want to hear more on this Art of Time ensemble show?
Andrew Burashko of the Art of Time Ensemble spoke and played songs with Classical 96.3 FM during the week of performances.

Sarah returns to the Enwave theatre with the Art of Time Ensemble in early May.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

New album Promo Images?

In January of this year SarahSlean.com reported that promo shots for Sarah's next album would be taken sometime in February by photographer Edwin Tse.

Two images from that shoot are available from his site. To view the portrait, visit his site and click on the 7th line shown on the left side.

Update, Dec 16 2007 :
Images now appear on the 4th line down and a 3rd image has been added. Two new images and an less cropped version from the same shoot are now on the official Sarahslean.com page as the background, under the terms of use, and privacy statement page.

Monday, April 23, 2007

Hear Sarah Cover Joni on CBC Radio 2 (Online)

Update: The Great Candian Songbook concert is now featured on the CBC Radio 2 website:
http://www.cbc.ca/radio2/singleConcert.html?20070502cndsb

Archive:
Earlier this month Sarah took the stage with CBC Radio Orchestra to where she played four songs in tribute to Joni Mitchell. CBC Radio 2 has the show set to broadcast on May 2, 2007 as part of Canada Live.
"The Great Canadian Songbook

April 15, 2007
Chan Centre at UBC

Alain Trudel, conductor
Veda Hille, vocalist
Sarah Slean, vocalist
Ron Sexsmith, vocalist
Marc Déry, vocalist

Four Great Canadian Songwriters: Joni Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot, Buffy St. Marie and Serge Fiori. Four Great Canadian Singers: Sarah Slean, Ron Sexsmith, Veda Hille and Marc Déry. Four Great Canadian Composer/Arrangers: Phil Dwyer, Glenn Buhr, Giorgio Magnanensi and Alain Trudel."
The CBC Radio 2 blog posted the songs Sarah covered for the night:
Joni Mitchell sung by Sarah Slean arranged by Phil Dwyer:
"Both Sides Now", "Woodstock", "Free Man in Paris", "All I Want"
Phil Dwyer who did the arranging appears to be also working on Sarah's upcoming tribute to Canadian artists with the May 10/11, 2007 Art of Time Ensemble concerts.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Sarah's on the Crossing Soundtrack.



Sarah Slean's song Pilgrim has landed on the Canadian movie 'Crossing'. The movie is released tomorrow but the soundtrack is out now. The version used is the same one featured on her album Day One.

Other artists on the soundtrack include: Michael Bublé, Buck 65, Champion, Lester, Oh Susanna, Philosopher Kings and Swollen Members featuring Nelly Furtado. A sampler of the soundtrack is available here.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Sarah & The Art of Time Ensemble - CBC Tonight

Sarah's performance of two new songs inspired by Franz Schubert and played with members of the Art of Time Ensemble will be played on CBC Radio 2 tonight. The concerts were played on March 15, 2007 and March 16, 2007.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007, 8:00 p.m.
18/04/2007

Catch a pair of concerts from Toronto that break down the barriers tonight on Canada Live. First, a concert in which the Art of Time ensemble asked singer-songwriters Sarah Slean, Andy Maize (of the Skydiggers), Martin Tielli (of the late Rheostatics), Danny Michel and John Southworth riffing - in their own styles and voices - on their choice of music from Franz Schubert's iconic E flat Piano Trio. Later, Sir Andrew Davis leads the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in his own arrangements of Bach’s Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor. Canada Live, with Matt Galloway, tonight at 8 p.m. (8:30 NT) on CBC Radio Two.
-CBC Radio 2

For those outside of Canada, CBC Radio 2 does broadcast online and across as Canadian time zones. CBC Radio One, had played one of Sarah's inspired new songs 'Lonely Side of the Moon' on their show Metro Morning following the first night's concert. A clip of the rehersall was also used on the CBC television show, The Hour.

John Southworth had opened for Sarah's last concert at the Harbourfront 'enwave' theatre. Sarah and Martin Tielli shared rolls together in the film Blackwidow.

Thanks to a fan for a heads up on tonight's air date.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Black Widow - CBC Sunday

As you may have noticed from the official sarahslean.com home page, news on the Black Widow film has surfaced. As details are worked out on the DVD release, the CBC network will be showing an encore broadcast of the film this Sunday (1:00pm). On the first airing of the film on CBC it was shown uncut with no commercials.

For those you reading this who are outside Canada, in time you may get to watch the film on a network near you. The Black Widow website confirms scheduling arrangements with the following:
  • SBS Australia
  • YLE Finland
  • ZDF Germany
  • IBA Israel
  • NRK Norway
  • TVP Poland

littleslean on Black Widow

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Live Slean Video - Online viewing

Update: April 18, 2007
It appears that Stage6 has been reformatted and this video clip is no longer being hosted.

March 24, 2007 Archive:


CBC has uploaded a good quality performance of Sarah playing California with a short interview. The performance was shown on CBC TV January 21, 2007 on a program titled Sunday. The video uploaded by the CBC is on a service similar to YouTube and Google Video but it works using DivX. On my first visit to the site I was prompted to install an online DivX viewer. When the program was installed I had the option to Stream or Download (56 MB) the video.


What the video does not show is Sarah's lead into the commercial break playing Out in the Park. The video also ends early while the original broadcast shows Sarah complete California while credits for the program run on screen.

Earlier this week, elizalavelle on the Slean forum noted Sarah was on the CBC program The Hour. She weighs in on a segment on the Classical Debate and they show some footage of her rehearsing for her performance with the Art of Time Ensemble. You can watch the segment here: http://www.cbc.ca/thehour/video.php?id=1490

Sarah played 2 new songs at the Art of Time Ensemble shows. CBC Radio 2 has purchased commissions on most the songs of the night for a later broadcast. The CBC Radio 2 site relaunched with a new look and new programming that does features a promising live music archive.