photo by Shervin Iainez

AWARDS
Winner 2011 East Coast Music Awards Female Artist & Songwriter of the Year
Winner 2011 Music PEI – Rooted to the Island Award
Winner 2010 Canadian Folk Music Award Contemporary Singer of the Year
Nominee 2010 NS Music Awards Entertainer, Songwriter, Female Artist & Folk Artist of the Year
Winner 2008 East Coast Music Awards Female Recording of the Year
Winner 2007 Mountain Stage Newsong Contest
Winner 2007 NS Music Awards Best Folk Recording & Galaxie Rising Star
Winner 2007 PEI Music Awards Best Folk Recording & Female Vocalist
Nominee 2007 Canadian Folk Music Award Best Solo Artist

BIO
Rose Cousins finds insight in solitude and strength in numbers. Supported by a thriving Halifax music scene and welcomed by an equally vibrant Boston community, her new album We Have Made A Spark was made in the spirit of community and collaboration.

We Have Made A Spark follows Cousins’ two multi-award-winning albums The Send Off (2009) produced by Luke Doucet and If You Were For Me (2006) produced by CBC in Halifax.  Yet another collection of stunning songs by Rose Cousins, her third album braves weighty topics.

“We develop patterns that keep us from moving forward. It takes a deep breath and a bucket of courage to face the uncomfortable, painful things we work so hard to avoid. Reward comes from recognizing the obstacle exists and pushing through fear.”

Rooted in authenticity and conviction of voice, from driving opening track The Darkness to stark piano ballad Go First, you feel as though Rose Cousins sings for you, about your life.  It is that sincerity that leads some to compare Cousins to our most beloved songwriters, and yet, her passionate delivery is distinctly, Rose.  From  writing songs from a tiny cabin without electricity on a New Hampshire island (All The Stars, The Shell) to the stage of one her many international tour stops her lone voice reaches out to listeners, all of us surrounded by our own forms of darkness, and charges us to have the courage to forge ahead.

It’s not surprising that Boston performers were quick to adopt Cousins when she started traveling there 8 years ago.  To make We Have Made A Spark, she gathered her friends and collaborators Zachariah Hickman (producer) and Austin Nevins (who both play in Josh Ritter’s Royal City Band), songwritersRose Polenzani, Kris Delmhorst, Mark Erelli, Jennifer Kimball, Laura Cortese, Amy Correia, Ana Egge, Edie Carey, members of Session Americana Billy Beard & Dinty Child, and multi-instrumentalistsSean Staples and Charlie Rose together to make the record at well-known American studio (Q Division) used by James Taylor, Aimee Mann, Patty Griffin.  Along with new music comes a short film called If I Should Fall Behind, about the heart of the community where the record was made.

Canadian collaborations have included recording and touring with Joel Plaskett on his multi-Juno-winning album Three and recording A New Kind Of Light, a Christmas CD, with label-mate Jill Barberand 2011 Juno New Artist of the Year, Meaghan Smith. Cousins’ herself recently took home 2011 East Coast Music Awards for Female Solo Recording and Songwriter of the Year.

Cousins is releasing We Have Made A Spark on Outside Music in Canada and independently on her own label Old Farm Pony Records in the rest of the world.  US and Canada release date February 28, European release is planned for May 2012.  The Outside Music Label is a Toronto based independent record label that launched in 2001.  Other artists on the label include Sloan, Little Scream, The Sadies, The Besnard Lakes, Black Mountain, Jill Barber, One Hundred Dollars, Oh Susanna, Matthew Barber and Sunparlour Players. Outside Music is also one of Canada’s most respected distributors with Sub Pop, Saddle Creek, Domino, Fat Cat amongst it’s distributed labels. For more information visit www.outside-music.com

 

PRESS

Maverick Magazine Review THE SEND OFF (March 2011)
“A true original with the power to steal your heart Every once in awhile–if you’re extremely lucky–you may encounter a voice capable of making you stop whatever you’re doing to concentrate on what you’re hearing. With the first delicate strains of I Were The Bird, you realise you’ve uncovered that rare artist with the ability to isolate the myriad emotions grafted to love, longing and loss. But to do it consistently across her second album reveals a standout talent approaching full bloom, as it were. Recently honoured with a 2010 Canadian Folk Music Award for Contemporary Singer of the Year, Rose’s art encompasses a roots feel that reveals her upbringing on Canada’s Prince Edward Island–a somewhat isolated faerie land surrounded by ocean, blessed with rich, red-soiled farmland and wide open spaces. You can hear it in her voice, the way she ends a note or lets a lyric fall from her lips. From the soft kiss of I Were The Bird, with its plucked cello and ethereal backup chorus, feathers flutter as a seabird gains lift before sailing along the updrafts. As the band kicks in two minutes later, both winged creature and song are free to soar. Equipped with a muscular band, THE SEND OFF has nothing to do with navel-gazing and everything about a tasteful foray into folk-pop, minus the fluff. The focus appears to concentrate on framing Rose’s vocal gift in an earthy blend of piano/B3, bass/drums, acoustic/electric guitar and an inventive use of viola and cello. The disc’s second highlight is the lush Maybe I Knew–a subtle, yet powerful song riding along on the featured guitar lines of mentor Luke Doucet, Steve O’Connor’s B3 and Al Cross’ beefy beat. More celestial fare such as Mary Margaret O’Hara’s I Don’t Care with its sparse accompaniment proves revelatory but pales alongside the more upbeat title track. Its gentle beginning gives way to a powerful bed of atmospheric guitars, percussion and simpatico strings as Rose’s ramped up vocal lifts skyward. With added power, Rose’s voice retains its uncanny ability to gently bend a note or unload a breathy phrase at just the right moment. Not everything is gold–attempts to swing like an Andrew Sister on the jazzy Celebrate or the mando-driven, somewhat maudlin Sadie In The Kitchen tend to shatter the mood she has created, which may be the point–offsetting the intensity with something light and fun. Still, songs like the blissful The Dancers, where her breathtaking voice floats above the gentle strings below–or the powerful All The Time It Takes To Wait, featuring pure Rose accompanying herself on Wurlitzer electronic piano, is able to stop time with its dose of utter loneliness and heartache. As the strings kick in, a good, therapeutic cry may be in order. In other words, you’re in the presence of an intensely talented artist who, like the bird in I Were The Bird, most definitely is. An irresistible find.” – Eric Thom

EXCLAIM! Review of THE SEND OFF (Nov 2009)
“Rose Cousins has burst into bloom on The Send Off, a sophisticated follow-up to her 2006 ECMA-winning debut, If You Were For Me. On her sophomore release, the Halifax, NS-based singer-songwriter breaks away from traditional folkiness to experiment with wilder sounds and a broader spectrum of emotional colours. She brings an excellent supporting cast to this second effort, including producer/guitarist Luke Doucet, cellist Matt Brubeck and backing vocalists Kathleen Edwards, Jenn Grant and Melissa McLelland. The album opens with the exquisite “I Were The Bird,” the plucked strings and a touch of reverb elevating Cousins’ luminous vocals to cruising altitude. From the electric blare of “Maybe I Knew” to the lullaby simplicity of “Young Once” and the cheeky jazziness of “Celebrate,” the album weaves back and forth between electric and acoustic, from heartache to intense joy, with inventive arrangements that enhance the beauty of Cousins’ fresh, sincere compositions.” (Old Farm Pony)

EXCLAIM! Review of IF YOU WERE FOR ME (Nov 2006)
The gentle heart of P.E.I.-born singer-songwriter Rose Cousins shines through in every note of her first full-length album, If You Were For Me. After two EPs and guest vocal spots on recordings by artists from Matt Mays to the Heavy Blinkers, Cousins has come into her own with an album full of tidy arrangements that highlight both her forthright lyrics and her pure, unaffected voice, which twinkles like the stars on a clear winter night. Cousins is most compelling when she leans towards bluegrass on songs like “Dance If You Want To” and the little galloper “Edmonton,” but her fresh, soapy folkiness is appealing throughout the whole of this nice little disc. Recorded at CBC’s Studio H in Halifax, it’s a lovely little low-key affair that ought to push her one step closer to a place among musicians such as Alison Krauss and Sarah Harmer. (Old Farm Pony)