Artist.......: Roxanne Potvin
Album........: Play
Label........: Black Hen
Genre........: Indie
Catnr........: BHCD-0069
source.......: CDDA
rip.date.....: Oct-27-2011
str.date.....: Apr-19-2011
quality......: VBR/44,1Hz/Joint-Stereo
Url..........: roxannepotvin.com
track title time
01. Barricades 03:09
02. You Told Me 03:23
03. Let Me Go 01:50
04. Born to Win 03:28
05. Coral Reef Fishes 03:53
06. Magic Rainbows 02:13
07. Dis-Moi Que Tu M'Aimes 02:06
08. Pretty Girls 03:39
09. Donnes Ton Mal 03:29
10. Seashells 02:59
11. I'm Too Sexy 02:56
12. Keep Your Head 02:52
Runtime 35:57 min
Size 64,9 MB
Release Notes:
Roxanne Potvin, the Juno award nominated Montreal
based singer-songwriter is back in 2009, after
wailing around the blues for her past four albums
Colin Linden, John Hiatt and Bruce Cockburn and
tour with Sue Foley and Deborah Coleman - Roxanne
decided it was time to pull back and reassess what
she'd been doing. She explains, I'd left Toronto,
moved back to Montreal to be closer to my family
and began to accept the fact that I had no clue
what I was going to do. At first, she felt boxed in
by her own expectations, but once she managed to
shake free of them and started to enjoy playing
music for the simple joy of it again, magical
things began to happen. When I started out, I was
heavily influenced by blues, soul and R and B and
that was reflected on my first two albums. The
third album started showing shifts in direction as
I explored further. I love listening to that kind
of music, but if I was still only writing blues
based songs, I wouldn't be honest with myself
because that's not exclusively where I'm at
anymore. Writing for this album gave me confidence
to do something different.
That was last April. A flurry of activity followed
as a reinvigorated Roxanne flew into high gear to
finish off a bunch of new songs before heading out
to Vancouver to hook up with Dawson. Over the next
five days, Potvin, Dawson and his crack session
band consisting of Geoff Hicks (drums), Chris
Gestrin (keys) and Keith Lowe (bass) recorded an
old school album live off the floor. Looking back,
it was the most comfortable experience of Roxanne's
professional life. I came in. The songs had never
been performed as a band and we just went into the
studio and played. It wasn't a struggle. More than
anything else I wanted to have fun. It was kind of
like building a castle out of all the things I
liked without asking myself too many questions
about what I was doing. A good example of that is
the song You Told Me. I wanted more sugar pie and
bacon' on these songs. Keep listening and you'll
know that Roxanne's achieved this in spades. From
the hook filled punk pop of Dis-moi que tu m'aimes
a tongue in cheek song about begging to be loved
to the whimsical nostalgia of Magic Rainbows the
songs on Play are ambitious, but never lose the
loose limbed joyful feeling that inspired them. On
the funky keyboard driven Pretty Girls, Potvin
snarls her way through one of the most biting songs
ever written about our culture's fascination with
beauty. Clearly Roxanne can rock with the best of
them when she wants to.
With Play Roxanne Potvin has achieved something
that few artists ever succeed in doing - she's
expanded her style and grown as an artist while
still keeping the grit and authenticity that is so
appealing about her music.