April 29, 2010
"Peter's Dream" # 1 on the Essential East Coast Playlist
CBC Radio's Mainstreet on P.E.I. assembled the Essential East Coast Playlist and listeners voted for their favourite Atlantic Canadian tunes. The results are in and "Peter's Dream" topped the list at #1.
Thanks for your votes!
April 19, 2010
Podcast/Concerts on Demand
Lennie's concert recorded at the National Arts Centre is now Available by Podcast www.cbc.ca/radio2/podcasts/canadalive.html
Listen online anytime! This concert is available on Concerts On Demand: Lennie Gallant live at the NAC - www.cbc.ca/radio2/cod/concerts/20100119galla
Please take a moment to write a review following the concert!
April 10, 2010
2010 Juno Awards
Lennie will perform at JUNOFEST on Saturday, April 17 at Bridie Molloy's on George Street at 11 pm.
JunoFest wristbands on sale now at the Mile One Centre Box Office; by phone (709) 576-7657, (toll free)1-800-361-4595 or online at www.admission.com. Only a limited number of JunoFest wristbands are available. Wristbands offer fans priority entry at all JunoFest venues both nights (subject to capacity).
100+ Bands, 16 Venues, 2 Nights, 1 Wristband for $30.
March 9, 2010
Lennie Gallant wins his 14th East Coast Music Award!
Lennie Gallant won "Roots Recording of the Year" for If We Had A Fire. This makes a record number of awards for a solo artist! He also performed on the Gala Awards Show.
Feb 23, 2010
Lennie Gallant performs at BC Place (below), during the Olympic Victory Ceremony, at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games!
Watch the performance here ( the show starts at the 4:30 minute mark).
More photos - click here!
Jan 17 , 2010
Lennie Gallant joins the line-up for Halifax for Haiti
The Halifax for Haiti benefit concert featuring Halifax-based DRUM! and an array of the region’s finest artists is confirmed for the Halifax Metro Centre, Monday, February 8 at 7:30 p.m.
Joining DRUM!, the line-up now includes: Anna Ludlow, Bruce Guthro, Charlie A’Court, Christina Martin, Classified, Joel Plaskett, Lennie Gallant, Linda Carvery, Nova Scotia Mass Choir, Rhapsody Quintet, Scott Macmillan, Sung Ha Shin-Bouey, The Stanfields and Thom Swift. Brookes Diamond indicates there are more to come.
All tickets are $20 and go on sale at 11 a.m., Tuesday, January 19 through www.ticketatlantic.com, at the Ticket Atlantic box office, charge by phone at 451-1221 or at any of the 17 participating Atlantic Superstore outlets. Proceeds from the event will go to the Canadian Red Cross, to support their relief efforts in earthquake-ravaged Haiti.
Jan 6, 2010
Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games!
Lennie will be performing six shows at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games! Performing with his full band at both indoor and outdoor venues. The show on Feb 18th at BC Place, during the Olympic Victory Ceremony, will be televised internationally!
For more information, please visit the tour page of the website.
Jan 6, 2010
Ottawa and Montréal
In January, Lennie will return to Ottawa to release his 2 new albums at the National Arts Centre and in Montréal at Place des Arts. Tickets are on sale now!
Jan 19 National
Arts Centre - Tickets: 613-755-1111 or ticketmaster.ca
or NAC Box Office - 53 Elgin Street. English
"If We Had A Fire"
Jan 20 National Arts Centre - Tickets: 613-755-1111 or
ticketmaster.ca
or NAC Box Office - 53 Elgin Street - French
"Le
coeur hanté"
Jan 22 Place des Arts - Tickets: 514-842-2112/1-866-842-2112.
Jan 23 Place des Arts - Tickets: 514-842-2112/1-866-842-2112.
Le coeur hanté and If We Had A Fire available in stores, through the website and iTunes.
December 22, 2009
Ring in the New Year with Lennie Gallant!
Lennie will headline the big outdoor New Year's Eve concert in Grand Parade Downtown Halifax. The show begins at 10:45 pm on December 31st. Broadcast on "A" Channel from 10:45pm to 12:10am.
Satellite - Bell TV Channel 202 and Shaw Direct Channel 340
Cable - Eastlink (Halifax) Channel 7
IPTV - Bell Aliant TV (Halifax) Channel 5
Join us downtown Halifax or tune in on Television to welcome in 2010!
December 22, 2009
Lennie Gallant on Canada AM Christmas Day
On Christmas day you can enjoy Lennie's timeless Christmas song "The Innkeeper" on CTV Canada AM.
The Innkeeper was performed as a play at a cathedral in Charlottetown with a cast of 200 on Christmas Eve and is available on the When We Get There CD, as well as available for downlowd at iTunes. It will warm your heart this season!
Website: www.ctv.ca/canadaam
November 3, 2009
New French Album Released Today!
Le coeur hanté
With the opening song, Une Tempete dans Mon Coeur, the album roars out of the starting gate and holds the listener hostage with a collection of songs that will not let you go until you surrender your heart to the passion and raw emotion displayed in the music it contains . The album is called Le couer hanté and it examines love and relationships from differing points of view and speaks with many voices while doing so. From the power of a dam bursting in ones heart and the ensuing flood of things previously unsaid in the opening number, to the tender and beautiful Tu ne sais pas comment jolie tu es, the suspicions of infidelity that live in L’histoire du phantom, to the blazing relationship questions in Si on passait au feu, these songs ask us what we would save if we suddenly had to really decide what was absolutely necessary in our lives.
While many of the numbers rock out with big questions of life and love Gallant does not omit the humorous side of it all with songs like J’adore ton chapeau, a comic bilingual number he wrote with award winning songwriter Gordie Sampson (Jesus Take the Wheel). He also touches on subjects not often approached in song with the aching power ballad Rien nest perdu, where the singer refuses to let regret destroy the beautiful memories of a love that has run it’s course, and from the other side of the street, the bounty of love one can discover after fighting to stay together through thick and thin in La vie de tous les jours extraordinaire. This is an album that is sure to involve anyone listening as the subject matter moves through topics that have touched us all in some form or other in our lives and does so in ways to make us laugh, dance and cry a little bit. Let this album into your heart and it will haunt you with it’s melodies that will not be easily left behind after the final song. Le coeur hanté wants to be the ghost you can’t escape, or resist returning to again and again!
Le coeur hanté available is available in Stores, Online and at iTunes.
August 9, 2009
Full House at Folk Harbour Roars It Up For Lennie
Posted by Stephen Pedersen
Lunenburg loves Lennie and Lennie loves Lunenburg. Repeated standing ovations at his outstanding set Friday night in the Tent on Blockhouse Hill, echoed the thunder but also completely wiped away the memory of the extraordinary cloudburst and lightning storm that swept over the site minutes before the show began.
Lennie Gallant’s genius at writing and singing his own songs has given us not only classics like Peter’s Dream, And The Band Played On, and Which Way Does The River Run, but new songs on their way to the Lennie Gallant Hall of Fame.
These would include Wounded, his compassionate tribute to broken soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome in an atmosphere of our collective silence and neglect. And the poignancy of Before You Sell This Car (from his latest album If We Had A Fire). An old car is full of memories from first kisses to coffee spills that often mark the landmarks of our lives.
There is an energy in Lennie’s singing, an inner fire of Acadian French rhythms performed at blazing speeds, and also an orchestral fullness to the fat chords he pulls or strikes from his guitar.
A further sign of Lennie’s musical taste is the musicians he chooses for his bands. It’s a highly refined taste, that penetrates more often than most singer-songwriters to the inner sanctum of music’s wizardry, of it’s ability when approached with utter honesty, to penetrate the cosmos, to rip away the veil of the familiar to reveal the fabled Music of the Spheres talked about in earlier centuries.
Anthony Rissessco on violin and Jamie Alcorn on acoustic electric guitar are two veteran practitioners who, like Lennie, are at the peak of their musicality having broken through to the glory of speaking it’s language with the ease and eloquence of great poets.
Both of them stunned the audience repeatedly with their improvised solo breaks and interior fills and ornaments. Brilliant as they were, they topped it all with the kind of professional confidence and support that cleared the path for Lennie and only surged in after he had passed, like the Red Sea after the Army of Jehovah reached the far shore dry-footed.
July 28/09
New CD "If We Had A Fire" Released!
Lennie
Gallant released his latest album If We Had A Fire and
he claims it is his best work yet. Recorded in beautiful St Cecilia Studios
on the outskirts of Halifax, the album holds 14 new Gallant songs, performed
by the artist and some of the best musicians the East Coast has to offer.
“It was a pretty magical place to make music. Saint Cecelia Studios
is a reconverted chapel turned studio owned by friends of mine and the welcoming
light that shone through the beautiful stained glass on many mornings made
it one of the most creative and relaxing venues I ever had the chance to
work in. Everyone that came to play on the project commented on the vibe
of the place and the positive energy they experienced during the sessions."
Gallant produced the album with Hayward Parrott, who over the years, has
worked with some of the most influential people in the Canadian music industry
including Gordon Lightfoot,and the great Quebecois band Harmonium. He was
also the engineer on the Tears Are Not Enough session, so the list of Canadian
artists he’s worked with is quite lengthy. Also on the production team was
Brad Davidge, who had been acting as guitarist in Gallant’s band for almost
a year, alternating with Jamie Alcorn, and has played with some of the hottest
players on the planet.
"This is the first project I’ve recorded so close to home since
my debut album, Breakwater," says Gallant. “It was great to be able
to use players with whom I had been on the road, or jammed with over the
years, especially my main road guys Sean Kemp, Brad Davidge, Jamie Alcorn,
Adam Dowling and Kim Dunn. There was a real sense of camaraderie and the
creation of something special going on in the studio environment. All the
songs’ basic tracks were recorded live off the floor and almost all the
vocals as well so we ended up with a real honest energy on the tracks and,
I think, some kind of magic that a more piece by piece structured recording
would probably miss."
Gallant says he is very happy with the way the songs turned out. "We had been playing some of these in our live show for a while and were eager to get them down. Songs like Tell Me A Ghost Story, Before We Sell This Car, If We Had A Fire, have been going over great in our concerts so we were really ready to commit them to disc.
As usual, I ended up writing like mad up until, and during the recording,
so some songs were practically born during the process as well. I think
it’s cool to have that blend of tried and true and fresh outta the oven
on the same album”
Those who have heard the new project say they are knocked out by the dynamic
energy of many of the songs and by the storytelling as well. Gallant has
long been known as a killer spinner of tales in his past work, and songs
like Emily’s Letters, (a song of unconditional love and
a shared secret), The Ringer (a mystical tale of recapturing
a lost soul), and Tonight I Drive You Home, (a heartrending
story that may find MADD wanting to embrace) will more than satisfy those
looking for that solid Gallant narrative and one- two punch knock out ending.
Extraordinary Ordinary Life, recorded with Symphony Nova
Scotia, is a song about couples who have stuck it out for the long hall
through thick and thin, and Gallant’s moving portrait of a seemingly ordinary
relationship is sure to make even the most jaded listener take a deep breath
or two. Count on this one being used at many an anniversary celebration
in the future.
There are lots of rockin tunes on this album as well with songs like Dance
The Dark Away and The Coldest Road lending some
heat and inspiration to the night.
His Song Be The Change was inspired by the words of both
Mia Farrow and Mahatma Gandhi and incorporates a choir of children including
Gallant’s own 5 year old daughter. The album also includes several co-writes
with some fairly prestigious writers including Gordie Sampson, Troy Verges,
Gerald O’Brien, and Carolyn Dawn Johnston, who also sings with Gallant on
the title song. Other guest vocalists include Rose Cousins and Coco Love
Alcorn. Guest musicians include Ray Legere, Dale Murray, and Isabelle Theriault
for the group Ode de L’Acadie.
There is one song though that Gallant says is his favorite co-write on the
album. “I was on the road for a couple weeks and talking to my five
year old daughter, Amelie, on the phone, telling her how much I missed her,
when she said, 'Daddy, you re like the flowers in my heart, and I go there
when you ‘re away' I said “What did you say?!! I couldn’t believe she made
that up and so had to incorporate it into a song and, of course, give credit
where it's due.” The song is called Flowers in My Heart,
and like so many other songs on this recording, it will surely find a place
in the heart of any listener wise enough to seek out this latest offering
from one of the country’s premiere songwriters.
If We Had A Fire is available in stores, through the webstore and at iTunes.
June 12/09
Gallant's Music Reaches New Heights
Lennie Gallant to release new album this summer, while his latest one is launched in space on July 15 at 6:03 pm (EDT)
Canadian Space Agency astronaut Julie Payette returns to the International Space Station aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour in June and will be bringing along Lennie Gallant's latest album When We Get There. Ms Payette chose the album for the astronaut crew of Mission STS-127 to enjoy while on their 16 day mission, which will include five spacewalks. Gallant's music has been heard around the world and will now orbit the earth.
Mission STS-127 will attach a platform to the outside of the space station's
Japanese Laboratory Kibo. Science experiments will take place on this platform,
allowing them to remain exposed to the harsh environment of space.
Lennie Gallant's latest album, "When We Get There"
received a JUNO Award nomination. His new album "If We
Had A Fire" will be released this summer.
For more information on Julie Payette and Mission STS-127, please visit http://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/missions/sts-127/.