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Saturday, February 7, 2009 at 8 PM
GLENN GOULD STUDIO
Tickets: $29.50
Call 416-872-4255 or online at
www.roythomson.com
or visit the Roy Thomson Hall Box Office
Captivating Canadian singer-songwriter Emm Gryner, whose
highly polished, yet emotionally raw pop songs have earned her three
Juno nominations, performs music from her newest album Goddess
on Saturday, February 7, 2009, 8 PM at Glenn Gould
Studio. The album, her 11th, is a self-produced,
self-recorded collection of 10 new original songs. Her special guest
for the evening is Irish singer-songwriter Colin Devlin,
whom she will join for a two-week concert tour of Ireland following
the Toronto concert.
A writer and label owner, versatile musician and producer, Emm Gryner
has earned wide critical praise and captured the hearts of countless
fans with songs that are filled with dark and haunting hues behind
their subtle shine. Her 2006 album, The Summer of High Hopes,
included the song "Almighty Love," which U2 frontman Bono named
in Q Magazine as one of six songs he wished he had
written. Other artists have also paid tribute to her talent. Nelly
Furtado named Emm’s album Science Fair one of her desert
island discs, and David Bowie named Emm as one of his two favourite
Canadian acts. Matt Nathanson wrote the song "Angel" about her.
A Forest, Ontario native of mixed Irish-Filipino ancestry, Emm started
her music career in Toronto, working office jobs during the day
while honing her skills in small, local clubs by night. She entered
her original song "Wisdom Bus" in a nationwide songwriting contest
sponsored by Standard Broadcasting,
and won. With the prize money, she recorded the album The Original
Leap Year and released it on her own Dead Daisy Records label.
The album attracted the attention of Violent Femmes producer Warren
Bruleigh, who passed it on to an exec at Mercury Records. The result
was Public, a Britpop-inspired
album that yielded a hit in Canada called "Summerlong." Several
tours followed, with Ron Sexsmith,
Bernard Butler, Rufus Wainwright and others.
When Universal Music took over Mercury Records, Emm returned to
her own Dead Daisy Records and released several albums, two of which
went on to be nominated for Best Pop Album of the Year at the Juno
Awards. During this time, she also took a job singing and playing
keyboards in David Bowie’s band. The gig saw Emm performing and
recording with Bowie at venues around North America and Europe.
After leaving Bowie’s band, Emm released Songs of Love and Death,
a collection of old Irish tunes, attracting the attention of the
Irish media and leading to a tour of Ireland in 2005.
Emm is a member of The Cake Sale, a collective of mostly Irish musicians
formed by Brian Crosby of Bell X1. The collective released the self-titled
album The Cake Sale in 2006, a multi-platinum-selling CD
with proceeds going to Oxfam and the Ireland Make Trade Fair campaign.
In the summers of 2007 and 2008, Emm co-hosted CBC Radio One’s
Under the Covers with Danny Michel, a show about cover songs.
This performance is sponsored by XM Satellite Radio at Glenn
Gould Studio.
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