Today I'm going to enlighten you with one of my favorite artists. He has the most deep voice that I have ever heard. His lyrics are empowering and on top of all of this, my best friend is also in love with his music. But how did this great music get started? The artist that I am speaking of is Dallas Green, Canadian native. But you might know him as City and Colour.
Dallas Green is a singer songwriter from St. Catharines, Ontario. City and Colour is a solo side-project, although he is accompanied by various artists. The name "City and Colour" comes from his own name; Dallas and Green. His reasoning for not releasing albums under his name is that he felt uncomfortable "putting the album out under the name Dallas Green." He started writing when he was 14. He is the member of the popular Canadian band, Alexisonfire. His genre is folk music or acoustic.
On the album "Sometimes", he used materiel written throughout the course of his life. When it was released in 2005, it had a good reception. My own personal review of the album is that is vulnerable and very moody. Green said that the "best music for [him] is sad music", which obviously influenced his albums. He loves the idea of music that his fans can connect with. Sometimes was re-released on Vagrant Records in 2009, which was the first time that Sometimes was available to Americans in physical form. (But I had it before that because my friend Jessica is the coolest.)
Bring Me Your Love is Dallas Green's second full-length album. It was released in February of 2008. He uses a lot more different instruments on this album then on his previous album. This gives it a more folk-influenced sound. The two albums have such different sounds that I could never choose between the two. The album has been compared to Neil Young's "Harvest". Dallas also collaborates with many Canadian musicians such as, Gordon Downie of Tragically Hip and additional instrumentals done by Matt Sullivan and the members of Attack in Black. The album is named after an album written by Charles Bukowski. There is also a line sung on the last song of the album from the book. He saw Bukowski's book in a bookstore while on tour with Alexisonfire and adopted the name as his album's title. In 2008, City and Colour went on their first American tour, in support of Bring Me Your Love. A two-disc limited addition version of the album was released in 2008 also. There is only 6000 copies available; 5000 in North America; 1000 in Australia. In Canada when they put the album on pre-sale on the record label's web site, there were so many fans that tried to pre-order it that the web site crashed.
Dallas has released quite a few EP's and limited addition discs including: The Death of Me (EP) on Dine Alone Records, Missing (EP) on Dine Alone Records, The MySpace Transmissions (EP) on Vagrant Records/Dine Alone Records/MySpace Records, The iTune's Sessions (EP) on iTune's Exclusives, Bring Me Your Love (Limited Edition) on Dine Alone Records, and Live on Dine Alone Records.
He has also released singles from his full-length albums. "Save Your Scissors" from Sometimes in 2005, "Comin' Home" from Sometimes in 2006, "Like Knives" from Live in 2007, and "The Girl" from Bring Me Your Love in 2008. He also released "Waiting . . ." and "Sleeping Sickness" from Bring Me Your Love in 2008, which both hit the charts. "Waiting . . ." was chart position number 32 and "Sleeping Sickness" was chart position 60.
He's been nominated for many awards and has won People's Choice: Favorite Artist at the MuchMusic Awards in 2006, 2006 Artist of the Year in Chart Magazine, and at the 2007 Juno Awards he won Best Alternative Album of the Year for "Sometimes". He deserves to win so much more then this.
All in all, I love Dallas Green and the music he makes. (But don't get your hopes up, he has a girlfriend.) I hope that you guys enjoy him as much as I do. I listen to him while I'm driving. It's like Sunday drive music. :] Ta-ta.
"When you ask do you love me, I should reply with yes most certainly."
Kindell
Author's Note: Sources:
www.cityandcolour.ca
www.myspace.com/dallasgreen
www.last.fm/music/city+and+colour
www.maplemusic/artists/cac/default.asp
www.truthexplosion.com/live/interviews/interviews.php?id=94
