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John Southworth | |
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 Southworth at the Hillside Festival in 1998 | |
| Background information | |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter |
| Years active | 1996–present |
John Southworth is a British-Canadian singer-songwriter, performer, author and videomaker. He performs a diverse range of popular and peculiar song genres, from AM oldies-radio to traditional folk balladry, 80s pop to art song and cabaret. [1]
Southworth's orchestral debut record Mars Pennsylvania was released on Bar None Records in 1998.
He has since released a number of cross-genre albums on small labels, each stylistically varied from the other, including Sedona Arizona (1999), Banff Springs Transylvania (2000 featuring Mary Margaret O'Hara), Yosemite (2005), The Pillowmaker (2007) (performed with his longtime band The South Seas, featuring members from Toronto's avant-jazz-improv community) and Mama Tevatron (2009). The South Seas also backed John on the elegiac Human Cry (2010) reissued on UK label Tin Angel Records in August 2018.
In 2011 Southworth released Spiritual War Cassette Tape, recorded in part on a Sony Cassette Corder Model TCM-939. The following year he debuted the surreal cabaret song cycle Easterween featuring arrangements by Toronto arranger Andrew Downing at the Lower Ossington Theatre in Toronto. A collection of actual rejected jingles appeared later in the same year on Failed Jingles for Bank of America & other U.S. Corporations (2012). [2]
In July 2014 it was announced that Southworth would be releasing a double record on Tin Angel Records called Niagara, featuring nine songs on the Canadian side and eleven on the American side. Co-produced by Jean Martin (a drummer and percussionist known for his work with Tanya Tagaq) and again featuring The South Seas, Niagara was named Album of the Year 2014 by Rolling Stone Germany and Canada's National Post. [3] On September 2, 2016, Small Town Water Tower LP was announced, set for an October release. [4] The LP Miracle in the Night was released May 3, 2019. [5]
On October 1, 2021, the album to the multiplatform Rialto (album, podcast, book, show-film) was released on Tin Angel Records. [6] The album features singers The Weather Station, Martin Tielli, Daniel Knox, Felicity Williams, Robin Dann, Thom Gill and Ryan Driver with arrangements for string quartet by Andrew Downing performed by Venuti String Quartet. An eight-episode podcast featuring chapters of the novella began on July 19, 2021, and features the speaking voices of the singers as well as twenty other artists including U.S. Girls, Claudia Dey and Veda Hille among others. All Music's four-star review of the album said, "Southworth delivers some of the most serpentine and complex melodies of his career...one of his most fully realized and imaginative works." [7] A show featuring an art film directed by Southworth with accompanying live performance premiered in Toronto in March 2022 at the Paradise Theater.
On May 12, 2023, Southworth released When you're this, this in love on Tin Angel. [8]
Southworth's songs have been covered by or written for such artists as The Weather Station, Basia Bulat, Kevin Johansen, Sarah Slean, Luke Temple, Buck 65, Hawksley Workman, Jully Black, Martin Tielli and Veda Hille. The Weather Station covered "Loving You" (from Niagara) on their 2022 album How Is It That I Should Look at the Stars . [9]
Daydreams For Night, an alternative children's book featuring illustrations by David Ouimet, was published by Azuka in Japan and Simply Read in 2015. [10]
A former film student, he directs his own videos.
He is the son of Peter Shelley, the British 1970s pop singer-songwriter, later a producer and record executive. [11]
Ronald Eldon Sexsmith is a Canadian singer-songwriter from St. Catharines, Ontario. He was the songwriter of the year at the 2005 Juno Awards. He began releasing recordings of his own material in 1985 at age 21, and has since recorded seventeen albums. He was the subject of a 2010 documentary called Love Shines.
Rheostatics are a Canadian indie rock band. They were formed in 1978, and actively performed from 1980 until disbanding in 2007. After a number of reunion performances at special events, Rheostatics reformed in late 2016, introducing new songs and performing semi-regularly.
Introducing Happiness is the fifth studio album by Rheostatics, released in 1994 on Sire Records. Produced by Michael Phillip Wojewoda, the album was recorded at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas.
Meryn Cadell is an American-Canadian writer and performance artist. He is an assistant professor of song lyrics and libretto writing in the Creative Writing Program at University of British Columbia.
Martin Tielli is a Canadian singer-songwriter. He was a member of the Rheostatics, and has also released material as a solo artist and with the side project Nick Buzz. As well, he has appeared as a guest musician on albums by Barenaked Ladies, Kevin Hearn, The Waltons, Jane Siberry, Ashley MacIsaac, Meryn Cadell and Mia Sheard. He is also a painter, and created most of the album covers for the Rheostatics.
Veda Hille is a Canadian singer-songwriter, keyboardist and tenor guitar player from Vancouver, British Columbia. She writes songs about love and tragedy, as well as about topical British Columbia subjects. As well as solo work, she has taken part in many musical collaborations, and has organized two recording projects, Duplex! and The Fits.
Christine Fellows is a Canadian folk-pop singer-songwriter from Winnipeg, Manitoba.
For Him and the Girls is an album by Canadian artist Hawksley Workman, released in 1999. Written and produced by Hawksley Workman with arrangement collaboration by John Southworth. Recorded and mixed in the basement of 59 Hillsdale Ave E., Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Mastered by Joao Carvalho at Umbrella Sound, in Toronto, ON. CD Jacket design by Wade Gilpin.
Radio Disney Jams was a series of CD compilations of music that was featured on Radio Disney, a children's radio network.
Kurt Swinghammer is a Canadian singer-songwriter and visual artist based in Toronto.
Daydream is the second album by the Lovin' Spoonful, released in 1966. It features two hits, "Daydream", which reached No. 2 in the U.S. Billboard Top 40 charts, and "You Didn't Have to Be So Nice".
La Toya is the fifth studio album by American singer-songwriter La Toya Jackson released in 1988 by RCA. While the cover and box states the album's name as La Toya, the actual disc and cassette tape state the name as You're Gonna Get Rocked!. Therefore, the album is interchangeably referred to by both names. The album includes "(Ain't Nobody Loves You) Like I Do" and "You're Gonna Get Rocked", which are, to date, two of only five songs by La Toya Jackson to have an accompanying music video. The album was re-released as an expanded 2-CD set under the name You're Gonna Get Rocked! by Cherry Pop Records in December 2013.
Then & Now... the Best of The Monkees is a compilation album of songs by the 1960s American pop group the Monkees, released by Arista Records in 1986.
"You're All I Wanna Do" is a song by American rock band Cheap Trick, which was released in 1994 as the second single from their twelfth studio album Woke Up with a Monster. The song was written by Jim Peterik, Rick Nielsen, Robin Zander, Terry Reid and Tom Petersson, and produced by Ted Templeman.
Greg Smith is a Canadian musician and painter based in Toronto, Ontario. He is best known as the bassist of indie rock band The Weakerthans, which he joined in August 2004, replacing founding bassist John P. Sutton. As a member of The Weakerthans, he contributed to their latest studio album, Reunion Tour, and is featured on their live release Live at the Burton Cummings Theatre, to which he also contributed the album cover. Since 2018, Greg has been the bassist for the indie rock band The Lowest of the Low.
Tin Angel Records is a British independent record label.
Chris A. Cummings, known professionally as Marker Starling, is a Canadian songwriter and musician.
Selina Martin is a singer-songwriter from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, currently based in Nice, France. Her music is a fusion of pop, art-rock, and cabaret. It been described as “sneaky beautiful” and “sharp-as-shards.” She has been compared to PJ Harvey, Björk, and David Byrne.
Daniela Gesundheit is a singer, songwriter, musician, composer, lyricist, and Cantor living between Los Angeles, California and Toronto, Ontario. Daniela Gesundheit holds a BA in music from Wesleyan University, where she focused on South Indian classical voice, experimental composition, and poetry.
Buffy Ford Stewart is an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. She is best known for her solo work, and her work with John Stewart.
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