By The Red

By The Red

Folk Songs From The Red River Valley

Mel Braun baritone
Laura Loewen piano
Fred Redekop mandolin
Jay Taylor bass
Greg Gardner percussion

Release Date: July 10, 2015
Catalog #: BR8940
Format: Digital & Physical
Folk Music
Vocal Music
Percussion
Piano
Voice

Life on the Canadian prairie is vital, challenging, and poetic, and on their debut Big Round Records release, BY THE RED, pianist Laura Loewen and baritone Mel Braun – joined by Fred Redekop and Jay Taylor, otherwise known as the mandolin-bass duo Big and Dinky – present a glimpse of the variety of folk music found in Manitoba’s Red River Valley. Drawn from French Canadian, Métis, German Mennonite, Scots, and cowboy culture, and supplemented by the art song-like settings of John Greer, Larry Warkentin, Chester Duncan, Robert Turner, and Heidi Ugrin, these works relate stories that 200 years of life in the Red River Valley have generated. Tales of sod-busting pioneers, exile, sacrifice, summer idyll, and love, all leavened by a sense of humor that allows life to flourish on the prairie, are explored on this dramatic and nostalgic collection.

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Artist Information

Big Round Artist

Mel Braun

Baritone

Baritone Mel Braun is a long-time colleague and collaborator at the University of Manitoba's Desautels Faculty of Music in Winnipeg. Braun is well known for his Bach singing, with performances and broadcasts that have taken him all across Canada.

Laura Loewen

Laura Loewen

Pianist

Pianist Laura Loewen is a long-time colleague and collaborator at the University of Manitoba's Desautels Faculty of Music in Winnipeg. Loewen is one of Canada's most expressive collaborative pianists, performing with leading singers and instrumentalists across the country. Her ongoing work with saxophonist Allen Harrington led to the recent Ravello Records release of METROPOLIS, a recording of new compositions for saxophone and piano. Loewen teaches collaborative piano and coaches singers at the Desautels Faculty of Music, where her "Passionate Diction" approach to language has inspired a whole new generation of language enthusiasts. Together, Mel Braun and Loewen have toured Canada and commissioned numerous works, always evolving as recitalists and collaborators.