Jenn Grant (born August 20, 1980) is a Canadian
folk
Folk or Folks may refer to:
Sociology
*Nation
*People
* Folklore
** Folk art
** Folk dance
** Folk hero
** Folk music
*** Folk metal
*** Folk punk
*** Folk rock
** Folk religion
* Folk taxonomy
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Folk Plus or Fol ...
pop singer-songwriter based in
Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Career
''Jenn Grant and Goodbye Twentieth Century''
She performed as a musician for a time in her early teens, but stopped due to a bout of
stage fright
Stage fright or performance anxiety is the anxiety, fear, or persistent phobia which may be aroused in an individual by the requirement to perform in front of an audience, real or imagined, whether actually or potentially (for example, when perf ...
, and did not return to performing until her early 20s when she played some shows with
The Heavy Blinkers. She then released an independent EP, ''Jenn Grant and Goodbye Twentieth Century'', in 2005.
''Orchestra for the Moon''
She collaborated on her debut album, ''Orchestra for the Moon'', with such artists as
Ron Sexsmith
Ronald Eldon Sexsmith (born January 8, 1964) 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 ...
, the Heavy Blinkers,
Matt Mays
Matt Mays (born August 10, 1979) is a Canadian indie rock singer-songwriter and was the lead singer of Matt Mays & El Torpedo, a rock music group based in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, and New York City. Previously, Mays was a member of a Canadian Ind ...
and
Jill Barber
Jill Barber (born February 6, 1980) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. Originally associated with the folk-pop genre, she has performed vocal jazz and pop music on her more recent albums.[The Weakerthans
The Weakerthans are an award-winning and Juno-nominated Canadian indie rock band from Winnipeg. The band, led by John K. Samson, has released four studio albums and is currently inactive.
History
The band was formed in 1997 in Winnipeg, Manit ...]
.
''Echoes''
She later began recording her second album, ''Echoes'', on a farm in rural
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
in 2008. The album was produced by Jonathan Goldsmith and engineered by Walter Sobczak at The Studio at Puck's Farm. Her voice was also featured in the song "We Made a Pact" by
Hey Rosetta
Hey Rosetta! is a Canadian seven-piece indie rock band from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador and led by singer/songwriter Tim Baker. Known for their energized live shows, the band created a large, layered sound by incorporating piano, viol ...
on their 2008 album ''
''. ''Echoes'' was released in 2009.
In 2010 and 2011, she collaborated with
Buck 65
Richard Terfry (born March 4, 1972), better known by his stage name Buck 65, is a Canadian alternative hip hop artist. Underpinned by an extensive background in abstract hip hop, his more recent music has extensively incorporated blues, countr ...
on several tracks, including "Paper Airplane", "Cold Steel Drum", "Days Go By" and a cover of
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian singer-songwriter, poet and novelist. His work explored religion, politics, isolation, depression, sexuality, loss, death, and romantic relationships. He was inducted in ...
's "
Who By Fire", on his ''
20 Odd Years'' series of
EPs. Late in 2010, she also released a four-song EP, ''
Songs for Siigoun
''Songs for Siigoun'' is an EP by Canadian singer-songwriter Jenn Grant, released in 2010. The EP, originally recorded as a gift for her fiancé Daniel Ledwell's newborn niece Siigoun,[John Denver
Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. (December 31, 1943 – October 12, 1997), known professionally as John Denver, was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, actor, activist, and humanitarian whose greatest commercial success was as a solo singe ...]
's "
Annie's Song
"Annie's Song" (also known as "Annie's Song (You Fill Up My Senses)") is a song in time written and recorded by American singer-songwriter John Denver. The song was released as the lead single from his eighth studio album '' Back Home Again'' ...
".
''Honeymoon Punch''
She released her third full-length album, ''
Honeymoon Punch
Jenn Grant (born August 20, 1980) is a Canadian folk pop singer-songwriter based in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Career
''Jenn Grant and Goodbye Twentieth Century''
She performed as a musician for a time in her early teens, but stopped due to a bo ...
'', in early 2011.
["Jenn Grant delivers a Honeymoon Punch on latest album"](_blank)
''Waterloo Region Record
The ''Waterloo Region Record'' (formerly ''The Record'') is the daily newspaper covering Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada, including the cities of Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge, as well as the surrounding area. Since December 1998, the ''Re ...
'', February 9, 2011. She started the writing process in Egypt in 2010. ''Honeymoon Punch'' is the third studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Jenn Grant, released January 7, 2011. The album represented something of an evolution from Grant's established folk-pop style, introducing a greater emphasis on keyboards and moving her toward a more upbeat
dance-pop
Dance-pop is a popular music subgenre that originated in the late 1970s to early 1980s. It is generally uptempo music intended for nightclubs with the intention of being danceable but also suitable for contemporary hit radio. Developing from a ...
style which Grant described as having been strongly influenced by
Kate Bush
Catherine Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer and dancer. In 1978, at the age of 19, she topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks with her debut single "Wuthering Heights (song), Wuthering Heights", ...
. The album was recorded and produced by Grant's now husband
Daniel Ledwell Daniel Ledwell is a Canadian record producer and multi-instrumentalist. He lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and is married to singer-songwriter Jenn Grant.
Music career
In 2008 Ledwell produced his debut solo album, ''Two Over Seven'' in his home ...
. The album was nominated for
Adult Alternative Album of the Year at the
2012 Juno Awards.
''The Beautiful Wild''
Grant's fourth studio album, ''The Beautiful Wild'', was released September 25, 2012, on
Six Shooter Records
Six Shooter Records is an independent record label based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that uses an artist-centric business model, focusing on art before commerce combined with extensive touring. Six Shooter Records was founded in 2000 by Shauna d ...
. The album was inspired in part by Grant's mother, who was suffering from a terminal illness during the album's recording.
["Jenn Grant celebrates life in the beautiful wild"](_blank)
''The Independent'', March 23, 2013. The album was produced by Grant's husband,
Daniel Ledwell Daniel Ledwell is a Canadian record producer and multi-instrumentalist. He lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and is married to singer-songwriter Jenn Grant.
Music career
In 2008 Ledwell produced his debut solo album, ''Two Over Seven'' in his home ...
. Guest musicians on the album include Ledwell, Erin Costello,
Old Man Luedecke
Old Man Luedecke is the recording name of two-time Juno Award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter and banjo player Chris Luedecke of Chester, Nova Scotia. He is most noted as a two-time Juno Award winner for Roots & Traditional Album of the Year ...
,
Tanya Davis and
Rose Cousins
A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be e ...
.
The album won the
East Coast Music Award
The East Coast Music Association is a non-profit association that hosts an annual awards ceremony based in Atlantic Canada for music appreciation on the East Coast of Canada. Its mission is to develop, advance and celebrate East Coast Canadian mus ...
for Pop Recording of the Year in 2013.
''Compostela''
Grant's fifth album, ''Compostela'', was released October 21, 2014, on
Outside Music
Outside Music is a Canadian record label and distributor founded by Lloyd Nishimura in 2001. In 2007, it expanded to include an artist management division which includes Jill Barber, Matthew Barber, Aidan Knight, Justin Rutledge as management ...
.
["Jenn Grant Taps Ron Sexsmith, Rose Cousins, Sarah Harmer for 'Compostela'"](_blank)
''Exclaim!
''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features in-depth coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly Exclaim! print magazine publishes 7 ...
'', September 9, 2014.
The album features collaborations with
Buck 65
Richard Terfry (born March 4, 1972), better known by his stage name Buck 65, is a Canadian alternative hip hop artist. Underpinned by an extensive background in abstract hip hop, his more recent music has extensively incorporated blues, countr ...
,
Sarah Harmer
Sarah Harmer (born November 12, 1970) is a Canadian singer, songwriter and environmental activist.
Early life
Born and raised in Burlington, Ontario, Harmer gained her first exposure to the musician's lifestyle as a teenager, when her older sis ...
,
Ron Sexsmith
Ronald Eldon Sexsmith (born January 8, 1964) 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 ...
,
Rose Cousins
A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be e ...
,
Don Kerr,
Doug Paisley
Doug Paisley is a Canadian alternative country singer and songwriter with record label No Quarter Records. He was born in Toronto. Paisley's "What About Us?" was featured in Mojo magazine as part of a complimentary CD entitled ''New Harvest''. Pa ...
, Kim Harris, Stewart Legere,
Justin Rutledge
Justin Rutledge (born January 3, 1979) is a Toronto-based Canadian alternative country singer-songwriter signed to Outside Music.
Rutledge's musical style is often compared to that of American alt-country singer Ryan Adams. His influences, both ...
and
Rachel Sermanni.
Two tracks, the Buck 65 collaboration "Spades" and the Stewart Legere collaboration "No One's Gonna Love You (Quite Like I Do)", appeared alongside four non-album tracks on her EP ''
Clairvoyant
Clairvoyance (; ) is the magical ability to gain information about an object, person, location, or physical event through extrasensory perception. Any person who is claimed to have such ability is said to be a clairvoyant () ("one who sees cl ...
'', released earlier in 2014.
The album was a shortlisted
Juno Award
The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall of ...
nominee for
Adult Alternative Album of the Year at the
Juno Awards of 2015
The Juno Awards of 2015 honoured Canadian music industry achievements in the latter part of 2013 and in most of 2014. The awards were presented in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada during the weekend of 14–15 March 2015. The main ceremony was conducted ...
.
''Paradise''
Grant's sixth album, ''Paradise'', was released on March 3, 2017. Grant and husband
Daniel Ledwell Daniel Ledwell is a Canadian record producer and multi-instrumentalist. He lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and is married to singer-songwriter Jenn Grant.
Music career
In 2008 Ledwell produced his debut solo album, ''Two Over Seven'' in his home ...
took a year in their home studio to craft an album of melodic beauty and sonic diversity. Grant displays the nuanced soulfulness in her voice, and touches on folk, R&B, and rock balladry. It was produced, engineered and mixed by Daniel Ledwell.
''Love, Inevitable''
Grants seventh album, ''Love, Inevitable'', was released on May 31, 2019. She began writing songs for the record in 2018. After making four consecutive albums with her husband, Daniel Ledwell garnering a cult following and critical acclaim, Grant stepped out of her usual comfort zone and reached out to Grammy nominated American producer and engineer, Tucker Martine. Grant wrote the tracks in her living room in Halifax using a Roland keyboard, acoustic guitar and banjo. She then flew to Portland, Oregon in July 2018 to record at Martine's Flora Recording and Playback.
Personal life
Born in
Charlottetown
Charlottetown is the capital and largest city of the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island, and the county seat of Queens County. Named after Queen Charlotte, Charlottetown was an unincorporated town until it was incorporated as a city in ...
, Prince Edward Island to Dr. Ken Grant (a vascular surgeon) and Heather Elizabeth Grant (''née'' MacDonald), she moved to Halifax at the age of ten with her mother and brother when her parents' marriage broke up.
She attended Saint Mary's University for a time
and later graduated from the
Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University,
[Alt URL]
/ref> with a Bachelor of Fine Arts
A Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) is a standard undergraduate degree for students for pursuing a professional education in the visual, fine or performing arts. It is also called Bachelor of Visual Arts (BVA) in some cases.
Background
The Bachelor ...
in painting. Her grandfather was the federal cabinet minister Daniel J. MacDonald.
Grant's mother, who was an inspiration to her career, was named the Queen of Azaleas in 1973 in Norfolk, Virginia. Grant's video for the song "The Fighter" uses 16mm film footage of this parade and time, as this song and album are a dedication to her mother's life; she died in May 2012.
Grant married producer and musician Daniel Ledwell Daniel Ledwell is a Canadian record producer and multi-instrumentalist. He lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and is married to singer-songwriter Jenn Grant.
Music career
In 2008 Ledwell produced his debut solo album, ''Two Over Seven'' in his home ...
in October 2011. On December 11, 2018, after several rounds of in-vitro fertilisation treatment, Jenn and Daniel welcomed their baby Gus into the world.
Grant enjoys painting, including designing some of her own album covers.["Jenn Grant Takes Symphonic Sounds to the Moon"](_blank)
. chartattack.com
''Chart Attack'' was a Canadian online music publication. Formerly a monthly print magazine called ''Chart'', it was published from 1991 to 2009. While the web version appears to be available online, the domain is now used as a popular media outle ...
, December 8, 2006.
Awards
In 2006, Grant won Best New Artist and Best Female Artist at the Nova Scotia Music Awards.
''Honeymoon Punch'' was a longlisted nominee for the 2011 Polaris Music Prize, and was shortlisted for a Juno Award
The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall of ...
in the Adult Alternative Album of the Year category at the Juno Awards of 2012
The Juno Awards of 2012 honoured Canadian music industry achievements in the latter part of 2010 and in most of 2011. The awards were presented in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada during the weekend of 31 March and 1 April 2012. A week of related events be ...
.
Grant won an East Coast Music Award for the song of the year at the 2013 ECMAs of the album "The Beautiful Wild".
Grant won an East Coast Music Award
The East Coast Music Association is a non-profit association that hosts an annual awards ceremony based in Atlantic Canada for music appreciation on the East Coast of Canada. Its mission is to develop, advance and celebrate East Coast Canadian mus ...
for Pop Recording of the Year at the 2012 ECMAs for ''The Beautiful Wild''. At the 2013 ECMAs, she won the award for Song of the Year, for that album's single "I've Got Your Fire".
Grant's song "Dreamer", from ''Orchestra for the Moon'', is featured as the theme song on CBC's ''Heartland
Heartland or Heartlands may refer to:
Businesses and organisations
* Heartland Bank, a New Zealand-based financial institution
* Heartland Inn, a chain of hotels based in Iowa, United States
* Heartland Alliance, an anti-poverty organization i ...
''. Her song "Make it Home Tonight" was played at the end of episode 12 of '' Flashpoint'', "Haunting the Barn".
Her album ''Compostela'' has been nominated for two Juno Awards
The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall of ...
.
Discography
* 2005 – '' Jenn Grant and Goodbye Twentieth Century'' (EP)
* 2007 – ''Orchestra for the Moon
An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families.
There are typically four main sections of instruments:
* bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, ce ...
''
* 2009 – '' Echoes''
* 2010 – ''Songs for Siigoun
''Songs for Siigoun'' is an EP by Canadian singer-songwriter Jenn Grant, released in 2010. The EP, originally recorded as a gift for her fiancé Daniel Ledwell's newborn niece Siigoun,[Honeymoon Punch
Jenn Grant (born August 20, 1980) is a Canadian folk pop singer-songwriter based in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Career
''Jenn Grant and Goodbye Twentieth Century''
She performed as a musician for a time in her early teens, but stopped due to a bo ...]
''
* 2012 – '' The Beautiful Wild''
* 2014 – ''Clairvoyant
Clairvoyance (; ) is the magical ability to gain information about an object, person, location, or physical event through extrasensory perception. Any person who is claimed to have such ability is said to be a clairvoyant () ("one who sees cl ...
'' (EP)
* 2014 – '' Compostela''
* 2017 – ''Paradise
In religion, paradise is a place of exceptional happiness and delight. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical or eschatological or both, often compared to the miseries of human civilization: in paradis ...
''
* 2019 – '' Love, Inevitable''
* 2020 – '' Forever on Christmas Eve''
References
External links
Jenn Grant
Jenn Grant
at CBC Radio 3
CBC Radio 3 is a Canadian digital radio station operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which plays a relatively freeform mix of indie rock, indie pop, alternative hip hop, folk, country and electronic music.
The service, which la ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grant, Jenn
Canadian singer-songwriters
1980 births
Living people
Musicians from Charlottetown
Musicians from Halifax, Nova Scotia
Canadian women guitarists
NSCAD University alumni
Six Shooter Records artists
Canadian women pop singers
21st-century Canadian women singers
21st-century Canadian guitarists
21st-century women guitarists