I am deathly allergic to cats. This reality has been one of a trillion reasons why I am a dog person. Today I fell in love with a cat named Silverton who was an old hippie of a kitty. Silverton was the most chilled out, intriguing kitty I have ever met. He was big, he was dignified and he looked just  like a Lynx. Silverton is the king of The Bide A While Animal Shelter in Dartmouth.

This Sunday I am performing at The Carleton with Laura Smith, Tom Swift and Steven MacDougall for The Concert For Critters. I decided to pay a visit to the fine folks at the shelter today after work and I am so happy I did. On average, 30 cats a day are turned away at this shelter. 30. A day. Bide A While Shelter has been devoted to the well being  of abandoned, lost or homeless animals for 40 years! I had a lovely visit with them and got to tour the facility and meet the furry tenants. I was a little sad I didn’t get to meet any dogs, but that’s actually a good thing.  I’d probably still be there :) Please come and enjoy an afternoon of tunes and laughs to help support the beautiful people who dedicate their time to surround these animals with the love they deserve.

This Saturday is my birthday and I get to spend it on The Candy Show!! I was able to attend when Garrett Mason played and I had the best time. I am stoked to be a part of it! Tickets are free -> info@thecandyshow.com

That’s all for now

Summer is just around the corner and I’m getting a van.

Love and Rock

Carms

My tears haven’t stopped for you, your family, your babies, your band of brothers and the heartbroken songsters who you have inspired for so many years. One of my favourite tours was an acoustic tour I did with Jay Smith and Mike Le Lievre. We called it the “Well, There You Go Right There Tour.. Part 2″  We shared a lot of dreams and bad jokes in that tiny car. Hearing you and your sweet sister Chelle sing together all these years was such a treat. I feel privileged to have witnessed your evolving talent over the years and have shared many sunsets of song with you and the gang  in that time. I must say I held a lot of hope for a Rock Ranger reunion.  We lost another Cape Breton Legend yesterday.  My heart breaks for everyone who knew and loved you. You were the real deal, Bud.

Long may you run.

I did it again. I forgot about my presence here on the site! Sorry, my lovelies. I am all up in Twitter’s face as well as Facebook. :)

There are some sweet developments in the works right now. We will be performing on The Candy Show! I am not sure of all the details yet but we are pretty excited! My amazing Manager/Booking Agent, Tiffany Spencer, is working extremely hard ( as usual) putting all the pieces together so we can pay a visit to Europe this summer too. I am also anxious to get back to Ontario. I will be sure to keep you in the loop.  In the meantime, I will be joining my friend Ben Caplan at The Company House on January 31st. I will be opening the show with an acoustic set. Word on the street is that the tickets are almost gone!

I hope everyone is having a wicked New Year!

Love and Rock

Carms

Ahh Jeez,  I always forget about my website. I am all over Twitter and Facebook, but I seem to abandon my site… I will do better.

Soooo I have a new band, and they are amazing. Jordan Oakie and Alan Hoskins from the legendary Halifax punk rock band Myles Deck and the Fuzz. I have been a fan of MDATF for years, played numerous shows with them and I am more than thrilled to have them be a part of this wild ride. We have some new tunes, and Alan also plays a mean piano!! Rock organ all over the place.

I had an excellent time at Nova Scotia Music Week! We made some new friends from Germany and I am very excited to let you know that we are in the early planning stages of taking our rock and roll monster overseas again. I also played with the Jubilee Orchestra that weekend and it was oodles of fun. Singing swing tunes has become a true love of mine and there is now a sweet project in the works!

I wanted to extend a massive thank you to Symphony Nova Scotia, David Christensen, Jonathan Govias, and every single musician who was a part of the symphony show at the Rebecca Cohn. Also, much love to the audience and a major congratulations to Ben Caplan and Carleton Stone for a job well done. Never in a million years could I have ever dreamed up a more incredible opportunity. I am honoured to have been invited to perform with such talented people!

I promise I will keep you up to date here! Stay tuned for more news :D

Love and Rock

Carmen

The guitars are back.  Your support, love, and jokes has made the last few days bearable. All reward money is being returned. If you need your donation back ASAP, please email me. Sunday will be refund day :) I can’t write much as I am practicing my Elivs song for a wedding  I am attending in a few hours! My first same sex wedding ceremony….Love is a beautiful thing.

Let it be known that you should always listen to your gutt instinct. That little voice in your head that says “Don’t do that, it’s not a good idea” is telling the truth. DO NOT deal with strangers regarding any type of criminal activity. Call the police. Do not leave valuables in the trunk of  your locked, alarmed car. DO NOT take anything seriously posted on messageboards. You probably shouldn’t tweet, email, or send hateful, threatening messages to people who have  been robbed and who are dealing with police. I mean….come on guys….use your brain.

Anyway, Thank you to all the media who contacted me. I never imagined this type of response. EVER. To every musician who called and emailed offering their guitars…Thank You! To everyone who was on my side, you were an army of awesome. Extra thanks to Gordie Johnson  ( Big Sugar ) for  sharing his story and sending me a “Chin up” email. To Becky walker, Marc-Antoine Robertson, Lindsay-Bea Davis, TJ Webb, Live 105, Global, CBC, Chronicle Herald, Q104, Music Nova Scotia, EVERYONE…Oh man , I don’t want to forget anyone. I’ll write more later!! Time to get my Elvis on.

Love, Rock, Justice, and Kindness.

Carmen

Looks like I’ll be pleading my Rock and Roll case to the judges of She’s The One Emerging Female Artist Contest at this year’s Ottawa Blues Fest! Out of hundreds of entries from across the country, I was selected as one of 3 semi-finalists in the band category  to perform a 20 minute set in hopes of taking home the grand prize of $5000!  I’ll be travelling to Ottawa to  perform in the afternoon on Saturday, July 7th. Shane O’Handley will be joining me as well as drummer saviour extraordinaire Jordan Oakie ( Something Good, Myles Deck and the Fuzz). It sure would be sweet to win….a tour van is desperately needed as our van from the Cross Canada Tour last year has bit the dust. I have come to learn that touring in a Corolla loses it’s charm quite quickly :) Regardless of the outcome, I am stoked to play the festival and share my music….Oh yeah,  Alice Cooper and Iron Maiden will be playing the festival that night. *excited face*  Well, there you go right there! Fun will be had.

Send me some sweet vibes! More info to come!…I love you.

Love and Rock

Carmen

Hello Beautiful People,

Time for another massive  ”Thank You!”  The ECMAs seem like a dream that was over much too fast. Thank you to everyone who voted. I was not prepared  to accept the Rising Star award. I forgot to thank my family, friends and fans….I still love you like crazy. The entire weekend felt like one big shiny award. I love being surrounded by so many talented people. I crashed a few hotel parties, made tons of new friends and laughed more than I sang. Jackpot alert!

I have a few fun things to tell you about. I will be performing live in studio at Live 105 this Friday at 5pm. Halifamous Jordan Oakie and Alan Hoskins will be saving the day as my emergency fill in band. On  April 28, I’ll be performing at The Seahorse Tavern for the Rockabilly Riot Johnny Cash Tribute. The following weekend we will land in beautiful St. Andrews, NB for Paddlefest and then May 11 I play an acoustic set at The Rockbottom in Halifax. I am also beyond stoked that I will be travelling to New York City and Nashville this summer to do some co-writing for the new record. *EXCITED FACE*

Once again, thank you so much to everyone who has been such a great support and encouraging light in my life. Sometimes it is easy for me to get discouraged. Every time that happens, I am immediately reminded how lucky I am to have my friends, family, fans and fellow musical warriors by my side.

Have a look at this fun video I made with one of my favourite bands, The Motorleague. They recently raised $3000 for Cystic Fibrosis Canada and they are still raising money! These guys are just the best dudes ever. I was delighted to be a part of one of their awesome Heritage Moment Videos.

Love and Rock

Carms

I am so excited for Sunday. One more sleep and I will be joining a bunch of my friends to perform as one of three back up singers for  the release of  Jon Epworth’s Soul Mange EP. Yes, he released two records this weekend and they are both amazing. I have been a fan of Jon’s talents for years and have had the privilege to share the stage with him many times….but I have never been IN the band. It’s kinda like a dream gig for me. We have had an excellent time learning and practicing these outstanding songs. You are in for a real treat. Here is the link to stream EP ( be careful, its HOT)

http://exclaim.ca/MusicVideo/ClickHear/jon_epworth-soul_mange_album_stream

I also want to thank everyone who voted in The Best of Music poll for The Coast. I was told I had won something, but I was not aware until the issue came out. To wake up to the sweet messages and thumbs up for taking home Best Solo Female and a Bronze in the Best Songwriter category…was a beautiful thing. I love living in Halifax. This city is filled with artists, painters, photographers, dancers, poets, directors, writers, actors, producers…the list goes on. The community of creativity is alive and well here and I am  a better human because of it. Thank you doesn’t seem to cut it….and I am tearing up now but unfortunately there is no font for “ugly cry”  :)  I love you. Thank you for you. Please come out to The Seahorse on Sunday to see the legendary Jon Epworth. It’s going to blow your mind.

Love and Rock

Carmen

Hey! I just wanted to send out an enormous thank you to everyone involved with the Hockey Day celebrations in PEI this weekend. It was truly an honour for me to be asked to perform, write a hockey related song and experience such a lovely weekend with some of the greatest talent this world has to offer.  I met a lot of people this weekend and was so thrilled to be sharing the stage with Dave Bidini, Stephen Stanley ( thanks for the guitar!), Paul Linklater, Doug Friesen, Don Kerr, Chris Murphy, Lennie Gallant, Liam Corcoran, Kinley Dowling and of course the magnificent Sarah Harmer. I remember seeing Sarah years ago at The Birdland Cabaret in Halifax with her band Weeping Tile. I became and instant fan and I am pretty sure I can recite every word from her albums :) It is not very often that I am moved to tears by a performance, but she gets me everytime! What a golden voice and a lovely lady.

Thanks so much to Dave Bidini for asking me to be a part of this event, the CBC, Scotiabank and everyone involved that made it happen.  Bidini Band did an excellent job and really brought it home with their after party performance at Baba’s Lounge. Thanks to everyone who celebrated until the wee hours of the morning. There was also a gentleman serving up some oysters and I am now officially hooked. PEI, you know how to throw a party! I’ll be seeing you again very soon on February 23rd at my beloved Hunter’s Ale House.

Much love to everyone I met this past weekend. Hopefully our paths will cross again sometime soon.

P.S. My song “The Old Rink Light” will be posted for you all to hear and share :) It’s just a demo for now, but I received some great feedback so a proper studio recording will definitely be in the works.

Love and Rock,

Carms

Hey everyone!

I have two awesome announcements to make!  Firstly, the ECMA nominations have been released and I am very grateful to have been nominated for two ECMAs this year for Rock Recording and Rising Star. Congrats to all the nominees! I am looking forward to spending ECMA weekend in one of my favourite cities in Canada…Moncton, NB :)

Many moons ago, I was very fortunate to have met Dave Bidini (Rheostatics/Bidini Band/ Writer/Director/National Treasure) and  was lucky enough to sing with The Rheostatics during their Fall National Shows in Toronto  on several occasions.  I can still remember how TERRIFIED I was to sing lead with one the greatest bands in the Universe. I have been a Rheostatics fan for a long time and those performances are still a highlight of my musical adventures. Once again,  I am really excited to have been asked by  Dave Bidini to be a part of  ”Stolen From A Hockey Card” an amazing show that is happening in PEI next month. We will be celebrating National Hockey Day, Feb 9th @8pm at  The Confederation Centre.  It was my duty to write a song related to the good ol’ game. I can’t wait for you to hear it! It is quite different from my usual style. My poor roommates have had to listen to it a million times…but they dig it!  Oh and Sarah harmer, Chris Murphy, will also be performing!  *eeeek*

We are also hitting the road for a rockin’ mini tour at the end of February! See you soon in Moncton, PEI, Halifax and St. John :D

Love and Rock

Carmen