Time: 1-2:45 p.m.
Cover:
Oct 14th
1:00-2:45pm: Songwriter circle in Ballroom A - discuss lyrics and receive group feedback from songs that are works in progress.
3:00-7:00pm: 45min solo song sessions in the booth with coaching from Craig and DAA student volunteers.
Craig will be at the University of Lethbridge for a workshop for students!
Workshop @ 2:30pm
Contact student union for signup & info.
VENUE:
University of Lethbridge
4401 University Drive West,
Lethbridge, AB
T1K 6T5
For the past two and a half years, Craig Cardiff has been passing around
a Book of Truths during his shows and asking his fans to share
something truthful in it — a story, a confession, a hope, a secret. The
book gives fans a chance to write down something they might be too
afraid to say out loud, and it gives Cardiff an opportunity to connect
with the people who come to his shows.
Those entries aren’t always
easy to read. The stories can be heartbreaking, and they can leave
Cardiff wanting to do something, to find the person who wrote in his
book and tell them to hold on for tomorrow, that things will be OK.
Cardiff’s
new album, Love Is Louder (Than All This Noise) Part 1 & 2, has
turned into a response to those stories. This double album, released
November 19, 2013, offers 21 tracks that are connected by an underlying
sense that there are better days to come.
“I didn’t realize it at
first, but this collection of songs is just really to help people be OK
and to let them know to just wait until tomorrow, stay here and push on
through,” says Cardiff. “Every song has that kernel of hope and joy,
even if it’s not apparent at first.”
The Arnprior, Ontario-based folk
singer worked with producers Ben Leggett (Faraway Neighbours, Ben
Hermann) and Andre Wahl (Hawksley Workman, Luke Doucet) to record an
album that is quite different than anything Cardiff has released before.
Love Is Louder (Than All This Noise) is one-part boisterous group
sing-along, one-part gentle lullaby.
This is the same team that
produced Floods and Fires, the album that earned Cardiff a nomination
for a 2012 Juno Award for Roots and Traditional Album of the Year: Solo
and a Canadian Folk Music Award nomination as 2012 Contemporary Singer
of the Year. This time, Leggett and Wahl told Cardiff they wouldn’t let
him make an album like the ones he’s made before.
Cardiff, Leggett
and Wahl recorded Love Is Louder (Than All This Noise) primarily in
Cardiff’s home studio in Arnprior — which he and Leggett built together
during the recording of Floods and Fires — the Chalet Studio in
Claremont, and the Schoolhouse studio built by Hawksley Workman outside
Huntsville.
With a voice described as “warm, scratched, sad and
sleepy,” Cardiff sings songs that expose the human condition, putting a
magnifying glass to the clumsier and less proud moments. He can turn any
setting into an intimate affair, infusing his music and lyrics with an
uncompromising humanism.
Cardiff makes it a point to keep the
relationship with his fans personal, inviting and accepting any
opportunity to make his audience as much a part of the performance as he
is.
Armed with an extensive catalogue of songs, his Book of Truths,
sharp wit and soft voice, Cardiff is considered a pioneer in alternate
venue touring, often appearing in churches, camps, prisons, basements,
festivals, kitchens and even taking to the streets, bringing his fans
with him. Over the years, he has played with and opened for artists such
as Glen Phillips, Lucy Kaplansky, Dan Bern, Natalia Zukerman, Andy
Stochansky, Sarah Harmer, Kathleen Edwards, Blue Rodeo, Gordon Downie
(Tragically Hip), Hawksley Workman, Sarah Slean, Skydiggers, 54-40 and
more.
When not performing, Cardiff often offers workshops at schools,
camps, festivals and churches throughout North America. He is
passionate about encouraging others to be more open and to try new
things even if it means making mistakes, and in June 2011, he gave an
address called Fear is the Cheapest Room in the House during the
inaugural TEDxUWO at the University of Western Ontario.
What people are saying
“[Craig is] a songwriter who needs to be heard.” Canadian music icon Gordon Lightfoot
“In
some ways, it’s too much of a good thing, but Cardiff can’t be faulted
for going the extra mile for his audience. It’s what’s gotten him to
this point, and is sure to carry him further with this effort that puts
him solidly in the upper echelon of Canadian folk artists.” Jason
Schneider, Exclaim
“From the majestic loops of The Very Last Night Of
The End Of The World to the feel-good caress of Safe Here, the
cello-enhanced lullaby Gate and a sprinkling of starting-over songs,
it’s a gorgeous album that seems to find a balance between heartbreak
and joy. Listening to Cardiff’s gentle, expressive voice, you can
imagine that Paul Simon is whispering in one ear and Van Morrison in the
other.” Lynn Saxberg, Ottawa Citizen
“There is a warm and inviting
feeling to the end of the world. In Craig Cardiff’s Floods and Fires,
the seemingly apocalyptic crises life throws at our solemn narrator are
met with a measure of hope and the promise of shelter to wait out the
storm … The result is a soothing swell of harmonies that never overwhelm
the taut emotion carried through Cardiff’s soft, whispery voice.” Ellen
Keeble, Calgary Sun
“What I’ve found to be the essential key in his
songs is versatility between the tracks. It’s Craig’s soft demure in
vocals that tells the story; the melody that keeps you hooked. When you
finish listening to a track or one of his albums as a whole, listeners
realize that they and Craig speak the same language. It’s that truth
that keeps Craig’s fans hungry for his next release.” Care Humphries,
Velvet Rope