He’s a five-time Juno winner, and a 23-time East
Coast Music Awards winner.
He’s Jimmy Rankin and he’s coming to St. Thomas.
The man whose family name is a synonym for Canadian roots music, is to
appear in concert May 1 at 2 p.m. at the Princess Avenue Playhouse.
He’s been booked by local folk aficionados Ted Lyons and Dave
McCormick, who say the intimate, 125-seat venue is a perfect fit for
the musicians they bring in. Past performers have included Valdy and
David Bradstreet.
It follows by 2½ weeks the April 12 release of Rankin’s fourth solo
CD, Forget About the Word. The country-flavoured recording features
musical guest Keith Urban.
Rankin, who has a website at jimmyrankin.com, says in pre-release
publicity he wanted to make a country record with a difference.
“I wanted it to be something more, something quiet in places,
something reflective — and maybe something that did feel from the
heart.
“People have a hard time categorizing my music. I’ve had an eclectic
upbringing — Hank Williams Sr., rock ‘n’ roll, Celtic . . . .
“And to me, country music is all those things.”
Tickets for Rankin’s appearance: 519-633-6625, 519-631-3474.
ON his fourth solo outing, Jimmy Rankin expands
upon the rootsy approach of 2007's Edge of Day to include some poppier
numbers. One of those is the first single, Here in My Heart, where
Rankin pretty much sums up the album's theme, "Holdin' it back, or
risking it all/Falling in love, falling apart." Add a guitar solo from
chart topper Keith Urban and it's a sure-fire hit.
Rankin really radiates on the more rustic tracks,
like the robust Waiting on a Sign, the strikingly poignant ballads The
Hurting Part or Maybe Nothing and the understated front porch stomper
What I Wouldn't Give. The real centerpiece of the whole affair is a
duet with Serena Ryder, whose comely rasp compliments Jimmy's own
unique and recognizable vocal on Walk That Way.
Rankin may not offer anything groundbreaking
lyrically but he does deliver a decidedly agreeable and tasteful
collection of heartfelt songs. 3-1/2 stars
Four years after releasing Edge of Day, he’s back
with a brand new solo studio album, Forget About the World.
And he’s launching it this week during the East
Coast Music Awards.
“It’s the perfect time to release the CD. It’s a
great platform to showcase music. All the music industry people and
the fans are going to be there. It’s going to be a great night,” says
Rankin, adding the release party will take place April 16 at The Mack
from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.
And he can’t wait for the show to begin.
“I’m very excited about it because I have a new
single, Here In My Heart, which is climbing the charts. And I have all
these new songs that I want people to hear. That’s very exciting for
me,” says the award-winning singer-songwriter during a telephone
interview this week as he prepared to come to Charlottetown.
Unlike the last CD, which was a live, off-the-floor
album, this one has commercial appeal.
“It runs the gamut from radio-friendly songs like
Here In My Heart to the acoustic Colorado Day — just me singing with
my guitar,” he says.
Co-written by Rankin and Patricia Conroy, the
album’s first single also features a guest performance on guitar by
international country superstar Keith Urban, a long-time fan and
supporter.
“I met Keith during the Canadian Country Music
Awards in Calgary. He had my CD Song Dog on his bus, where the band
had been listening to it. The next night we had a great jam at the
Palliser Hotel in Calgary, which has since become legendary.
“We were sitting around the hotel lobby with a
couple of guitars and some other writers, singing songs as a bunch of
people stood around watching us. We ended up touring across the
country together and since that time we have kept bumping into each
other,” he says.
So when Rankin needed someone to sing a solo on
that song, he thought of Urban.
“As luck would have it, he texted me back, which
was fantastic. And a few months later we were in the studio recording
his guitar part. Keith really brings a very live energy to that song,
which is about the ups and downs of relationships,” says Rankin.
Fans will also recognize Serena Ryder, who lends
her voice to Walk that Way.
“It’s a romantic ballad, a journey of two people
riding cross-country in a car. We’ve all done it at some point. I
could have sung this song as a solo, but I wanted to do a duet. So I
thought it might be nice to have a female sing on this song. I am a
fan of Serena Ryder. After seeing her on TV, I became inspired by her
singing. I thought, ‘man, maybe she might be good for the part’ so I
got in contact with her. And, as luck would have it, she loved the
song, so she agreed to do it.
“She came into the studio and just nailed it. I
didn’t know how it would turn out. I just knew that I was a fan of her
singing and her music. As it turned out our voices melded well
together. That’s where that song came out of,” he says.
Recorded at Bell’s Soleil Studio, Orange Studio and
Canterbury Music in Toronto in late 2010, Forget About the World
boasts an impressive backup band: Gary Craig on drums and percussion,
Gary Breit on piano and Hammond organ, guitarist Colin Cripps, bassist
John Dymond, fiddler Craig Eastman and Kenny Greer on pedal steel.
After launching the album at the ECMAs, Rankin will
set out on a cross-Canada tour, beginning April 28 in Wakefield, Que.
“It’s going to be good to get out on the road
again. I’m looking forward to playing these songs live for people,” he
says.
Jimmy Rankin performed at the international export
stage showcase Friday afternoon at East Coast Music Week, taking place
in Charlottetown, P.E.I. Rankin, a native of Mabou and member of the
renowned Rankin Family, released a new solo album, “Forget About The
World,” this week and is holding a CD release event Saturday as part
of ECMA weekend
ECMA veteran talks about recording with Urban on new
CD and Cape Breton-Australian musical connection
April 16, 2011 - Halifax Herald
By Stephen Cooke, Entertainment Reporter
IF ANYONE can lay claim to being an East Coast
Music Awards veteran, it’s Jimmy Rankin.
In the early heyday of the Rankin Family, the songwriting brother of
the band recalls attending the second edition of the event at the
Crazy Horse Cabaret in Dartmouth in 1990, with performances by Sarah
McLachlan and April Wine’s Myles Goodwyn, and a much less formal
atmosphere.
Twenty years later, the musical showcases attract the kind of crowds
those early awards used to garner, and Rankin is taking advantage of
the timing of the 2011 ECMAs in Charlottetown. He launched his fourth
solo CD Forget About the World with an acoustic performance on
Thursday night on the Roots Room stage and has full CD launch at
Confederation Centre tonight.
"Last night was kind of ‘throw and go,’ when you have to be on your
toes, but sometimes those performances are the best," says Rankin, the
day after sharing the Roots Room stage with guitarist Jamie Robinson.
"Sometimes when you’re under the gun, it just puts you on the edge,
and that edge gives you a better performance than when you’re relaxed,
well rested and fed."
For Forget About the World, Rankin was looking for a mix of that edge
and just the right amount of polish, working with producer Bill Bell
(Tom Cochrane, Justin Nozuka) in Toronto and Nashville after his
previous experience on 2007’s Edge of Day, recording live off the
floor with roots-oriented producer Colin Linden.
"I love that idea, just playing songs and going for the take, but this
time we wanted to expand on that, go for something more layered and
more radio playable," he says. "Like Here in My Heart, which is on
stations across the country, at number 20 and climbing, which is
fantastic.
"But I also wanted to retain that rootsy element of what I do; I’m
still a singer-songwriter, and there are songs like Colorado Dave
which is just guitar and singing. So the record runs the spectrum of
what I do."
Right now the most visible part of that spectrum is Here in My Heart,
which includes a contribution on guitar from Keith Urban, who’s been a
fan of Rankin’s for almost a decade and has taken the man from Mabou
out on tour with him.
When the singer was wondering who could juice up the tune, he caught
Urban playing acoustic guitar on TV, and after a quick exchange of
text messages, a rendezvous was set up in Nashville for the Australian
star to add his voice and guitar to the track.
"He just said, ‘Sure mate, I’d love to play on your song.’ He brought
that live energy you see in his shows, and it was just amazing. I’m
eternally grateful, and so pleased with what he played; he just nailed
it," says Rankin, who has always felt a natural affinity between
Australians and Cape Bretoners, going back to when he kept meeting
them while backpacking across Europe in his youth.
"I told Keith about Gordie Sampson, which is how they hooked up in
Nashville and started writing together. But did you know that Keith
toured with Rita MacNeil in Australia? I think he opened for her. So
talk about your Cape Breton connection."
THE ATLANTIC-AUSTRALIAN connection continues at the ECMAs, with a Down
Under undercurrent to the week’s industry conference, titled The Beat
of Business. Aussie talent buyers and a few performers, like
singer-songwriter Ashleigh Mannix, are here to foster relationships
that began last year in Sydney (Cape Breton, not Australia).
Some of the contingent are first-time visitors like Chloe Goodyear,
programming manager for Queensland’s Woodford Festival, which featured
Nova Scotia artists Tom Fun Orchestra, Carmen Townsend and Old Man
Luedecke at its 25th anniversary edition in December.
"I knew there was a particular type of music from this area, and I was
delighted to actually see how much more there is," says Goodyear,
whose Woodford Festival features over 500 acts in venues ranging in
capacity from 30 to 25,000.
"For the size of it, I can’t believe the variety of the music and the
quality of the music that’s exporting from here."
Early on Friday morning, Goodyear and buyers from across North America
and Europe attended Two for the Show, with musicians like Luedecke and
Erin Costelo getting a two-song chance to win them over, before a
couple more hours of one-on-one pitch sessions with individual artists
hoping to get on the radar for their events.
Goodyear says her long list of favourite acts this weekend includes
Nova Scotia-based singer-songwriters Amelia Curran, Dave Gunning and
Matt Andersen, and traditional P.E.I. performers Richard Wood and
Vishten.
"I’m actually struggling to find things I didn’t enjoy," grins
Goodyear, who’s also looking forward to a quick pilgrimage to Anne of
Green Gables House in Cavendish before the weekend is out.
BEST SURREAL MOMENT of the weekend so far came courtesy of a campaign
whistle stop by NDP Leader Jack Layton, proclaiming his party’s
support of the arts at ECMA’s ground zero, the lobby of the Delta
Prince Edward Hotel.
While Cape Breton fiddler Ashley MacIsaac held up a sign for Liberal
candidate Sean Casey, Layton introduced local NDP candidate Joe Byrne,
who did more than just whistle, performing a ragged-but-earnest
original tune titled This Is My Island.
As for getting his message across, the candidate would be better off
sticking to stump speeches.
With Charlottetown hosting the 2011 East Coast
Music Awards, Festival and Conference this week, it seemed appropriate
to dedicate this column to some of the best new recordings released by
East Coast artists in recent weeks.
The recordings reviewed here represent a
cross-section of what’s happening musically in the region.
Forget About the World
Before the release of Song Dog in 2001, there were
some who wondered whether Jimmy Rankin could build a successful career
as a solo artist.
They need not have wondered.
That first record, followed by Handmade in 2003 and
Edge of Day in 2007, have established the Cape Breton
singer-songwriter as a musical force to be reckoned with and a skilled
tunesmith with a knack for penning very personal songs that connect
with people on a number of different levels.
Forget About the World, Rankin’s first album of new
material in four years, should strike a resounding chord with many of
those same fans and draw even more to the fold with a dozen finely
crafted new songs. The songs on this record look at love, life, the
kinds of relationships we develop over time, the manner in which we
sometimes treat those we say we love and the measures we would be
willing to take to get back what we’ve lost.
Forget About The World is a record of what was,
what is and what will be or at least could be.
The record has a very strong country flavour — not
surprising considering the amount of time Rankin has spent in
Nashville of late. But it is not exclusively a country record. There
are bright snippets of pop music like Waiting on a Sign Maybe Nothing
that has a strong folk influence.
Country superstar Keith Urban and rising star
Serena Ryder make guest appearances on the record. The set also
benefited from having top drawer producer Bill Bell on deck.
Choice cuts include Perfect, Maybe Nothing, Here In
My Heart, Walk that Way and Colorado Dave.
Rankin will officially launch Forget About the
World at the ECMAs this week in Charlottetown
Jimmy
Rankin insists he didn't want to make "a straight-ahead country"
record with his recently released fourth solo album, Forget About the
World, which is really equal parts country, pop and roots.
"I don't think I can (make a country album) -- I just have too many
eclectic influences," said Rankin, 46, best known as a member of the
beloved '90s folk-country East Coast group The Rankin Family, who
split up in 1999 before reuniting in 2007.
Yet Rankin divides his time between Cape Breton, N.S., and the
unofficial home of country music, Nashville, where he has an
apartment.
"It's something I've been wanting to do for a long time, just be in
that part of the world, because it's all about music -- it's a music
mecca," said Rankin, seated in a Toronto restaurant.
"It's one of the last meccas anywhere where kids get off the bus every
day with a bag of songs and a guitar and a dream. And it's all about
music. There are no bells and whistles. There's every kind of music,
not just country music."
Rankin had visited Nashville since the mid-'90s, first to make records
with his siblings, then as a solo artist.
He has recruited no less a country star than Keith Urban to play a
guitar solo on the first Forget About the World single, Here in My
Heart. The two musicians famously met at the 2002 Canadian Country
Music Awards in Calgary, when someone slipped a copy of Rankin's 2001
solo debut, Song Dog, onto Urban's bus. That led to an all-night jam
session in the Palliser hotel lobby until 5 a.m.
"We ended doing what's become this famous jam in CCMA lore," said
Rankin, who wound up touring with Urban and Canadian Carolyn Dawn
Johnson.
Rankin then ran into Urban repeatedly over the years that followed,
until having a fateful meeting with him in spring 2010, which was
shortly after he'd moved to Nashville.
"It was so weird," said Rankin, who will launch his latest Canadian
solo tour on Thursday night in Wakefield, Que. "We had driven to
Nashville with my wife and kids (ages four and six) in a van for four
days, so we checked into a hotel, we were haggard, and went to a
restaurant and walked up to the sushi bar -- and there's Keith and his
lovely wife (actress Nicole Kidman)."
The two exchanged phone numbers. Later, when Rankin was in North
Ontario listening to the bed tracks for Forget About the World, he
happened to catch Urban on TV, performing on a CMT taping in Toronto.
That's when he thought of asking Urban to play the solo on the new
album's first single.
"I was like, 'OK, why not call Keith?' You never know. He's a busy
guy, he's got a huge life ... So he texted me back that day and said,
'Sure, mate, I'd love to play on your song.' Eventually, we were in
Nashville again and got in touch and it was basically shortly after
his baby was born, so you can imagine how tired these guys were. So he
came into the studio -- what a great guy -- and just played this
amazing solo. He was fantastic. He's awesome. I owe him one. To take
the time out for me means everything to me."
Forget About the World was recorded in Toronto, L.A. and Nashville
with producer-guitarist-mixer Bill Bell (Jason Mraz, Tom Cochrane and
Justin Nozuka). The album's other prominent guest musician is rising
blues-country rocker Serena Ryder, who sings a duet with Rankin on
Walk That Way.
The two didn't know each other previously, but Rankin saw Ryder
singing on a TV with just a guitar and liked what he heard. The two
later met up at a bar in Halifax, where they were both doing gigs.
"I haven't done a duet since I recorded Fare Thee Well Love with my
sister Cookie back in the day, like early '90s, so I thought it might
be a nice little surprise on the record," Rankin said. "So I called
her up and she said she'd love to. So she came into the studio and, of
course, she could sing the telephone book as far as I'm concerned and
would sound great. She nailed it in a couple of takes. I've never sung
with her before and I just had a gut feeling that she was going to be
great for the song."
Rankin still joins the family on tour
Jimmy Rankin is now four albums deep into his solo career -- including
the recently released Forget About the World. But he still tours with
The Rankin Family, who disbanded in 1999 but reunited in 2007.
"I've been doing my solo thing just as long, or longer, as I did the
Rankin thing," he said. "But about four years ago we got back together
and did a run across the country, so now ... I think we've done three
tours since then.
"My sisters (Cookie, Raylene and Heather) do a Christmas concert every
year or two, and then whenever we can we get together and do a Rankin
thing, because people still want to hear that music. So it's like a
brand name, which is lovely. We didn't know what to expect after eight
years of not doing it, and people came out in droves right across the
country."
The fifth family band member, his older brother John Morris, died in a
car accident in 2000 at age 40.
Does Rankin ever miss singing with his sisters?
"Well, for one thing there are four vocalists, so I get to sing five
songs a night and sing harmonies and play guitar, so it's not all me
and I get to have three beautiful background singers, so I miss that
part of it," he said. "But then again, we're not doing it fulltime
anymore, so when we get together to do it, it's fun. And we're not
under the record company pressure to get something out and tour it. We
just go out because we want to. And then my solo thing. It's kind of
the best of both worlds."
Jimmy Rankin tour dates:
Apr 28 - Wakefield, QC - The Blacksheep Inn
Apr 29 - Burnstown, ON - Neat Coffee Shop
Apr 30 - Blyth, ON - Blyth Art Centre
May 1 - St. Thomas, ON - Princess Ave. Playhouse
May 4 - Toronto, ON - Hugh's Room
May 5 - Hamilton, ON - Studio Theatre
May 6 - Chatham, ON - Mary Webb Centre
May 7 - Stratford, ON - Library
May 8 - Alliston, ON - Gibson Centre
May 13 - Calgary, AB - Ironwood
May 14 - Red Deer, AB - Elks Lodge
May 17 - Fort MacMurray, AB - Keyano Theatre
May 19 - Chipman, AB - Chipman Hall
May 20-21 Fort St John, AB - Lido
May 22 - Prince George, BC - Artspace
May 24 - Langley, BC - Cascades Casino Summit Theatre
May 27 - Halifax, NS - Casino Nova Scotia
May 28 - Fredericton, NB - The Charlotte Street Arts Centre
May 29 - Saint John, NB - Bourbon Quarter
May 31 - Truro, NS - Marigold
Jun 1 - Pictou, NS - Decoste
Jun 2 - Georgetown, PE - King's Playhouse
Jun 3 - Sydney, NS - Membertou
Jun 4 - Mabou, NS - Strathspey Place
Photo: Jimmy Rankin's new solo album, "Forget
About the World," came out on April 12. (PHOTO: Alex Urosevic, QMI
Agency)
Don't expect eclectic Cape Breton son to be able to
stick to one genre
April 29, 2011 - London Free Press
By Eric Bunnell
The title of his new recording urges listeners to Forget About the
World - and Jimmy Rankin wants his St. Thomas audience to take that
thought with them Sunday when they leave his concert at the Princess
Avenue Playhouse.
"Hopefully, you will have forgotten about the world for a while and had
some escape with my music - and just really feel really great!"
Rankin is stopping at the intimate, 125-seat venue on tour in support of
his fourth solo album released 2-1/2 weeks ago. He has been booked by
local folk aficionados Ted Lyons and Dave McCormick.
Though he has a permanent home in Nova Scotia, where his family name is
synonymous with East Coast music, Rankin is now living and making music in
Nashville. His new, country-flavoured album, which includes a duet with
country superstar Keith Urban, reflects his evolution as an artist.
But Rankin says on the phone from Music City, it's an evolution - not
revolution - as he explores a genre which shares roots in the Celtic music
which also is parent to the East Coast's down home sound.
And he promises his audience will recognize his latest venture is still
the Jimmy Rankin they love.
"The common thread in my music is me and my guitar and my voice."
Rankin, a five-time Juno winner and a 23-time East Coast Music Awards
winner, says no matter what the sound - he admits to liking the wide
variety of musical styles to which he was exposed growing up, including AM
radio - it's the stories he can tell that inspire him to write songs.
"I'm very much a storyteller at heart. I come from a place that's steeped
in a tradition of storytelling. And I think I've carried that over
naturally into my music."
Growing up, 46-year-old Rankin says he never thought of music as a
vocation. But when the Rankins took off, so did his career. They now
largely have gone separate ways, but the family members still get together
to make music.
Even so, working with the likes of Urban is beyond Rankin's wildest
dreams. They met and jammed at the 2002 Canadian Country Music Awards and
the pair toured in 2003.
"I've worked with so many amazing people on stage,'' Rankin said. "I've
got to perform with amazing people, and record with extraordinary people.
To tell you the truth, I've never really dreamed that.
"It was the wildest dream."
He says he doesn't know who he may work with next but says he believes
collaboration only makes music better.
"If you are surrounded by people who are really passionate about what they
do, you're going to perform better and you're going to sound better."
Though his taste in music is eclectic and he says he embraces latest
trends, he doubt's it'll be a Lady Gaga.
Instead, Rankin names the likes of Robert Plant, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen
and Joni Mitchell.
"Who knows? I don't know what the world holds for me."
Rankin is in concert Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Princess Avenue Playhouse.
The concert is sold out.
Singer Jimmy Rankin is pumped about hitting the road and introducing
his new collection of tunes to Canadian audiences.
He plays The Hideout in Red Deer on May 12. Fans will of course hear
plenty from his past discs along with works from his newly-released Forget
About the World.
The project has been described as ‘a decidedly jubilant songwriter record
that celebrates love and life with a fervour.’ Rankin himself admits his
music is tough to categorize, having tapped effectively into genres
ranging from rock to roots to Celtic.
This time around, he opted for a CD brimming with rich, warm country
sensibilities.
“I knew I wanted to make a country record, but not a straight ahead
country record,” he explains. “I wanted it to be something more, something
quiet in places, something reflective – and maybe something that did feel
from the heart.”
Rankin’s last disc, 2007’s Edge of Day, was primarily a roots project. He
didn’t want to abandon that style completely for Forget About the World,
but rather push his creative energies to new, unexplored places.
The results soar as clearly seen in the CD’s first reflective single Here
in My Heart which features superstar singer/guitarist Keith Urban.
Their connection stretches back to the 2002 CCMAs in Calgary, and the two
hit the road together in 2003.
“As luck would have it, he agreed to guest on the track. He brought a lot
of that great energy that comes from playing onstage every night. It’s a
whole different kind of vibe, very live. I like to have that kind of punch
on my records, because I think it hits people differently, and Keith’s
playing adds a very cool dimension to the song.”
Serena Ryder brings her velvety vocal magic to Walk That Way.
“I wrote Walk That Way with a girl (Christina Martin) from Halifax. We’d
been talking about the paths our lives had taken, and she was looking back
on her days in Austin being married and going out on an adventure.
“I liked the idea of traveling, passing through towns alone or with that
one other person for hours and hours at a time. It’s an adventure, but
it’s more. And I’ve never recorded a duet with a girl like this. Given the
story and who that woman is, I wanted someone with guts – and that was
Serena, whom I’ve been a fan of since I first heard her.”
Over the years Rankin has been spending more time in Nashville, and is
certainly being influenced by its compelling blend of music-making history
and legendary charm. He also enlisted producer Bill Bell to lend his
prolific skills to Forget About the World.
“He understands that I want my records to be an interesting listening
experience, that I want to perform songs that really hit home for people.
It means a lot to me that I get letters from people about how my music has
been a soundtrack of sorts during big moments in their lives – birth,
death, weddings, break ups.”
Recorded at Bell's Soleil Studio, Orange Studio and Canterbury Music,
Forget About The World indeed boasts an impressive band including drummer
Gary Craig, Gary Breit on keys, guitarist Colin Cripps, bassist John
Dymond, fiddler Craig Eastman and Kenny Greer on pedal steel.
“We work-shopped some of the songs, got proper demos – and in that the
colours emerged. You have to trust the process of it. Sometimes it’s live
with a drummer, bass player and maybe a piano, then we overdubbed layers.
The acoustic stuff was often just me, Bill, and a couple of guitars – for
better or worse.”
While the songs on Forget About The World run the gamut from country/pop
to more stripped-down singer songwriter offerings, it wasn't a particular
style, a particular form, or a particular emotion that informed his
writing.
“When I sit down and write, I just want to write a good song. Whether it
be a story, conversation or whatever it has to make me feel something. It
needs to be real to me, whether it’s a slice of my life, something I’ve
heard, or someone I’m writing with has experienced.”
If you ever bump into Keith Urban, make sure you get his phone number.
You never know when you might need it. Like when you’re looking for
someone to play a blistering guitar solo on your next single.
OK, it helps to have shared some stages with the Australian country music
superstar a few times before you hit him up for his number. That was the
situation when Jimmy Rankin, formerly of the Rankin Family, ran into Urban
in a Nashville restaurant last spring.
Rankin had first met Urban at the Canadian Country Music Awards about 10
years ago in Calgary. At the time, Urban was just starting to make some
waves in the music business. Rankin found out that Urban was a fan and the
two ended up jamming together that night in the Palliser Hotel. A
cross-country tour followed and the two became mutual admirers, if not
close friends.
“I just keep bumping into him and the last time I bumped into him was at a
restaurant down in Nashville,” Rankin explains when asked how he managed
to lure the multiplatinum selling country star onto his new CD, Forget
About the World.
“He was the first familiar face I ran into at this restaurant, so we
exchanged numbers.”
Later, Rankin was listening to some bed-tracks he had recorded for an
upscale country rocker called Here in My Heart.
“I was trying to decide what kind of (guitar) solo I was going to use,”
says Rankin, who splits his time between his native Nova Scotia and
Nashville these days. “I thought of Keith because I just saw him on a TV
show the day before … So I just texted him and asked him if he was
interested in playing a solo on this particular song. He asked me to send
it to him and so I did.”
Urban liked what he heard and he met Rankin in Nashville at the studio of
Canadian guitarist-producer Colin Linden (Blackie and the Rodeo Kings,
Emmylou Harris).
“He just started playing,” I didn’t really have to give him any
instructions. He played it once through and I said, ‘you’ve got it,’ and
he just kept wailing away. Nobody had to say anything to him. He knew what
to do.”
Rankin describes his new CD as a “country-pop-roots record.” It includes
several collaborations; including a co-write with Burlington’s Tebey (Ottoh)
on the title track Forget about the World.
Tebey moved to Nashville several years ago and has established himself as
a songwriter, landing tracks records by Pixie Lott, Nick Carter, Big &
Rich, Tara Oram and Emerson Drive.
“There’s a Canadian community here (in Nashville) and the circles are
small. So I’d bump into him in a bar or a party and we’d get together to
write. I had the idea for a skeleton of a song and we finished that song
off in an afternoon. It was a great collaboration. I kind of saved that
idea for Tebey.”
Need to know
What: Jimmy Rankin in concert
When: Thursday, May 5, 8 p.m.
Where: The Studio at Hamilton Place
Tickets: $34.50 (plus applicable service fees), available at Copps
Coliseum box office, on line at Ticketmaster.ca or by phone at 1-855-872
5000
Since scoring platinum-selling albums and awards galore in the Rankin
Family, Maritimer Jimmy Rankin has established himself as a solo
singer-songwriter of real talent, which is confirmed on this solid outing.
His sound is likely a little too mainstream for the alt-country crowd, but
Rankin manages to sound both credible and commercial. He co-wrote most of
the tunes with a cast of writers, including Canadians Patricia Conroy (her
three co-writes are amongst the best here), Steve MacDougall, Christina
Martin and Tawgs Salter, and some Nashville scribes. The two solo
compositions (“Louise” and “Colorado Dave”) are strong enough to suggest
Rankin should go it alone a little more. Music City superstar Keith Urban
guests on guitar on “Here In My Heart,” while the duet with Serena Ryder
on “Walk That Way” surely has hit potential. The production and guitar
work of Bill Bell are clean, though a less-is-more sonic approach may have
benefited a few of these songs. The A-list of players include the rhythm
section of John Dymond and Gary Craig (BARK, Bruce Cockburn), guitar aces
Colin Cripps and Kenny Greer, and keyboardist Gary Breit. Rankin’s voice
oozes sincerity and his well crafted compositions probe matters of the
heart with subtle effectiveness.
As part of thespec.com’s ongoing live interview and mini-concert series,
we present Canadian country star Jimmy Rankin today in a special web
broadcast. Music editor Graham Rockingham hosts. Jimmy performs
"Here in my Heart" and "Colorado Dave"
When music is in your blood and in your family, it can make for a
demanding professional career as well as a busy personal life. The last
time Jimmy Rankin was in this neck of the woods was a good four years ago,
and it coincided, just as it does now, with a new album.
In between, he didn't drop out of sight, nor did he Forget About the World
as the title of his new album might suggest. He was performing solo,
working on new songs and touring with his siblings, the Rankin Family.
"I'm sort of juggling two careers -- the Rankin Family which always, when
it gets going, just snowballs -- and the solo thing which I've been doing
just as long, if not longer, than the Rankin Family," said Jimmy Rankin,
who plays the Gibson Centre this weekend.
For 10 years during the '90s, the Rankins toured and recorded but after
John Morris' death in 2000, Raylene, Heather, Cookie and Jimmy went their
separate ways. Four years ago, the band came back together and they've
been back and forth across the country a few times since as well as
released another two CDs.
He plans to play some material from his previous three solo albums, some
favourite Rankin Family tunes and songs off the new album, Forget About
the World, which was released in April. Already the first single. Here In
My Heart, is climbing the country music charts.
But the album goes well beyond country and Rankin's signature roots music
to a blend of styles that makes it his most mainstream record to date.
The mix is a reflection of the music he grew up with -- Celtic, country,
pop and folk. He also likes singer-songwriter songs, with just his guitar,
or a mandolin for accompaniment.
"The last CD I did (Edge of Day) was roots-based -played live off the
floor, a rootsy raw album," said Rankin, who wanted to build on that sound
for this recording and make it more radio-friendly. "But I also wanted to
(keep) the roots element of what I do. The record spans the gamut of
country, pop roots. I like the mix and the more mainstream".
Forget About the World also marks his first recorded duet in many years.
For this album, he is featuring two guest artists -- Keith Urban joins
Rankin for Here In My Heart, and Serena Ryder lends her voice to Walk That
Way.
When it comes to writing songs, Rankin likes to write in the first person
-- whether it's from his own experience or a story, event or circumstance
outside of himself, he will personalize it.
He's always had the ability to put himself in someone else's situation and
apply it to a song.
Currently, Rankin maintains a place in Nova Scotia and Cape Breton but he
also spends a lot of time writing songs in Nashville.
In addition, to his work with the Rankin Family, he has also earned lots
of recognition in his own right -- ECMAs for: Country Artist of the year,
SOCAN Songwriter of the Year, Male Artist of the Year, and Roots
Traditional Solo Recording of the Year; and several Juno nominations among
other accolades.
When he's not touring or writing, Rankin likes to spend time with his
family -- he married a girl from New York -- they met in Cape Breton --
and have two young children together even though they've been together for
much longer than six years, the age of their oldest child.
Rankin plays The Gibson Centre, 63 Tupper St. W., Alliston, Sunday at 2
p.m.
Tickets are $35 in advance, or $40 at the door, available at the box
office, (705) 435-2828.
Jimmy Rankin may spend more of his time in Nashville nowadays, but he
hasn't lost the down-home spirit of his native Maritimes.
There's a sense of impromptu kitchen party to his approach to concerts,
whether it's taking requests for Rankin Family favourites from the
audience, trying something new in one of his own older songs or bringing
in a guest musician.
The five-time Juno and 23-time East Coast Music Awards winner is a little
more than a week into a hectic cross-Canada tour that brings him to
Stratford on Saturday night for a concert at the Masonic Hall.
While it's a solo tour, Rankin said he's given percussionist Charlie
Cooley, a fellow East Coaster, a standing invitation to join in any gig
within driving distance of his home in Orangeville -- so there's a good
chance he'll be here Saturday night.
Last week, at a show in St. Thomas, was the first time the former
bandmates played songs together from Rankin's new album, Forget About the
World.
"It was so much fun," Rankin said. "We didn't have any rehearsal . . . he
just listened to the material, and I said just jump in when it feels good.
It ended up being just this wonderful jam session."
In the same vein, it's why Rankin is willing to bend his set lists. He
welcomes call-outs for songs during his concerts.
"People really appreciate that. I'm an entertainer -- if people come to my
show and they want to hear something, and I can remember it, I'll do my
best to sing it for them. They pay good money and they've taken the time
out to come and see me."
Rankin, who hails from the small village of Mabou on Cape Breton Island,
is on the road in support of his fourth solo release, Forget About the
World, which was released in mid-April. Country star Keith Urban plays a
guitar solo on Here in My Heart -- the two became friends after an
all-night jam session at the 2002 Canadian Country Music Awards in
Calgary. Rising Canadian star Serena Ryder joins Rankin for a duet on Walk
That Way. Another single, Waiting
on a Sign, is getting regular airplay on CBC.
Rankin described his new album as a mix of roots, country and pop and said
it was a deliberate departure from the "live-off-the- floor" feel of his
last album.
"I wanted to expand on that and have some songs that were more radio
friendly, and I don't mean that in a derogatory way," he said.
He was hoping for more "radio-friendly" songs that fit country and adult
contemporary but without losing his singer-songwriter feel, he said.
Tickets are still available for Saturday night's show.
Jimmy Rankin in concert
When: Saturday, May 7, 8 p.m. Doors open at 7:30 p.m.
Where: Masonic Hall, 15 Church St. Stratford
Cost: Tickets $35. General admission.
Tickets available at: Anything Grows, Long & McQuade, Filsinger Music,
Totally Spoked, Turnbull & Stewart and Music in Sebringville
Jimmy Rankin grew up in an environment where music permeated
everything.
It’s why the Cape Breton artist would go on to pursue a life in song, both
with his legendary Canadian sibling act The Rankin Family, and as an
acclaimed solo artist.
It’s also why he finds himself, these days, dividing his time between his
Nova Scotia home and laying down new roots in Nashville — a town he first
visited when recording back in the mid-’90s with his family band and found
himself tugged gently back to five or six years ago.
“It’s one of the last music meccas anywhere,” Rankin says. “There’s every
genre of music here in this town, there’s thousands of songwriters and
thousands of players of every (thing), and not just country music. You can
go out any night of the week and hear great music. . . . It’s pretty
inspiring, (but) it’s almost overwhelming in one sense.”
It’s also, he notes, much like L.A. with the movie crowd, in that everyone
you meet is an aspiring/struggling musician, including, he laughs, two
guys from the moving company he recently hired.
But, the good thing about such an environment is that it’s an easy place
to meet people when you’re looking to get something done, such as
recording his first solo album in four years, Forget About the World.
The disc, released in mid April, is something Rankin views as an anomaly
in his career, an album where he relied heavily on songwriting
collaborations both with contacts from his Canadian life and those he’s
met through his time spent in Music City U.S.A.
It was an attempt to push himself and a way to do something decidedly
different from his other solo efforts, including his stripped-down roots
release, 2007’s Edge of Day, which was recorded in an organic environment
with producer Colin Linden.
“I just wanted to experience other people who have good pop sensibilities
or good country sensibilities just to expand my own horizon,” he says.
“There are songs on there that are unlike anything I’ve done before on
recent recordings. On this record, I wanted to get out of my own skin and
work with other people and just go for a bigger sound.”
Forget About the World delivers that thanks, in part, to a solid backup
band including guitarist Colin Cripps, as well as slicker, bolder
production from Bill Bell, who’s worked with everyone from Jason Mraz to
Tom Cochrane.
But it’s also on display in the material, which is predominantly new
country in direction. There are a few surprises, too such as the acoustic
closer Colorado Dave and Walk That Way with Serena Ryder, his first real
duet with someone since recording the Rankin classic Fare Thee Well Love
with sister Cookie in 1989.
The figurative heart of the album and the first single, though, is the
fittingly titled Here In My Heart, which was written with fellow Canadian
country artist and now Nashville-based Patricia Conroy — it is, Rankin
says, what everything else grew from and the guide post for the direction
he wanted to travel.
“When we wrote that I knew that it was a really good song and that it had
a lot of radio potential. I’ve never really written for that before for my
own solo stuff. I always just tried to write really good songs and never
really had direction. And this record, I think I was more directing my
attention at writing songs that I could deliver to radio. But good songs,
you know? Not throwaway songs,” he says.
“So when I hit that song with Patricia it kind of gave me ... a nucleus to
work from, so I worked out from there.”
And if you’re going to go big, it also helps to be able to include on the
song a contribution from one of the biggest names in country music right
now.
“Oh, you mean Keith Urban?” Rankin says and then laughs.
Yeah. That guy. Urban’s distinct guitar work can be heard on Here In My
Heart and has led to a lot of industry and fan interest in the track.
Rankin met the Aussie songwriter in Calgary during the Canadian Country
Music Awards back in 2002. Urban, having heard and been suitably impressed
with Rankin’s solo debut Song Dog, sought out the Canuck to say hi, and
eventually the pair wound up jamming together late at night in the
Palliser Hotel.
A tour together and friendship followed, but it was only when Rankin found
himself back in the music-friendly city limits of Nashville that the idea
to work together really began to grow.
“I went into a restaurant after driving for four days and he was the first
familiar face I bumped into in the restaurant, and we exchanged phone
numbers,” he says, noting a few weeks later he’d been listening to the bed
tracks for Heart and thought Urban would be perfect for it.
“So I texted him from the road and asked if he’d be interested in doing a
solo on that song and he said, ‘Sure.’
“So eventually we connected in Nashville and he came in the studio and
played that great solo and really brought that live element ... that
energy to the song. It’s awesome. And I’m very happy to have him on the
song.”
And, apparently, country radio likes what it hears, too, with Rankin
noting it’s been getting a great number of adds across Canada and CMT has
warmly embraced it as well, thanks to a stylish video treatment by
Calgarian Jeth Weinrich, known for his work with everyone from Jann Arden
to Van Halen.
It’s something the singer-songwriter bodes well for the rest of Forget
About the World, which he thinks will deliver bigger things with its
bigger sound.
“I’m getting a lot of feedback on this record and it’s all been positive.”
Preview: Jimmy Rankin performs Friday at the Ironwood.
Concert to celebrate opening of new theatre at
Citadel High School
May 10, 2011 - Halifax Herald
By Elissa Barnard, Arts Reporter
Raylene Rankin jumped at the opportunity to volunteer at Wednesday’s
Splash at the Spatz! concert launching the new Spatz Theatre in Halifax.
The Cape Breton singer will be performing with her son, Alexander
Anderson, 13, at a multi-artist fundraising concert to celebrate the
opening of the 784-seat theatre at Citadel High School in Halifax.
"When I heard they were building the Citadel and weren’t including a
facility for the arts, I was kind of shocked," Rankin said in a telephone
interview Monday.
After a public outcry, a shell was put in the school, which opened in
2007, and the Citadel Theatre Society started raising money to turn the
shell into a theatre for the school and the community.
With the help of hundreds of donors and a contribution from business
leader and theatre namesake Jim Spatz, the society has raised about $2.8
million of its $3.5 million goal, said campaign co-chairman Justin
McDonough.
"This will bring us closer to $2.9 (million)."
The rest of the money will be raised through theatre rentals and,
McDonough hopes, through the seat sponsorship program. So far, people have
sponsored 275 seats. If the other seats were sponsored, all the money
would be raised.
When Rankin was growing up in Mabou, Inverness County, the high school gym
had to be converted into a performance space.
"When so much energy goes into transforming a venue, it’s hard to
concentrate on the main thing, which is the performance."
Rankin’s son will go to Citadel High, but her interest in the theatre is
broader than what it will offer to high school students. Theatres such as
the Spatz are good for the community, she said.
"I believe in providing these sorts of venues for the arts in communities.
I’ve seen first-hand the positive effect," she said, referring to Mabou’s
Strathspey Place, built with Dalbrae Academy at the Allan J. MacEachen
International Academic & Cultural Centre.
"It was great when the Strathspey was built. I have nieces and nephews who
went to the school and participated in musicals and other functions. In
the summer, it’s an entertainment venue and it’s part of Celtic Colours.
"It gives people a reason to go to that community and it gives people in
the community a place to go and gather. I see the Spatz Theatre as serving
a similar role in this community."
Rankin first saw the Spatz Theatre when her son was part of a cast of 31
in the March staging of Out of Lunenburg, a co-production between Glen
Haven Productions and the Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Nova Scotia.
"I thought it had a great sound, I love how it’s set up and there’s some
tweaking that will happen when funds become available."
At Wednesday’s show, she will sing a couple of songs, including a duet
with her son.
"It’s an underground thing for him, but he’s always shown an aptitude for
singing.
"He’s testing the water by doing these duets — and I’m paying him!"
This month, Raylene Rankin is also performing with the Blue Engine String
Quartet in the Fine Arts Fundraiser on May 19 for Cornwallis Junior High
School in Halifax.
"I believe that you need to give back to your community. It’s important to
me that we create a well-rounded environment for education. Arts are a
part of that."
The Splash is the society’s celebration of the theatre, which was first
used for the Canada Games National Artist Program and was the venue for
this year’s Citadel High musical. This is the first of two to three
fundraisers a year.
"One year from now, Ron James is inked in for doing it," said McDonough.
The comedian is a graduate of Queen Elizabeth High School, which twinned
with St. Patrick’s High School to become Citadel.
Nashville recording gets a big boost from Keith Urban
May 11, 2011 - Vancouver Sun
By Mike Bell, Postmedia News
Jimmy Rankin grew up in an environment where music permeated
everything.
It's why the Cape Breton artist would go on to pursue a life in song, both
with his sibling act The Rankin Family, and as an acclaimed solo artist.
It's also why he finds himself, these days, dividing his time between his
Nova Scotia home and laying down new roots in Nashville.
"It's one of the last music meccas anywhere," Rankin says. "You can go out
any night of the week and hear great music."
It's an easy place to meet people when you're looking to get something
done, such as recording Forget About the World, his first solo album in
four years.
The disc, released in mid-April, is something Rankin views as an anomaly
in his career -he relied heavily on songwriting collaborations.
It was an attempt to push himself and a way to do something decidedly
different from his other solo efforts.
"I just wanted to experience other people who have good pop sensibilities
or good country sensibilities just to expand my own horizon," he says.
"There are songs on there that are unlike anything I've done before on
recent recordings. On this record, I wanted to get out of my own skin and
work with other people and just go for a bigger sound."
Forget About the World delivers that thanks, in part, to a solid backup
band including guitarist Colin Cripps, as well as slicker, bolder
production from Bill Bell.
The heart of the album, and the first single, is the fittingly titled Here
In My Heart, written with Nashville-based, Canadian country artist
Patricia Conroy. It is, Rankin says, what everything else grew from and
the guide post for the direction he wanted to travel.
"When I hit that song with Patricia it kind of gave me ... a nucleus to
work from, so I worked out from there."
And if you're going to go big, it also helps to be able to include on the
song a contribution from one of the biggest names in country music right
now, Keith Urban.
Urban's distinct guitar work can be heard on Here In My Heart and has led
to a lot of industry and fan interest in the track. Rankin met the Aussie
in Calgary during the Canadian Country Music Awards in 2002. Urban, having
been impressed with Rankin's solo debut Song Dog, sought him out, and the
pair wound up jamming together.
A tour together and friendship followed, but it was only when Rankin found
himself back in Nashville that the idea of working together really began
to grow. Listening to the bed tracks for Heart, Rankin thought Urban would
be perfect for it.
Apparently, country radio likes what it hears, too, with Rankin noting
it's been getting good play across Canada.
Jimmy Rankin, best known for being part of Nova Scotia folk superstars
the Rankin Family, has gone country on his brand new fourth solo CD
“Forgot About the World,” which was released April 12. He is playing a
late announced show at the Geomatic Attic, May 14.
“It’s been really well received. We’re getting a lot of good feedback
about it. Country radio is playing “Here in My Heart,” and it‘s getting
some really great reviews,” Rankin said from a tour stop in Toronto.
He noted his previous CD was very much a roots CD, so he wanted to take
this one to the next level.
“I wanted to write some songs that could be played on the radio,” he
said.
While most of the CD is in the modern pop-country vein, Rankin re-examines
his folk roots on “Colorado Dave” which is a reinterpretation of an old
folk story about a man who left Nova Scotia in the 1800’s and moved to
Colorado and got hooked up with the James Gang before escaping and
returning home to live with his mom.
He also has a duet with Serena Ryder, who helps sing “Walk That Way.”
“When I wrote the song, I immediately thought of Serena. I’ve been a fan
of Serena’s for a long time. She‘s an amazing singer. I love singers who
are so soulful,” he continued.
“So I feel fortunate I got her to sing on my record.”
While he is concentrating on supporting his new solo album, another
reunion tour and possibly another album with the rest of the Rankin Family
may also be in the cards.
“In fact about four years ago, we reunited after an eight year hiatus. We
got together and did some shows. We had an absolutely great response,” he
continued. They recorded two CDs after reuniting and are considering a
third.
“It’s possible, but we haven’t done anything other than discuss it,” he
said.
He is looking forward to his first solo show in Lethbridge, as the last
time he was here, he was opening for country superstar Keith Urban.
“It will be the best of both worlds. There will be some Rankin Family
songs and some solo songs from throughout my career,” he said.
“ I like to keep the sets pretty skeletal. If people call out requests, if
I can remember them, I’ll play them,” he said.
“It will be a lot of everything. The show is like a roller coaster,
well played and it is definitely a fun event,” Rankin said.
“I like playing these smaller shows, you can really create a nice
rapport with the audience.”
Rankin will be touring with his guitarist Jamie Robinson, who he has been
working with for many years. He met him through the close knit Halifax
music scene.
“He’s an awesome guitar player. The circle is pretty small there, so I
know him from there. We’ve been working together for 10 years, we’ve
played together enough that we can go off in any direction we want,” he
said noting the songs have to be able to work in a stripped down way when
played live.
“ I can play all my songs with just an acoustic guitar or a cappella,
stripped down to what the song really stands for,” he said. The songs
range in style, musically and lyrically.
“ I did a lot of collaborations with other musicians. I had about 30
songs, so I went through them and decided which ones worked best and
trimmed them down to the 12 on the CD,” he said adding working with other
songwriters is different. A lot of the time, they spend time discussing
the ideas behind the songs.
“This time I spent a lot of time on the lyrics, coming up with something
that just rolls off the tongue. I wanted to craft some really strong
lyrics,” he continued.
With such a vast catalogue of music to draw from, you’d think there’d be
some trouble remembering lyrics, especially with the audience calling out
random requests.
“Not really. It’s like an adventure and it‘s a lot of fun. Especially if
you’re performing them in concert every night. You repeat them and lyrics
are like poetry. You try to form them so they just roll off the tongue so
the lines naturally follow each other. It’s like word association,” he
continued.
Though his CD has just been released, he is already “planting the seeds”
for the next one.
“That’s just what I do. I write songs, then record them then play them
for the world. And I love every part of it.”
Jimmy Rankin plays the Geomatic Attic, May 14 at 8 p.m.
Tickets are $25 for members, $27.50 for non-members and $30 at the
door.
Tour: Singer has shows in Fredericton, Saint John
this month
May 11, 2011 - Telegraph Journal
By Mike Bell, Postmedia News
Jimmy Rankin grew up in an environment where music permeated
everything.
It's why the Cape Breton artist would go on to pursue a life in song, both
with his legendary Canadian sibling act The Rankin Family, and as an
acclaimed solo artist.
It's also why he finds himself, these days, dividing his time between his
Nova Scotia home and laying down new roots in Nashville - a town he first
visited when recording back in the mid-'90s with his family band and found
himself tugged gently back to five or six years ago.
"It's one of the last music meccas anywhere," Rankin says. "There's every
genre of music here in this town, there's thousands of songwriters and
thousands of players of every (thing), and not just country music. You can
go out any night of the week and hear great music ... It's pretty
inspiring, (but) it's almost overwhelming in one sense."
It's also, he notes, much like L.A. with the movie crowd, in that everyone
you meet is an aspiring/struggling musician, including, he laughs, two
guys from the moving company he recently hired.
But, the good thing about such an environment is that it's an easy place
to meet people when you're looking to get something done, such as
recording his first solo album in four years, Forget About the World. His
tour in support of the album brings him to Fredericton and Saint John at
the end of May.
The disc, released in mid-April, is something Rankin views as an anomaly
in his career, an album where he relied heavily on songwriting
collaborations both with contacts from his Canadian life and those he's
met through his time spent in Music City U.S.A.
It was an attempt to push himself and a way to do something decidedly
different from his other solo efforts, including his stripped-down roots
release, 2007's Edge of Day, which was recorded in an organic environment
with producer Colin Linden.
"I just wanted to experience other people who have good pop sensibilities
or good country sensibilities just to expand my own horizon," he says.
"There are songs on there that are unlike anything I've done before on
recent recordings. On this record, I wanted to get out of my own skin and
work with other people and just go for a bigger sound."
Forget About the World delivers that thanks, in part, to a solid backup
band including guitarist Colin Cripps, as well as slicker, bolder
production from Bill Bell, who's worked with everyone from Jason Mraz to
Tom Cochrane.
But it's also on display in the material, which is predominantly new
country in direction. There are a few surprises, too such as the acoustic
closer Colorado Dave and Walk That Way with Serena Ryder, his first real
duet with someone since recording the Rankin classic Fare Thee Well Love
with sister Cookie in 1989.
The figurative heart of the album and the first single, though, is the
fittingly titled Here In My Heart, which was written with fellow Canadian
country artist and now Nashville-based Patricia Conroy - it is, Rankin
says, what everything else grew from and the guide post for the direction
he wanted to travel.
"When we wrote that I knew that it was a really good song and that it had
a lot of radio potential. I've never really written for that before for my
own solo stuff. I always just tried to write really good songs and never
really had direction. And this record, I think I was more directing my
attention at writing songs that I could deliver to radio. But good songs,
you know ... not throwaway songs," he says.
"So when I hit that song with Patricia it kind of gave me ... a nucleus to
work from, so I worked out from there."
And if you're going to go big, it also helps to be able to include on the
song a contribution from one of the biggest names in country music right
now.
"Oh, you mean Keith Urban?" Rankin says and then laughs.
Yeah. That guy. Urban's distinct guitar work can be heard on Here In My
Heart and has led to a lot of industry and fan interest in the track.
Rankin met the Aussie songwriter in Calgary during the Canadian Country
Music Awards back in 2002. Urban, having heard and been suitably impressed
with Rankin's solo debut Song Dog, sought out the Canuck to say hi, and
eventually the pair wound up jamming together late at night in the
Palliser Hotel.
A tour together and friendship followed, but it was only when Rankin found
himself back in the music-friendly city limits of Nashville that the idea
to work together really began to grow.
"I went into a restaurant after driving for four days and he was the first
familiar face I bumped into in the restaurant, and we exchanged phone
numbers," he says, noting a few weeks later he'd been listening to the bed
tracks for Heart and thought Urban would be perfect for it.
"So I texted him from the road and asked if he'd be interested in doing a
solo on that song and he said, 'Sure.'
"So eventually we connected in Nashville and he came in the studio and
played that great solo and really brought that live element ... that
energy to the song. It's awesome. And I'm very happy to have him on the
song."
And, apparently, country radio likes what it hears, too, with Rankin
noting it's been getting a great number of adds across Canada and CMT has
warmly embraced it as well, thanks to a stylish video treatment by
Calgarian Jeth Weinrich, known for his work with everyone from Jann Arden
to Van Halen.
It's something the singer-songwriter bodes well for the rest of Forget
About the World, which he thinks will deliver bigger things with its
bigger sound.
"I'm getting a lot of feedback on this record and it's all been positive."
Jimmy Rankin plays an all-ages show at 8 p.m. on May 28 at the Charlotte
Street Arts Centre in Fredericton. Tickets are available at Backstreet
Records and Read's Newsstand. He plays at 7:30 p.m. on May 29 at Bourbon
Quarter in Saint John. Tickets, $30, are available from the restaurant at
112 Prince William St.
Jimmy Rankin and Kylee Epp are sharing the Summit
Theatre stage May 24
May 12, 2011 - Langley Advance
By Roxanne Hooper
Canadian music icon Jimmy Rankin, of Rankin Family fame, has just
released his newest solo album. And, as part of his huge cross-country
promotional tour, Rankin is making a pit stop in Langley this month.
Forget About the World, Rankin's new album, was launched in mid-April. The
tour began a short time later in Quebec, and with stops in about 30
locales in a little more than a month, it's apparent Rankin is anxious to
spread word of his more folksy, country-pop blend of music.
Many will recognize Rankin's name from his years as part of the
award-winning Rankin Family. The group's unique
Maritime-down-home-kitchen-party-brought-to-stage sound won them countless
Canadian music awards, including six Junos, four SOCANs, three Canadian
Country Music, and two Big Country Music awards, for songs such as You
Feel the Same Way, Too and North Country.
But as a solo artist who also ventured out on his own at the beginning of
this century, Rankin has created his own solo sound and style.
Creation of three previous solo albums, Song Dog, Handmade, and Edge of
Day, earned this singer and songwriter his own distinction following.
He went on to win artist of the year from the Canadian Country Music
Awards and East Coast Music Awards in 2002, SOCAN Songwriter of the Year
two years running, and the male artist of the year and record of the year
in 2004.
It's been four years since he released his last 12-track album. And
despite his strong country roots, Rankin takes this - his fourth solo
album - to what he calls a different plane.
The album's first single, Here In My Heart, features a guest performance
on guitar by international country superstar Keith Urban, a long-time fan
and vocal supporter of Rankin.
In fact, after only a month since the single was released, the track has
shot up the music charts and has been in the #1 most added song to country
radio.
Promoters say veins of a more mainstream singer-songwriter run through the
record, bridging the gap from country to pop.
Langleyites are being asked to judge that transformation during Rankin's
stopover here.
Rankin will be performing at the Cascades Casino Summit Theatre, 20393
Fraser Hwy., on Tuesday, May 24. Tickets are $25 and available in advance
from casino guest services or at www.ticketweb.ca.
Doors open at 7 p.m., with the show starting at 7:30 p.m.
In addition to Rankin, the show will be opened by Kylee Epp, who spent
much of her singing career so far as backup vocalist and acoustic guitar
player for recording artist Jessie Farrell.
She's also toured with many other country performers such as Brooks &
Dunn, Alan Jackson, Sugarland, Aaron Pritchett, Johnny Reid, Emerson
Drive, Faith Hill and Tim Mcgraw. She just recently came off the road from
a tour with Toby Keith.
Jimmy Rankin Forget About the World tour, with guest artist Kylee Epp
Summit Theatre, Cascades Casino
Tuesday, May 24, at 8 p.m. (Doors open at 7 p.m.)
Tickets $25 at www.ticketweb.ca or
Casino Guest Services
Call 604-530-2211.
Jimmy Rankin is taking a quick break from the road at a service station on
a stretch of highway south of Fort McMurray, Alta.
Stepping out of the truck to find a quiet place to talk, Rankin explains
there is no bus on this tour, no giant amps and, even if there were, no
crew of roadies to haul them in and out of arenas.
No, this time, the singer-songwriter is making his way across Canada,
accompanied only by his guitarist and one techie, as he performs in small,
intimate venues along the way.
On Tuesday, he’ll be in Langley to play the Summit Lounge inside Cascades
Casino.
“I love (small theatres) because you’re very close with your audience,”
says the musician who rose to fame as one of the five siblings who made up
Cape Breton’s famous Rankin Family.
“You’re not trying to reach the back of an arena with a guitar — although
I’ve done that too, and it’s fine.”
He’ll be playing quite a bit from Forget About the World, his first solo
album in four years, but Rankin likes to keep his set list open in the
second half of the show and take a few audience requests.
If he can remember them, he’ll play them, he said.
It’s flattering, he said, to know that people remember and still enjoy his
older pieces.
The show itself, is “a bit of a roller coaster,” said Rankin.
Despite the fact there are only two of them on stage, it occasionally
turns into a rock and roll show.
“We can get loud,” he laughed.
Although Rankin said it’s been “too long” between solo albums, the
musician spent the four years in between touring with his sisters and
“constantly collecting ideas and writing.”
His last album was a rootsy, bluesy effort, Rankin said.
“For this record, I wanted to build on the last one — make it more radio
friendly.”
While some of the songs are more produced, “others are just me and an
acoustic guitar.”
But the nucleus of the album, he said, is a single called Here in My
Heart.
And, it has the added cachet of featuring a guitar solo by none other than
country music star Keith Urban.
Sometimes, getting something you want is as simple as asking for it.
“I met Keith about 10 years ago at the CCMAs and we ended up jamming
together,” said Rankin, describing Urban as “just a gentleman.”
After that, he said, the two artists would “bump into each other, from
time to time.”
“We needed a guitar solo for that song, so I got in touch and he very
graciously came into the studio in Nashville and played this amazing
solo.”
And then, for Walk that Way, Rankin was joined by another well known
artist, Ontario singer-songwriter Serena Ryder — best known for her
singles Little Bit of Red and Weak in the Knees.
“I wanted to do a duet — I hadn’t done one in 20 years, since Fare Thee
Well with (his sister) Cookie,” Rankin explained.
Ryder’s soulful voice was a natural choice, he added.
“I’d only met her once (before) in a bar,” he said.
“Fortunately she agreed, and she’s an amazing singer. Our voices worked
well together.”
Once the music is made, there’s the matter of getting the word out about
it.
Rankin did his best to avoid Twitter but finally gave in about four or
five months ago.
“I rejected it for so long,” he said.
“But it’s a great way to connect with fans.”
In a day when the airwaves and Internet are chock full of music, it’s
every artist’s challenge to connect with and keep fans, he said.
So he tweets.
And he’s got profiles on Facebook and MySpace.
“I lead a pretty interesting life. I’m on the road a lot,” he said of what
he chooses to share with followers.
If something catches his eye, he’ll snap a pic and tweet it out. And
before his new album came out last month he tweeted out little bites ahead
of time.
And the artist is happy to get responses, too.
“I’m finding out people are really interested,” he said.
Jimmy Rankin may have got his start making music with his brothers and
sisters in The Rankin Family, but he's long since established himself as a
successful solo musician as well. This April, he released his fourth solo
album, Forget About the World.
CBC Radio 2's Kelly Cutrara regularly approaches Canadian musicians and
asks, "what is the book you think everyone should read?" Recently, she
caught up with Jimmy Rankin, who picked Michael Ondaatje's debut novel
Coming Through Slaughter. Here's what he had to say about it:
"I like to read good books, good literature. I don't like to waste time
on crap. [Coming Through Slaughter] was just beautifully written and
beautiful prose about [Buddy Bolden]. He'd obviously done a lot of
research in New Orleans on one of the forefathers of jazz. The way
Ondaatje [writes]...I've read all of his books. I just love the way he
writes. It's very painterly and poetic."
A man from Newfoundland living in fire-ravaged Slave Lake is organizing
a benefit concert to help the people affected by wild fires that hit
northern Alberta.
7,000 people in the town of Slave Lake, located about 250 kilometres north
of Edmonton, were forced to leave after wildfires tore through the area.
As of Friday, 433 properties had been destroyed in Slave Lake and the
Municipal District of Lesser Slave River. It's being called one of the
worst disasters in modern Canadian history.
Ian Cameron is a concert promoter who was forced to flee the area for
Edmonton last weekend. He said several major acts want to raise money for
disaster relief:
"Right now, we have Nazareth, we have Charlie Major, we have Ashley
Macisaac, Jimmy Rankin, Doc Walker confirmed yesterday…all these
artists are pouring in," he said.
Meanwhile, Cameron said residents were told they can't go back into the
town for three to six weeks. The water is contaminated, and there's no gas
or electricity. Cameron said his home is still standing, but that many
have no reason to return.
"It looks like a war zone—there's nothing, there's neighbourhoods totally
flattened--a vacant ash, that's all it is. I mean, half our town is gone,
everybody's tore up there's nothing to go back to. There's nothing," he
said.
Cameron said the benefit concert is planned for July.
Canadian country star Patricia Conroy will make her way north of the
border and back into the limelight in the Nicola Valley at the end of the
month.
She is one of the headline performers at the eighth annual Walk of Stars
Gala on Saturday, May 28, at the Merritt Civic Centre.
"It actually makes it more exciting when you're not doing it all the
time," says Conroy in a telephone interview from Nashville with the News.
"I used to get kind of road-weary."
She adds with a laugh, "I'm just glad people still want to hear me sing."
Considering Conroy's lengthy music career, there should be little doubt.
Conroy released her first studio album, Blue Angel, in 1990, after she
signed with Warner Canada.
Since then, she has released a greatest-hits compilation and four more
albums, the latest being 2007's Talking to Myself.
Over the years, she has collected a total of six Canadian Country Music
Association awards as well.
The Nicola Valley is a familiar sight and performance space for Conroy.
"I've done the Merritt festival, oh, about a half-dozen times over the
years."
Conroy began her music career onstage, but now she is happy to take a role
behind the scenes and has found another artistic life in Nashville as a
writer.
"People kind of know who I am here but not like in Canada. I'm just
another writer on Music Row," she says.
Conroy, born and raised in Montreal, has lived in Nashville for the last
16 years and written songs for a plethora of American and Canadian country
musicians. Since then, her touring and recording have taken a backseat to
writing music for other artists.
Next weekend's performance will be one of Conroy's few live performances
of the year.
"I love writing. As much as I love recording and singing, it's become a
real passion of mine.
"There's tons of Canadians coming down to Nashville to write. It's really
the place to be as a songwriter."
Conroy has written songs with and for fellow Canadian country artists
such as Michelle Wright and Jimmy Rankin. She contributed three songs for
Forget About the World, Rankin's latest album, which was released just
last month.
Recently, she has also found success working with American musicians.
Conroy co-wrote Steel Magnolia's "Just by Being You (Halo and Wings)",
their second single from their 2010 self-titled debut.
"This was my first U.S. release, if you will."
Conroy says she first moved to Nashville to keep close to her management
and develop her skills as a writer.
"When you first start to co-write, it's a bit daunting," she admits.
However, as with most other skills, practice makes perfect. Conroy says
she draws inspiration from all manner of sources, citing a snippet of
background music on television as an example.
"It just kind of falls out of the sky for me."
In another case, Conroy recalls working with a 16-year-old Colorado singer
just days ago who told her, "'It rained in Colorado last night.'" The
simple sentence became the first line for a song.
"Ideas can come out of absolutely anywhere. For better or for worse, I can
write a song in two or three hours," says Conroy. "I know what works
onstage and I know what works in a theatre on acoustic guitar."
For her performance in Merritt, she says, "I will probably pull out four
or five of the hits."
Conroy hopes to include one of her songs from a planned upcoming album as
well. The album will have an acoustic emphasis and Conroy says she has
already recorded about four songs, some of which she started writing for
other artists before realizing, "They're meant for me.
"I've just been so busy writing songs for other people."
“Finally!” he said during an interview with the Alaska Highway News.
Rankin previously made a trip to the Energetic City back in 2009, selling
out two shows to an enthusiastic crowd.
He said he had such a great time that he just had to come back.
“I played the Lido maybe a year or two ago, and I played two nights there
and had a really great experience – I’d never played there before. I told
them I’d come back.
“I try to play wherever people want to hear me.”
Rankin is out on tour to promote his new solo CD, Forget The World.
He said his new album is a bit of a departure from his previous record.
“The last CD I did was very rootsy, very live off the floor which I love
very much, but this CD I wanted to make something bigger, a bit more
polished, something a bit more radio friendly,” he said.
Forget The World, Rankin’s fourth solo album, features guest appearances
from country stars Keith Urban and Serena Ryder.
Rankin said, “This record spans the whole gamut, it’s got songs that are
pop country, and then on the other end of the record there’s material that
really demonstrates the singer/songwriter [aspect] of what I do, it’s very
stripped down, it’s just me and the guitar.”
Rankin began his solo career in 2000, after spending ten years as singer,
guitarist and songwriter for The Rankin Family.
He still plays music with his siblings in between doing his own solo work.
Playing smaller venues such as The Lido are just as enjoyable as playing a
large venue, according to Rankin.
“I actually love it, it’s very intimate. I’ve played to over 100,000
people at festivals and I’ve played to 10,000 and 5,000 people, but I like
playing these [small] venues, some of them are 150 seats, 250 seats… it’s
very intimate, it’s a great avenue for a singer/songwriter,” he explained.
Jimmy Rankin needs no real introduction! You would have to live under a
rock to not know this world renowned singer/songwriter and member of The
Rankin Family. Rankin is currently touring in support of his fourth solo
album Forget About the World, which Rankin calls a "country-pop-roots
record."
The lead-off single Here in My Heart is pure country pop perfection. It
has "hit song" written all over it. The hook-laden song and lyrics speak
to any relationship with substance, striking the heart like match to the
flame: "Giving it up / letting it go / Holding it back / Or risking it all
/ Falling in love / falling apart / There's never a dull moment / Here in
my heart."
The song also features some wonderful climatic and atmospheric guitar work
by none other than country superstar Keith Urban. Rankin has known Urban
for years. They've run into each other at country music functions and have
gotten together to jam.
"He just plays with soul," Rankin told the online publication Canadian
Interviews. "He plays with soul and he listens. He's also an extraordinary
musician. One of the things I love about what he brought to the song is
that energy, the live energy of playing live for dozens of years, playing
clubs and big shows and playing for people, rather than just playing it
safe."
The video for the single was directed by Jeth Weinrich in the desert of
New Mexico. The film footage was then melded with everyday day life
portraits taken in California. Together, they make for a visually
beautiful experience.
Rankin said he loved working with Weinrich because he's got integrity. "He
always tries to insert something into his videos to make some kind of a
statement, not just a pretty looking video," he said. "He's got a sense of
humanity, which I really appreciate."
The songs are poignant, including Walk That Way, a duet with Canadian
siren Serena Ryder. She adds a little gravel to the dusty road to love.
Let's get in the mood for this very special intimate show with Rankin by
watching the video for Here In My Heart: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOyJkpc5bQI.
For more on Rankin, go to his official site at www.jimmyrankin.com.
The show takes place at the Bourbon Quarter, 112 Prince William St. on May
29 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $30 and are limited for this unforgettable
evening of music. Call 214-3617 for tickets. See you at the show. Love and
country forever, The Music Man of the Valley! xo
Jeff's Musical Pick of the Week - Jimmy Rankin - Forget About The World
Jimmy Rankin is like your favourite breakfast spot - he gives you what
you want, just how you like it.
For more than 20 years, the talented Cape Breton singer-songwriter has
been crafting the kind of songs that tell stories about the people and
places he's encountered and that stick with the listener long after he's
travelled down the road to his next concert date.
Whether he's touring alongside his equally talented siblings in the
award-winning Rankin Family or wowing audiences with songs from his
successful solo catalogue, Rankin has delivered the goods.
He'll return to Fredericton this weekend for a concert at the Charlotte
Street Arts Centre on Saturday evening.
The show will be in support of his recently released fourth solo album
Forget About The World - a rock-solid 12-song effort that easily blends
his country, folk, Celtic and rock influences.
Rankin said he tries to keep his material consistently strong, giving each
album a balanced mix of radio-friendly tunes and authentic story-pieces.
"When I write songs, they have to have some kind of meaning or integrity,
I guess, whether it's about me, or somebody else, or it's a story I
heard," he said.
"It's honesty, I guess. Someone was saying the other day that I have an
honest voice. I go out pretty much after every show and sign CDs with
people and get my picture taken and say, 'Hi,' and I get a lot of comments
like that. I think people expect that when they come out to my show. It
better be real."
He said his songwriting process hasn't changed much over the years,
explaining that he typically records a rough sketch of the piece and then
re-works it until it rounds into shape.
"Some songs come very quickly. It's like a puzzle and you'll spend a night
or a few days working on them," he said.
"Other songs take years to perfect. You'll put 'em away. For instance,
Colorado Dave was written 20 years ago, probably. And it just sat there. I
would take it out every now and then and I'd have a listen and adjust
something."
Forget About The World features songwriting collaborations between Rankin
and Maritime artists Christina Martin, Dwight d'Eon, and Steve MacDougall.
It also includes guest appearances by talented Canadian songstress Serena
Ryder and international country music superstar Keith Urban.
Rankin and Urban famously met at the Canadian Country Music Awards in
2002, jamming together late into the evening after the glitzy gala had
ended.
The pair later toured together.
And when Rankin moved to Nashville last spring to begin working on the
album, he bumped into Urban soon after arriving in town.
"He was the first familiar face I ran into. We exchanged numbers. And I
was out on the road after that and I was trying to decide what kind of
guitar solo I was going to use on Here In My Heart and I had just seen him
play on TV at a concert," he said.
"I was just thinking, 'This guy has gotten so good.' He's always been
fabulous, but that was something. I just thought, 'I've got to get him on
the record.'... He just got the song. He knew what it needed."
Rankin said he's happy with the way his career has unfolded over the
years.
"It's been over 20 years and I've been fortunate," he said.
"I can't believe it, you know. Growing up in Mabou, Cape Breton, I never
really had any aspirations for becoming a star or anything like that. I
just wanted to play music."
In his early projects with Celtic-pop outfit The Rankin Family, Rankin
developed "a pretty amazing career with (them) which is still going. I did
basically 10 years recording and playing all over the world...It was a
very defining period in my life as a songwriter."
Rankin, however, has also earned his chops as a solo artist. Rankin was
named Roots Artist of the Year in 2002 by the Canadian Country Music
Association, and has won ECMAs for Country Artist of the Year, SOCAN
Songwriter of the Year, Male Artist of the Year and Roots Traditional Solo
Recording of the Year.
The Cape Breton-born songwriter will spend this spring showcasing his
fourth solo album, Forget About the World, on a cross-Canada tour. His
busy schedule means that he's been trying to "get as much sleep as (he)
can," laughs Rankin.
Since his first solo album, Song Dog, Rankin has progressed from
roots-rock and acoustic tracks to a larger, more produced sound.
Forget About the World "runs the gamut from radio-friendly and country
radio stuff to country pop, to songs that demonstrate what I can do with
just me and a guitar," says Rankin. The record also features some
collaborative efforts with industry greats. Walk That Way is a stirring
duet with Serena Ryder. New Zealand-born country star Keith Urban plays a
solo on Here in My Heart. Says Rankin, "I feel that this record is a real
step forward."
Rankin has always focused on songwriting as the backbone of his
illustrious career. Jokingly asked if he's listening to any Lady Gaga or
Ke$ha, Rankin is quick to draw attention to the mechanics of the craft:
"I've always been drawn to a great voice and a great song. The song is the
root of everything. You can produce it however you want, but unless the
quality of the song is there, it's nothing."
With a writer's attention to detail, Rankin confesses that he's "always
collecting information. I always have my ears and eyes open for a good
story, noting other people's situations." Intimate new tracks like The
Hurtin' Part exemplify Rankin's emotive, narrative-based style.
From his current location on tour in Fort McMurray, Rankin expressed his
love of the people and places back east. "I love the East Coast. When I
get off the plane, it feels like home to me. I'm looking forward to
getting back."
----
Jimmy Rankin will appear in Saint John at the Bourbon Quarter on May 29.
112-114 Prince William St. 8pm. Tickets are $30. For tickets and more
info, call 214-3619 or email info@bourbonquartersj.com.
Jimmy
Rankin insists he didn't want to make "a straight-ahead country"
record with his recently released fourth solo album, Forget About the
World, which is really equal parts country, pop and roots.