Last Friday (Halloween!), the CFRE studio was treated to a special guest by the name of Raven Shields. Growing up in Toronto and attending the Rosedale Heights School of the Arts, Raven developed a passion for music at an early age and had many likeminded friends who band(ed) with her on their musical adventures in high school and now they continue to collaborate together as professional musicians.
Raven Shields performing on Oct 24, 2014 at The Cameron House (with Aaron Comeau (far left), of Dear Sister, on guitar). Photo courtesy the artist.
By 2009, Raven along with Aaron Comeau and Bri Salmena had graduated from high school and kicked off their musical careers with the lovely folk trio, Dear Sister. With Raven and Bri both on vox/guitars and Aaron on mandolin/banjo/accordion, Dear Sister continues to strum out more beautiful tunes including a new album which will be released in the next few months. But, while the band holds a dear spot in Raven’s heart, she is also pursuing many other musical projects including her recent solo work. Her first album, Matches, released in March 2013, is an all-around soft and moving masterpiece that will sweep you off your feet with the thoughtful lyrics surrounding common themes of family, friendship, travels and love. You can listen to the full album on Raven’s bandcamp. Most recently, Raven released a couple singles, “Above My Head” and “Forest Fire”, which will be included on her next album (to be released in late 2015). Raven performed “Forest Fire” live at CFRE, which you can watch right here.
Raven shared with me that a couple of her musical influences include Canadian folk singer Julie Arsenault and the American rock icon Bruce Springsteen. With her typical leather jackets, jeans and graphic tops giving her the rockstar look as she strums her guitar and engages a crowd with her soothing folk songs—she blends her influences well and you see a bit of Bruce and a bit of Julie shining through. Speaking of which, Raven shared with me an interesting story about how three years ago when she was taking a long train ride (25 hours!) from Toronto to P.E.I. to visit some family and friends, she happily wound up meeting and sitting next to Julie Arseneault. The two shared ideas, did some songwriting together and performed a few tunes for each other and long story short… They became friends and since then Raven has been the guest act for many of Julie’s shows and last week at The Cameron House Julie acted as Raven’s special guest. And one more fun story, for last year’a Halloween Raven had no costume on hand for the party she went to, but she happened to be wearing the perfect outfit to be Bruce Springsteen (white shirt, jeans and she had a bandanna she turned into a head band) – The Boss would be proud!
Raven (left) dressed as Bruce Springsteen for Halloween 2013. Photo courtesy the artist.
So where can you catch a Raven Shields or Dear Sister show you might ask? Well, Raven recently finished her October residency at The Cameron House and over the cold winter months she’ll be doing more songwriting and putting the finishing touches on her next album. But, you can expect a new Dear Sister album coming out in the next two or three months along with the album release show.
You can follow Raven on Twitter and like her page on Facebook to keep track of her future shows and release dates.
heyilikeyourmusic 