Canadian artist AV (Ann Vriend) prepares to take the stage at the 2023 Maple Blues Awards at the end of January and has released a brand new video, If You Were Here, from the Everybody Matters album.
Canadian artist AV (Ann Vriend) is an internationally recognized singer-songwriter, musician, and producer, whose effortless blend of Blues, Roots, and Soul has recently landed her a nomination in the Keyboardist of the Year category at the upcoming 2023 Maple Blues Awards in Toronto this month. Her latest album, “Everybody Matters”, has sold thousands of units worldwide to date, ranked #28 on Alberta’s CKUA Radio Network’s Top 100 Albums of 2022, and reached #20 on the Earshot National Chart.
As AV prepares to take the stage at the 2023 Maple Blues Awards in Toronto at the end of January, she has released a brand new video for “If You Were Here” from “Everybody Matters” – a soulful and haunting ballad that features AV’s powerful, longing vocals alongside the rich and rough-edged voice and bass playing of well-known Calgary artist Jory Kinjo. Kinjo has toured with B.B.King and a long stream of other legendary Blues artists, as well as many well-known Ska and Reggae groups.
Canadian artist AV (Ann Vriend) is known most for her virtuosic, soaringly powerful vocals, and not far behind that for her multi award-winning abilities as a songwriter — and she ain’t too bad at the piano, either. She has been delivering her undeniably unique brand of old-school, inner-city soul to audiences around Europe, Oceania, Asia, and North America throughout her under-the-radar but consistently award-winning, critically acclaimed career.
Growing up in a household that encouraged critical thinking and challenged the status quo, AV has always written songs about confusion, searching, and questioning — of herself, and the culture around her. The outcome is what she half seriously, half jokingly calls “existentialist gospel” : drawing musically from the emotionally intense and rhythmic gospel and soul styles of African American culture, as well as from her parents’ vinyl ‘70s folk/pop collection.
It is with a huge, respectful nod to her influences that AV addresses the social issues that face her and her community of her somewhat notorious inner-city Edmonton neighborhood of McCauley; in which there is a high concentration of people suffering from extreme forms of trauma and abuse; often resulting in addiction, mental illness, stigmatization, neglect, and further abuse. AV’s own self-examination in response to this is the subject matter of her newest album and its title track, “Everybody Matters.”
“If You Were Here”, is a lonely, haunting, Blues duet based on a wordless chorus sung in harmony about longing, wandering, and what keeps people in relationships. Originally released in 2012, the song was co-written with Canadian singer-songwriter Matt Epp while at a Folk Alliance conference in Memphis. The tune was initially penned in dedication to Jeff Buckley, who drowned in the arm of the Mississippi River AV and Epp could view from the conference hotel. The stand out, somber harmonies for the track were crafted in the hotel stairwell, where the natural reverb and constant stream of musicians chiming in as they went past was the initial musical inspiration for the song’s vocal hook; a long stream of people wandering in hope of finding something more.
AV (Ann Vriend shares, “My first tour since the pandemic was in Western Europe, and many audience members told me it was their first outing and concert in more than 2 years. You could see the toll that being apart from other people had taken, but also a new-found appreciation and joy of being together socially again. Many refugees were in the audience, being billeted with families who’d taken them in due to the war in the Ukraine. Many of the refugees were teenagers and young adults, away from their parents and families, and though they were grateful for the hospitality, the stress of the war and being apart from people they loved was very evident. People really seemed to connect then to this haunting duet about being apart.
For me the song mirrored what I felt myself; after such a long hiatus of not touring and performing with the people who have become close friends, and not seeing so many people on the road, many of whom also have become close. But also it resonated back home; as I live in a neighborhood in Edmonton that has a high population of displaced people: recent refugees from war torn or dangerous countries world-wide, as well as Indigenous people who have been moved time and time again since colonialism began. There are many shelters in my neighborhood of many varieties, so daily I see a flow of people wandering past my window, many with all their belongings in bags or in shopping carts, and it’s especially hard for folks in the winter.
So, for all these reasons I wanted to sing this song again right now, because though it is a song about loneliness and separation and longing it is also a duet– and it is about human connection that I hope transcends past barriers, politics, and passports and reminds us of our commonality and humanity.” – AV
Connect with AV:
https://www.facebook.com/AnnVriend
https://www.instagram.com/annvriend/