Toronto Singer Songwriter 1

There is always hope. And if one is very lucky, a little sin becomes part of the bargain. Music lovers will surely enjoy this good fortune of this Toronto Singer Songwriter's sophomore CD, Hope & Other Sins! Since its release, on June 26th, 2012, Hope & Other Sins has already topped the Galaxy Folk Roots Channel charts, been on Cashbox Magazine’s Top 50 Folk Chart, and received generous airplay across Canada: on CBC, Folk/Roots, Country, Community and Commercial Radio stations!

Toronto Singer Songwriter debut

A full 7 years after this Toronto Singer Songwriter debut Lemonade which, upon its release, won the Nova Scotian native serious recognition: from a John Lennon International Songwriting prize to acknowledgements from the USA International, OCFF and NSAI Songwriting Competitions, Music Nova Scotia, and the Toronto Independent Music Awards. A songwriter first, her subsequent collaborations with an international Who’s Who of songwriting professionals include, among many others, Bruce Brody (Lone Justice. Rickie Lee Jones), Jeremy Ruzumna (Bruno Mars, Macy Gray,) Dan Hill, Liz Rodrigues (Eminem, Pink), David Leask, and Brian Allen (Heart). Add to the mix songs co-written with blues pop singer-songwriter, Suzie Vinnick - as well as for the likes of pop star Nicole Scherzinger’s debut solo project Killer Love - and you have a songwriter/artist whose breadth of talent is unmistakable.

Toronto Singer Songwriter solo project

Now returning to her own solo project, it has taken this Toronto Singer Songwriter no less attention-to-detail and artistry to craft the second offering – Hope & Other Sins – a decidedly different take on her singer-songwriter stance with the deft guitar and production skills of Colin Linden (Bruce Cockburn, Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams) and top musicians from Nashville to New York, to Toronto and Canada’s east coast. Under Linden’s tutelage, England’s sensitive song craft and rigorous attention to lyrical integrity is grafted to a caliber of musicianship befitting her material. A core team of Gary Craig (drums), John Dymond (bass), John Whynot (piano, organ) and Linden on a rootsy array of guitars, mandolins and dobro, give England’s 10 new compositions the musical artistry they deserve. Add in Damhnait Doyle, Liz Rodrigues and Carolyn Dawn Johnson on harmony vocals and players like Gordie Sampson (guitars), Dan Dugmore (pedal steel—James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt) and Bruce Brody (piano), and the concept of ‘hope’ hardly comes into it.

Take songs like the England/Brody co-write, “Fool’s Gold,” with its heavy message over a light piano melody, the classic “Laundry”, in which this Toronto Singer Songwriter heads down an alt-country road to great effect, or standout track “Picture of You” written at Ground Zero, in the aftermath of 9/11. Peter Goddard, longtime Toronto Star reviewer writes of England’s Hope & Other Sins: “This makes the world a better place. Hope & Other Sins’ 10 neatly crafted country leaning-songs are tunefully melodic and believable in their straightforward narratives. [Andrea England] has the enviable quality of sounding exactly like the characters she’s created…”

Fiercely indie, this Toronto Singer Songwriter is perfectly poised to take on the next chapter of her career, generously offering up the best of both worlds (roots meets pop) - and the rich palette of her heart.