A creatively crafted song cycle with intelligent lyrics and beautifully detailed acoustic settings that merge folk and Bacharachian pop, packaged with a lavishly illustrated 20 page full color booklet.

15 MP3 Songs
FOLK: Modern Folk, POP: California Pop



Details:
Kurt Swinghammer is a visual artist and musician from Toronto. Black Eyed Sue, released in 2001, is a non-fictional narrative song cycle or concept album.

The songs are arranged for acoustic instruments including guitar, upright bass, percussion, accordion, trumpet, recorders, flute, violin and cello, and uillen pipes. Guest performers include Mia Sheard, Dave Matheson (Moxy Fruvous), Michael Olson (Hidden Cameras), Oliver Schoer, and Maury LaFoy (The Supers).

Each project that Kurt pursues has it's own unique identity. VOSTOK 6, which came out internationally on Ani DiFranco's Righteous Babe Records, was an elaborate electronic concept album about Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space. Augusta is a live solo acoustic performance recorded at The CBC's Glenn Gould Studios.

Besides performing and releasing his own music, he appears as a session guitarist on over 50 CD's by artists such as Ani DiFranco, The Rheostatics, Great Big Sea, Andy Stochansky and Sarah Slean. As a solo performer he has opened several Ani tours in the U.S, as well as touring as a guitarist with Ron Sexsmith, The Wild Strawberries (Lillith Fair), and recently with ex Bahaus frontman Peter Murphy.

His numerous film scores include Ginger Snaps 2, McLuhan's Wake, a feature doc about media prophet Marshall McLuhan and which boasts narration by Laurie Anderson. He collaborated with Ron Sexsmith on the score to The Art Of Woo, and his songs appear in two episodes of the ground breaking TV series Queer As Folk.

Kurt's distinctive illustrations have been used by Barenaked Ladies among many other bands, and Black Eyed Sue features a 20 page booklet of images created specifically to support the music.

A complete list of credits can be found at his website.