TORONTO: There is no better way to welcome the festive season than with some fabulous holiday classics.
“Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas,” or timeless piece “The Christmas Song” come to mind. Recorded during a Toronto heat wave last summer, Madison Violet’s “Sleigh Bells In The Snow” is both perfectly festive and surprisingly exhilarating, leaning on the band’s bread-and-butter harmonies to guide listeners through a collection of holiday classics. The album is now available digitally through Fontana North.
With “Sleigh Bells In The Snow,” Brenley MacEachern and Lisa MacIsaac have succeeded at adding a dash of originality, which produces a sound that transcends generations. The album’s reductive simplified style and offbeat rhythmic patterns offer their current audience brand new insight into their favourite holiday melodies, while giving new fans a taste of the special magic that lives inside every Madison Violet production.
This 10 song collection is a wildly refreshing invitation to enjoy traditional classics, including “Frosty the Snowman” (featuring Ron Sexsmith) and “Blue Christmas”, most famously performed by Elvis Presley, as they are instantly and skillfully transformed into minimalist, acoustic cheer. The unvarnished vocal harmonies lull and delight listeners from one to ninety-two.
Madison Violet’s first two studio albums, Worry the Jury and Caravan, were recorded with notable producer John Reynolds (Sinead O’Connor, U2) and were critically acclaimed, garnering the pair several ECMA and CFMA nominations. Their third and fourth releases, No Fool for Trying and The Good In Goodbye are homegrown collections, recorded in Ontario with producer Les Cooper at the helm. Their fifth studio release, was recorded in Toronto by acclaimed producer, Tino Zolfo (Carly Rae Jepsen, Hawksley Workman), and solidified the duo as musically versatile powerhouse songwriters.
Madison Violet have been racking up the accolades, including a Juno nomination, a Canadian Folk Music Award for Best Vocal Group Album of the Year, multiple East Coast Music Award nominations, and a Critic’s Choice award from Country Music People’s Magazine. Their songs have been featured in the notorious music magazine MOJO’s Top 10 Playlist, and received a mass of acclaim from outlets such as the BBC, the CBC, Maverick Magazine and NPR, and have earned the duo the Grand Prize in the 2010 John Lennon Song Writing Contest (which was voted on by a panel of distinguished artists including Elton John, Tim McGraw, John Legend, Enrique Iglesias, and Mary J. Blige).
Madison Violet were on WDR of Germany’s list of “Best Bands of All Time,” as well as having song placement on various television shows. Their recent single “These Ships”’ was released on one of the largest dance labels in the U.S., Ultra Records, and has garnered over 1,000,000 plays on Spotify.
For more on Madison Violet, go to: www.madisonviolet.com or go to: www.facebook.com/madisonviolet.