Break Of Day, Songs For Colin

LISTEN TO & BUY THE ALBUM released Nov. 1, 2024

https://sandybell1111.bandcamp.com/album/break-of-day-songs-for-colin

MEDIA

Media please contact Publicist Beverly Kreller, SPEAK Music 416-922-3620 |  bev@speak-music.com​

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ADDITIONAL RECORDINGS BY ARTIST

Five additional original recorded songs by Sandy Bell can be found on the self-titled CD, The Wanted, performed at Hugh's Room in 2010 and released widely in 2020. Her song titles are:

James Dean Scene

Not Half The Man

Devil In The Man

Alberta Sky

Fireflies

all available here:​

https://thewanted3.bandcamp.com/album/the-wanted

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INDUSTRY QUOTES

FOR BREAK OF DAY, SONGS FOR COLIN

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“Impressive Record.” – Paul Corby, Corby’s Orbit Radio Program on Radio Regent (available on iHeart Radio and Radio Player Canada)

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“We don't often come across a release that came about under these very special circumstances, addressing the deepest of human emotions: a mother's loss of her child. Heartfelt, heart-wrenching and gripping, the album may serve as a healing to others who are facing similar fate.” – Peter, UbuntuFM, Radio Station, South Africa https://www.facebook.com/UbuntuFM

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“It’s a beautiful album.” – Beverly Kreller, SpeakMUSIC

 

FOR EARLIER RELEASE by 'The Wanted'

AltCountryForum (Europe's leading roots music publication) described The Wanted’s debut album performances as: "full of contagious, raucous, hip-swaying music... simply irresistible." The Hudson Music Festival in Quebec said: "If you want to know about roots and some blues and rock and country and bluegrass all rolled into one, an incredible mix, this is the band for you!"

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ARTIST PHOTOS

https://www.sandybellcreative.com/artist-photos

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ARTIST BIO - ABOUT SANDY BELL

 

It’s not every day an artist releases their debut solo album at age 63, but with Break of Day, Songs for Colin (released Nov. 1) Sandy Bell is doing just this. She worked several decades in Toronto’s music industry (Arraymusic, The Esprit Orchestra, Jeff Healey Band) promoting and producing other artists concerts, so it was only when she retired and moved to Nova Scotia that Sandy was finally able to release her own premiere solo album.

“It took time to find the time, funds and resources to get my first solo album done. And, some more time after I’d finally recorded the songs to muster up the fortitude to put it out there. But I’m proud of this album and so happy to finally be sharing it.”

 

Sandy Bell wrote the songs on Break of Day, Songs For Colin to express her love for her son Colin Bell Pimentel (1987 - 2007) after he was tragically struck by a train while walking home in headphones one night along Brantford Ontario’s train tracks. He died instantly at age 20. “Writing Songs for Colin, as well as my old bandmates and dear friends who looked out for me when I wasn’t looking out for myself, got me through that terrible time.”

 

Break of Day, Songs For Colin released November 1/25 to all major streaming platforms presents 10 original songs produced by Juno award-winning musician/engineer/producer Andrew Collins (Foggy Hogtown Boys, Creaking Tree String Quartet, Andrew Collins Trio), and features some of Canada’s finest alt rock, roots, country, and bluegrass musicians.

 

It is also unusual for a singer/songwriter to write without knowing how to play a melodic instrument or read music. While she studied voice, sang in choirs, and competed in vocal competitions as a girl, Sandy has always been a “naïve songwriter.”

 

“I eke out notes I love on a guitar and string these together or create melodies in my head, then sing these into a recorder and add lyrics. My musician friends have always been able to transpose my music. Sometimes whole songs fall out of me with the music and lyrics together. One time I was waiting at a bus stop and by the time I boarded the bus, I was singing a new song.”

 

Sandy says she didn’t know if she’d survive losing her boy. “Colin was the light of my life and reason for living.” So when police and his aunt knocked on her door after she’d returned home from volunteering at the Maraposa Music Festival and told her he had been in a terrible accident, which she learned only later involved a train, she was “devastated.”

 

“I cried from morning to night for a long time. I couldn’t stop thinking about the moment of Colin's accident. It tormented me. I spent weeks in my garden in The Junction area of Toronto sitting and listening to his music (Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here, Coldplay’s Yellow, Radiohead’s Fake Plastic Trees, Wilco’s On and On and On) and sad music I owned (Suzie Ungerleider’s Filled With Gold, Jenny Whitley’s Burning of Atlanta, Eva Cassidy’s Autumn Leaves, East mountain South’s Mark’s Song, KT Tunstall's The Universe and You), trying to remember everything I could about Colin and our time together.”

 

My old bandmates in ‘The Wanted’ got me back on stage although I told them ‘the only songs I’m going to sing from now on are sad songs’. Then I’d go out and break down crying.” She began writing poems and songs about the ravages of losing him with heartbreaking results. In her Break of Day’s song If You Went Away, Sandy sings: “You went away and the whole world turned grey, with people walking around like ghosts in their own skin, and everything was lost with no beginning when you went away.”

 

“I wrote Alberta Blue Sky and Wasteland for Colin. He was a toddler and this guitar came into our lives so I started messing around and pretty soon was writing songs without knowing what I was doing. I stayed that course. I wrote Hold Us Together when Colin was a teenager. And the rest of the songs on Break of Day I wrote after Colin passed away.”

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Sandy Bell gained notoriety in the 1990s when the City of Toronto threatened to cut down her natural garden. Her pioneering work protecting gardeners rights to plant natural gardens began when she defended her garden in radio, television and print interviews and ended when she won a court appeal which protected her wildflower garden and equated for the first time ever freedom of expression with religious freedom under Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The legal precent continues to be used to this day across North America to gain environmental advancements.

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In her day job (as Executive Director of Arraymusic) until recently, Sandy was instrumental in transforming Toronto’s new music scene when she developed the groundbreaking Array Space in 2013.

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As a singer/songwriter, Sandy found her footing co-founding the country/roots band The Wanted (with Richard Henderson and Vera Colley), and was co-lead singer of the band with Natalie Rogers in Toronto for 10 years. They enjoyed a residency at The Cameron House, and appeared regularly at The Gladstone Hotel, Moonshine Café, and other venues including Hugh’s Room, performing at country fairs and corporate events. 

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“I was thrilled when my old band, The Wanted, recorded then widely released five of my songs in 2020. But to release my own album is a dream come true - even though this isn't the album I thought I'd make.”

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Break of Day, Songs For Colin CD is available to purchase by emailing: wordsmithing.sb@gmail.com

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