Gwen Swick has a deep respect for words. She approaches her songs as a poet, imbuing each with a heightened sense of reality. Encompassing “a personal vision and a sort of romantic sense…Swick’s songs are a pure delight” (Globe and Mail). Her intimate, original songs turn the ordinary into extraordinary, exploring the borderland between imagination and reality, desire and desperation, hope and sorrow.

Complete musical worlds, Gwen’s songs are spacious, with melody lines playfully looping in and out and around lyrics like prairie breezes in high summer. Her richly textured arrangements consistently bring her beautifully controlled voice to the foreground. And what a voice… warm and pure and supple, with a rich timbre all its own.

Her previous two critically acclaimed solo releases, Gwen Swick (1993) and A Pebble of Mercy (1995), grabbed the attention of listeners and critics. With the release of Love and Gold, Gwen Swick has again struck gold. Critics are raving about the lush and sophisticated songs that define her third solo release. (See What the Critics Say, below.)

Biography

Gwen was born in Winnipeg. Her father was in the Armed Forces, so she managed to live and travel all across Canada. Although known primarily as a songwriter and vocalist, Gwen’s musical background includes guitar and electric bass, viola da gamba and East Indian singing.

In addition to her solo career, Gwen recorded five albums during the early 1990s with the traditional folk trio Tamarack. In 1996, she joined Sylvia Tyson, Cindy Church and Caitlin Hanford in the popular vocal group Quartette. Constant recording and touring as a solo act and with other groups has put Gwen on stage at prestigious festivals and concert halls across Canada and Europe, including Germany’s Women in (E)Motion Festival, Dawson City Folk Festival, Edmonton Folk Festival, Vancouver Folk Festival and many others.

Gwen’s work is featured on a number of film soundtracks. “I Should Feel Empty,” from A Pebble of Mercy, appears on the soundtrack CD of the movie Never Talk to Strangers, starring Antonio Banderas and Rebecca DeMornay. “Call,” from Love and Gold, was written for Terrance Odette’s award-winning Canadian feature Heater. Her music has been choreographed for dance and she has composed music for stage and film, including original music for the National Film Board.

She has been a guest on many CBC Radio shows including Morningside with Peter Gzowski, Swinging on a Star with Murray McLachlan, Stuart McLean’s Vinyl Cafe, Heartland and Performance. Her music is heard on radio across Canada, the U.S., and throughout Europe. Gwen works as a writer, vocal arranger and singer for other recording artists and vocal groups. She has written and arranged music for children in dramatic performances, and conducted songwriting workshops for children.

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What the Critics Say About Gwen Swick

Hones in on the human condition better than any of a thousand better-known writers… mesmerizing… voice evokes a sense of wonder… poetry that seizes simple snapshots of seemingly throwaway moments to tell of life’s larger stories.

Toronto Star

World-class vocal arrangements, haven’t heard better on any million-dollar pop project… lead vocals are intense and touching, and her songs glow with liberal applications of craft and imagination.

Georgia Straight

The Record (Kitchener-Waterloo)

One of the most imaginative singer/songwriters in the country… music wonderfully illustrates themes that strike at the music-lover’s heart: betrayal, pretension, loneliness, isolation, self-righteousness, grief, then love and faith and courage and mercy… her metaphors bear an authority, maturity and experience missing from the lyrics of many of her contemporaries.

London Free Press

Unusual beauty… vocal impressionist… raw, fresh vocal charge that brings her song material into prominence.

RPM Magazine

Emotionally appealing, promise of mystery… jazz imprinted pieces… poetic, intricately and analytical (texts).

German review of live performance

	Portrait by Mendelson Joe

Gorgeous music and Swickian silliness and philosophy too… You sing with the Aurora Borealis.

Mendelson Joe

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