A Vancouver based singer-songwriter Norine Braun is a recording artist who recently released her 13th album, the groove oriented Songs For Trees. Thanks to a Canada Council For the Arts Award and a First Peoples’ Cultural Council Award in 2021, Norine set her musings during the ongoing pandemic last year to focus on climate change and the healing power of trees.
“Originally I had planned on devoting a song to each type of tree but as I began to read and research I wanted to instead draw upon the global properties of trees in general as well as certain trees. The listener will still embark on a journey through the forest but with more thought as to the interconnectedness of all things.”
Of the 18 songs on the album, half are full length. She utilizes ambient forest sounds to not only tie together each song as part of a story, but also to symbolize the significance and interconnectedness of trees and humans. We all depend on each other. No other song on the album states this better than “Mother Tree.” This song is not only dedicated to her late mother, who died during the writing of Songs For Trees, but beautifully shares the work of Dr. Suzanne Simard. She found that trees interact with each other under the ground and form a kind of kinship. Seedlings depend on these mother trees for survival in stressful conditions. Mother trees are the old ancient ones and keeping them intact helps regeneration and conserve carbon storage ultimately keeping the planet alive.
“I was both inspired and overwhelmed by the wealth of information and number of people from so many disciplines from around the world working hard to bring awareness to save the trees, planet and ourselves. This was a benefit as there was much to draw upon for writing.”
Norine is an award-winning artist (Western Canadian Music Award nominee, Banff Centre Musician in Residence, Los Angeles Independent Music Awards, SIBL International Songwriting Competition). Songs For Trees was produced by Adam Popowitz, who also played lead guitar and bass alongside Elliot Polsky on drums and percussion, Alice Fraser on keyboards, and Huggybear Leonard on blues harp, harmonica, ocarina and penny whistle, with Braun supplying rhythm guitar in addition to lead vocals.
Connect with Norine Braun via:
Website // Instagram // Facebook // Twitter // YouTube // Spotify // Soundcloud