Vancouver-based, singer-songwriter Norine Braun is a festival veteran whose evocative material has been lauded by her home country, receiving awards from the Canada Council For the Arts, Banff Centre Musician in Residence, and Artists For Literacy.
Today, TVD is pleased to Needle Drop “Sleeping Buffalo,” the lead-off cut from Braun’s superb 2018 release Through Train Windows. It’s an earthy, blues-tinged folk number that paints a striking portrait of the Canadian wilderness through dark, low-pitched hues that dance under a haunting harmonica refrain.
The song swells with the kind resplendent and expansive, ’60s-esque songwriting that made Joni Mitchel a household name. Yet Norine firmly plants her sound in the present, winking at the past while staying in tune with today’s sensibilities.
“Sleeping Buffalo” certainly taps a deeply insular, Northern territory vein, but Through Train Windows takes us from the wild back into civilization, documenting Braun’s recent cross-country tour from Vancouver to Toronto, Ottawa to Quebec City, Montreal to Halifax, basking in the vast panoramas from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic ocean.
