New Artist to Listen For: Serena Ryder

Canadian singer/songwriter Serena Ryder is an artist to definitely be on the look out for. She's opened for artists such as Paolo Nutini, Chris Isaak and Xavier Rudd and just last year was featured in the South by Southwest festival in Texas where she caught the ears of Atlantic Records. Having already released two albums in Canada, most recent being If Your Memory Serves You Well – which was certified gold – her current U.S. debut EP, Told You In A Whispered Song, was released last year, while her first full-length U.S. album is due out this spring on the Atlantic label.

At first I genuinely liked her EP, Told You In A Whispered Song, but as I listened closer to the lyrics I enjoyed each song even more. Ryder's honest, heartfelt lyrics about love and heartbreak are universal and you can feel the pure emotion she puts into each song.

Her EP begins with its title track which has a simple guitar rhythm and the light sound of a tambourine in the background. Ryder's voice is strong and bluesy, fluctuating ever so slightly in the chorus of the song. “Hiding Place” is a slower song, which again features an acoustic guitar and asks the question to a lover, “If your radio didn’t work and your friends all ran away/Would you let yourself fall in love, if only for one day?” The lyrics are truly beautiful in this song. She continues to sing, “Darling can I touch your face and let your skin be my hiding place/Promise I won’t take up too much room/Darling can I touch your face and let your eyes fall into love’s embrace?”

Ryder’s voice has been compared to that of Janis Joplin and Aretha Franklin, maybe even early Jewel. “Brand New Love,” her third song on the EP, is a bit more upbeat then the rest, with a strong guitar sound that accentuates her voice well. Check out a stream of this song here. For Windows users you can listen here.

“Weak in the Knees” slows down the EP for a bit. Ryder seems to be telling the story of being weak in the knees with a lover who could care less for her, which eventually forces herself to move on. She belts out towards the end of the song, “It was over, it’s over before it began/I’m a witness to love why can’t you understand?/I won’t give up my heart, I won’t sell you my soul/Don’t you know it was you? You could have had it all.” Truly heartbreaking, but you can feel this emotion through Ryder’s strong singing.

Last song on the EP, “Blown Like The Wind At Night,” definitely has a more edgy sound to it, maybe even a bit bluesy. She starts off the song singing, “Let’s get drunk and lets pretend we are not slaves to anything or anyone that tells us how to be.” Later in the song she sings, “If this is love, then what is hate?/Do you understand my fate?/Oh I’m not broken, you can’t fix me/Wish I had a man that missed me/Tell me everything will be alright.” Her voice fluctuates in this song really well, helping with the angst-ridden feel behind the song.

To hear more on Serena Ryder be sure to check out her MySpace, which features four of the five songs from her EP, Told You In A Whispered Song.