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It’s no surprise that as a child Carolyn Arends dreamed of growing up to be a writer. Like any great novelist, Carolyn has an unerring way of weaving rich and extraordinary tapestries from the threads of everyday affairs. When it comes to showing people around this experience we call life, few communicators have the ability to capture the paradoxes of joy and sorrow, belief and doubt, love and pain in the poetically challenging and uplifting ways that define the artistry of Carolyn Arends.
Few communicators are able to keep up Arends’ pace! In the past two years she has released not one but two new albums, a book, and a baby.
In October of 2001 Arends released Travelers on the Canadian label Signpost Music. Part of Signpost's Living Room Series, the project is an all-acoustic celebration of what Arends calls the "sacred journey" of our everyday lives. Recorded in Vancouver, Travelers revolves around Carolyn's voice and guitar, complemented by the two musicians most often seen accompanying her in concert: Spencer Capier on violin, mandolin, bouzouki and guitar, and Spencer Welch on piano, accordion and Wurlitzer. Percussionist Randall Stoll helps make the grooves infectious and Winnipeg artist Steve Bell adds his expressive guitar and mandolin to It Has to Be You.
Travelers has been warmly received, garnering Arends’ her second Juno nomination, a FEMALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR award at the Vibe Awards (the Canadian Gospel People's Choice Awards), and a POP/CONTEMPORARY Song of the Year Covenant Award (for “Dance Like No-One’s Watching”) . At the 2002 West Coast Music Awards Arends was named SONGWRITER OF THE YEAR over a strong field of writers including Nelly Furtado, and Travelers received a Best Folk Release nomination.
May, 2002 saw the release of the two projects Arends calls her “labours of love” ... an album and book, both entitled We’ve Been Waiting for You, documenting the joys, terrors, mysteries and miracles of parenthood. As vital and passionate musically as anything Arends has produced, the album and its companion book are destined to become a treasured part of many families’ journeys. We’ve Been Waiting For You won INSPIRATIONAL ALBUM OF THE YEAR at the 2003 Vibe Awards, where Arends was also awarded her second consecutive FEMALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR.
Arends' previous four albums (on the Nashville-based Reunion Records label) have sold well over a quarter-of-a-million units and produced several top 10 hit songs on the Canadian pop and US Christian charts. She has won two Dove Awards including INTERNATIONAL ARTIST OF THE YEAR (for her own projects) and Country Recorded Song of the Year (for her songwriting). In 2000, her first book, Living the Questions: Making Sense of the Mess and Mystery of Life, was published to critical acclaim, adding the roles of author and speaker to Arends’ multi-faceted career.
Beloved in the Christian market, Arends’ music is gaining a rapidly growing awareness amongst fans of literate singer/songwriters everywhere, due in large part to the word-of-mouth of her fiercely loyal fan base. Maintaining a year-round weekend touring schedule, Arends consistently disarms audiences across North America with her trademark warmth and utter lack of pretense, then draws them in with what The Georgia Strait called her “sublime vocal ache”.
Arends graduated from Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia with a degree in psychology and English. She lives in Surrey, British Columbia with her husband Mark, five-year-old son Benjamin, and two-year-old daughter Bethany.
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