“Upon this rock I will sing my world”
While Kim Stockwood’s world spills out well beyond the shores of Newfoundlandand Labrador, she is anchored heart and soul to this place. She seeks out what is special here and searches for a voice that will reflect her longing and love for the province. One way she has found to capture that voice is to go Back To The Water.
When Kim left her beloved native spot eighteen years ago she could not have known the paths she would travel or the heights she would scale. Kim is an accomplished artist on many fronts, from singer to songwriter to television host
and radio personality. These things she does with humor, grace, and class. Her hit songs, her awards and accolades, her solo work and her work with Shaye, have seen her mature as an artist. Her wealth of experience and her longing for home have laid the foundation for Back To The Water.
This album is filled with the sound and fury of a place that surges upward with a fist of rock and grabs life from the sky’s air. The album is enriched and enlivened by Newfoundland musical luminaries and session players who would shame the Nashville Scene. It is a great source of pride for Kim to have her wonderful Dad play with her.
The power of the sea can be heard here, roaring beneath Kim’s soaring vocals.
The album, Back To The Water, is indeed a musical trip through the beating heart of the province. Surrounded by water, yes, her place is made rigid by granite pillars like those Cliffs Of Baccalieu, that Kim navigates so beautifully as she dances among the tunes of her native land.
Listen to her Let Me Fish Off Cape St. Mary’s and you are taken to both a real and a mystical place. You feel the ache of the Petty Harbour Bait Skiff and taste the dread of the daily sea drama that punctures our ancestral memories. This song is
tempered by the skip, caper, and sly nod of the Squid Jiggin Ground, and the sense of fun found in Feller From Fortune. There is a certain beauty in that balance.
Kim has chosen her songs carefully, with the romance of the St. John’s Waltz held arms length against the everlasting anguish of Atlantic Blue. Ron Hynes is served well here. The title track, Back To The Water, was written with her close friend, Damhnait Doyle.
One can only imagine what gems might pebble the paths Kim will travel, or what crowning heights she will scale before Now I’m 64 becomes her mantra. In the meantime, we revel in the present smiling land and Thank God We’re Surrounded By Water.
If you find yourself near Cabot Tower on a warm summer evening, pick your own rock, fire up the iPod and sink into the album Back To The Water. There you will find the joy, peace, and the wisdom of the deep.
Back to the Water was recorded and produced in Newfoundland and features the finest of Newfoundland musicians and songwriters
Back to the Water, a television special filmed in Newfoundland, will debut on CMT on March 12.
THE PERSONALITY
Television Features
Host
(Toronto 2008 Olympic Bid Gala)
Guest Host
Guest Appearances
THE ARTIST
Hits
Awards & Accolades
2005
2004
2000
1997
(Enough Love, Bonavista)
Song Placement
Covers
NOMINATIONS
2005
2004
2000
1997
1996
QUOTES
“Stockwood’s meteoric rise to fame has become the stuff of Canadian music-industry legend.”
Calgary Herald
“Although a little lighter lyrically (than Jann Arden), Stockwood is equal to the task as a brassy, ballsy comedy frontwoman.”
EnRoute (The Funniest Musician)
“smoothly blended rhythms and textures – strength still comes from Stockwood’s personality.”
The Province
“The Newfoundland singer-songwriter, best known of late for her work with Shaye, serves up delightful renditions of classic holiday fare like Holly Jolly Christmas.”
The Guardian
“I Love Santa (turtlemusik) is the kind of upbeat and spunky disc you’d expect from the singer who first serenaded us with a song called Jerk.”
The Chronicle Herald
“Stockwood has that soul feeling in her vocal attack”
RPM Weekly
“Her singing is as vivid as the outcast kid slouching through the song Little Margaret – Stockwood knows that even good stories require a good storyteller. With a lovely voice and snapshot lyrics, she delivers both.”
Now Magazine
“The maturity on Stockwood’s sophomore album is astounding, particularly her rich, warm vocals.”
The Record (Kitchener, ON)
“they allow Stockwood to marshal the full range of her voice – from upbeat popster, to Sheryl Crow-esque rocker, to that wonderful, deep, husky blues-inflected voice Stockwood was famous for in the early days of her career.”
The Telegram
“becoming a first-class songwriter – maturing songwriter and song stylist who happens to be a very gracious human being.”
Daily Gleaner
