Anna B.

Join Anna B. and Sing Your Way Around Turkey!

A musical adventure, singing your way through history and making a musical connection with the Turkish people and the ancient land of Turkey. For details visit the Tours & Teaching page or brendafarrell.com.

Embrace BC

Anna B.'s song Sage and Pine is about her homeland - BC's dry interior. It was chosen by the children (grades 4 - 7) of BC to be used in Social Studies curriculum to address the issues of race and identity. Read more here

This fall, Anna B. is about to embark on a Master of Arts Program in Ethnomusicology (The study of World Music) at UBC

CBC Radio 2 hails Anna B. and the Heartbones as among "50 artists, ensembles and bands that are on the verge of becoming national names on the music scene."

On November 6th, Anna B. and the Heartbones recorded a live concert for CBC's Studio One Mother Tongue concert series. Since then, the concert has been broadcast twice (Mother Tongue, Dec. 28th, 2008; Canada's Music Future, Jan 18th, 2009) and is available on the CBC website for podcast.

Anna Copacabana

Just back from two months on a government grant to study Bossa Nova and Samba in Rio de Janeiro, Anna B. has acquired a great new repetiore of Brazilian standards and original songs in Portuguese. She also has a brand new bag of percussion tricks up her sleeve(-less dress).

Anna B. and the Heartbones, are pleased to
announce the release of their new CD -
A Deal With the Wind

We are pretty excited about this release. We recorded it in 2 days, live in the studio and there were lots of magical moments. Some songs are very intimate and soft, others are bold and fun. Songs about horses, breath, wind, sage, pine trees, lovesick doves, pirates, rivers and heartache.

Brazilians have a powerful word they use a lot in their music. The word is saudade and as far as I can tell has no direct translation in English. The closest word is meloncholia but for Brazilians this is not a sad thing, it is a full feeling, full of love and longing. This record is full of saudade for me.

The album combines disparate influences from home (dry interior of B.C.) and my travels (Roots, Brazilian Bossa Nova, Mexican Mariachi, and Jazz). I sing in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, each language allowing me to express emotion in a different way.

I have my dream band right now! They play beautifully and are very sensitive to the mood and the story of the song.

The Heartbones are - Stephen Nikleva (Sarah McLachlan, Mae Moore) on Guitar, Terry Townson (Ray Charles, James Brown) on Trumpet, Simon Kendall (Doug and the Slugs) on Accordion, Michael Simpson on Drums, and Michael Rush on Double Bass. They are all amazingly talented players!