Lynn Miles

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Lynn Miles bigraphy, stories - Musician

Lynn Miles : biography

Lynn Miles (born Sweetsburg, Quebec) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. She is a Juno Award winning musician.

Personal

Miles lived in Ottawa and Nashville before moving to Los Angeles in 1997.

Career

Miles became a voice teacher herself and taught at the Ottawa Folklore Centre. Her first recording of original material was a nine song demo which she created in 1987.

In the early 1990s Miles released a self-titled album plus an additional recording called Chalk This One Up to the Moon. Her composition "Remembrance Day" became part of a nationally televised video created by the Canadian Armed Forces.

Miles’ 1996 album, Slightly Haunted received favorable reviews in the New York Times and was a Billboard Top Ten Pick of the Year.

In 1997 she released the album Night in a Strange Town.

Miles’ reunited with collaborator and guitarist Ian LeFeuvre for her 2001 album, Unravel, which won the 2003 Juno award for Best Roots & Traditional Album of the Year: Solo.

Miles was nominated in 2005 for a Canadian Folk Music Awards.

In 2006 Miles recorded the album Love Sweet Love which was released on Red House Records characterized as a "road album". It was recorded with guitarist Ian LeFeuvre and Keith Glass, drummer Peter Von Althen, John Geggiem on bass, James Stephens on violin. It was nominated for a 2006 Juno Award.

Her 2010 album Fall for Beauty was nominated at the Juno Awards of 2011 in the Roots & Traditional Album of the year category.

Miles has re-recorded many of her earlier songs with simple acoustic arrangements in a series she called Black Flowers (the title of a song she wrote originally for the Unravel album). The first two volumes were produced in 2008 and 2009 (initially on her Cold Girl label but re-released by True North in 2009). A third volume was released in August 2012.

In 2009, the Art Of Time Ensemble featuring Sarah Slean recorded Miles’ "Black Flowers" on their record Black Flowers.

Miles’ songcraft was praised by New York Times critic, John Pareles.

Discography

  • Lynn Miles, (cassette demo) 1987
  • Chalk This One Up to the Moon, 1991
  • Slightly Haunted, 1996
  • Night in a Strange Town, 1997
  • Unravel, 2001
  • Love Sweet Love, 2006
  • Black Flowers, Volume 1, 2008
  • Black Flowers, Volume 2, 2009
  • Fall for Beauty, 2010
  • Black Flowers, Volume 3, 2012

Early life and education

Miles was born outside Montreal in the town of Sweetsburg, Quebec. Her father was a harmonica player and jazz fan while her mother listened to both opera and country music. Miles learned to play the violin, guitar, piano and flute during her school years. She began writing songs at the age of ten and began to perform at the age of sixteen. While in her twenties Miles studied voice with a private teacher and classical music history and theory at Carleton University in Ottawa.

Videography

  • Lynn Miles: Live at the Chapel, (DVD) 2007