All AV Merchandise Items

This is a full length, 10 song album with ONLY the title track ("Everybody Matters") released online-- all the other tracks are NOT YET RELEASED anywhere except via this AV Store (you cannot find it on iTunes, Spotify, etc; nor have any songs been released to the radio, nor media).  Produced by AV, and co-produced with Canadian/British producer Chris Birkett (Buffy Sainte Marie, Sinead O’Connor, etc) it is an acoustic, live-off-the-floor soul/blues/roots album; with AV on keys and vocals, and featuring Doug Organ on Hammond organ.  The album also has “old school” sounding drums, and 3 part background vocal harmonies.  With the exception of one song all the “bass” on the album is played by the organ and keys, rather than the typically expected electric guitar bass. The lyrics explore AV’s observations and insights based on living in her inner city neighborhood of McCauley, Edmonton, and is a follow up to her 2019 Top 100 German pop radio hit “Hurt People Hurt People,” and her 2019 Cobalt Music Prize awarding winning single, “It’s Happening”, and her 2017 single, “All That I Can,” which won the same award.  The album also features a duet with Calgary-based soul singer and bassist, Jory Kinjo.

Your choice of WAV (high res) or mp3 (compressed) files.

This is a full length, 10 song album with ONLY the title track ("Everybody Matters") released online-- all the other tracks are NOT YET RELEASED anywhere except via this AV Store (you cannot find it on iTunes, Spotify, etc; nor have any songs been released to the radio, nor media).  

Produced by AV, and co-produced with Canadian/British producer Chris Birkett (Buffy Sainte Marie, Sinead O’Connor, etc) it is an acoustic, live-off-the-floor soul/blues/roots album; with AV on keys and vocals, and featuring Doug Organ on Hammond organ.  The album also has “old school” sounding drums, and 3 part background vocal harmonies.  With the exception of one song all the “bass” on the album is played by the organ and keys, rather than the typically expected electric guitar bass. The lyrics explore AV’s observations and insights based on living in her inner city neighborhood of McCauley, Edmonton, and is a follow up to her 2019 Top 100 German pop radio hit “Hurt People Hurt People,” and her 2019 Cobalt Music Prize awarding winning single, “It’s Happening”, and her 2017 single, “All That I Can,” which won the same award.  The album also features a duet with Calgary-based soul singer and bassist, Jory Kinjo.

Released in 2012 and produced by AV herself this is a “soul/Americana” album, recorded in a “live off the floor” format after a string of live shows with a 7 piece band, consisting of prominent musicians such as Juno nominated Chloe Albert and Folk Music Award nominee Coco Love Alcon on background vocals, Rooster Davis on Hammond organ, Robin Pelletier on guitar, drummer Thom Bennett of AB Trio, and James Forrest on bass, as well as AV herself of course, on piano and lead vocals.  

Produced in NYC by Paul Brill this is an early AV album, released in 2006, which contains songs still regularly requested at live shows, such as “Backseat Driver” (featured on Australia's "Mornings with Kerri Anne" Show); “Where My Heart Lies,” and an early rendition of “Don’t Cry”, which was later redone on AV’s self-produced album “Love & Other Messes.”  The album cover, at the request of its' graphic designer, Jeff Sylvester, has no writing on it, because he loved the image so much.  (The spine, inside 2 panels, and back cover DO have writing on them :))

Your choice of WAV (high res) or mp3 (compressed) files.

Released in 2008 this is a “live off the floor” jazz album of inventive renditions of 1980’s pop songs; performed by renowned Edmonton-based jazz musicians Juno-winner Sandro Dominelli (drums), Chris Andrew (keys), and Mike Lent (bass), with AV’s vocals at the helm.  

The concept behind the project stemmed from AV’s desire to record some jazz renditions of classics that weren’t the typical jazz classics from the American songbook of musicals, such as Cole Porter and Rogers and Hart, etc; but instead to do renditions of songs in the ear of people who grew up listening in the 80’s and afterward.  So, she picked a list of 80’s songs such a “Material Girl” and “Smooth Criminal”, and set about recording them.  

When gigging the material she took on the persona of “April Valiant”, (also with the initials AV), who wore a pink hair wig and ‘80s bling— to differentiate between her jazz singer presence and her career as an original songwriter, and though the album was released over a decade ago it still enjoys play on several jazz programs across Canada.

The album artwork is taken from an original painting by Edmonton-based artist Sandra Kunz, www.strokeofsoul.com.

Yes you can drink vinegar-- but this does not taste like vinegar-- it tastes like fruit concentrate, and you need very little to mix with club soda or tonic or juice, to make incredibly refreshing summer cocktails and to add to anything that might need a tasty, fruity syrup-- ice cream, floats, pancakes, you name it. 

All products are made from 100% organic, local, fruit, by Mojojojo Pickles and Preserves-- an independent Edmonton business run by Jowhanna Alleyne, a musician herself, whom you may also see joining AV on stage sometimes, singing background vocals. 

More Mojojo products can be found at www.mojojojopickles.com

My approach to teaching this skill is to enable you to sing harmonies to ALL western music songs-- rather than learning song-by-song what the harmony part is or could be.  It involves learning some simple theory and ear training, which scares some people off, but I promise to not make it too boring or overwhelming. 

What you'll need:

1.  A good internet connection
2. A link to 2 example songs you would like to start with, sent in an email in advance.
3. Also sent in an email in advance: very short explanation of your training-- if any-- none is fine-- in the areas of music theory, ear training, choir singing, or backup vocal singing.
4. A keyboard-- even if it's a keyboard app on your phone-- it will be used mainly to help visualize and hear distances between notes (intervals).

My related experience in this area:

I am a graduate of Grant MacEwan's Music Performance Program, at which I received a scholarship in academics, and besides my performance skills and extensive experience I have solid knowledge and background in music theory and ear training. I also studied classical music for a few years at the King's University College, where I sang in an auditioned choir, directed by professional director Trent Worthington (Pro Coro Canada, 3 Tenors, etc).

I have worked with many esteemed producers around the world, such as Ray Bardani, Joe Chicarelli, Chris Birkett, and many more; and have produced 2 albums myself (including my most recent one, "Everybody Matters"). 

Occasionally am hired to do studio and live work as a backup singer, in addition to singing my own harmonies on my own album (on which I play keys and do the vocal arranging).  I have led bands for the past 18 years, and recently started a community choir during the pandemic-- my first, and through that have gotten excited about learning how to teach harmony singing. 

If you would like to know more about my professional achievements, career history, and musical influences you can find them at my bio on my website www.annvriend.com/bio.html.

Explanation from AV:

Like most musicians, I got into music because I love music-- and not because I love promoting, or marketing, or booking, or grant writing, or tour managing, or social media promotion, or administration, or publicity, or merchandising, or team management, or meetings and emails, or setting up this Shopify store so you can read this very sentence.

And yet, those are all jobs I have had to do and many of which I continue to do-- and jobs for which I had zero training.  (See the "General Eductation/Related Experience section of this link https://av-music-store.myshopify.com/collections/music-lessons-in-songwriting-harmony-singing-song-evaluaton-theory-and-more-from-a-multi-award-winning-songwriter regarding my credentials, awards, and education: you'll note there are lots in music-- and none in business.) 

So in retrospect, it's not that surprising I made a lot of mistakes along the way at those jobs-- and at trying to hand those jobs off to other people, for hope of -- but often not-- any or much return on investment (a term I NOW know is shortened to ROI ;)).

The music business is FULL of people who want to take your money and your music and your time and talent, and it is very lean when it comes to who will MAKE you money in return, and truly help you build your career. 

And if you do find and identify these people, it is another matter that they might want to work with YOU. 

The music business is also full of advice and seminars and workshops and conferences you can go to ( and pay for), at which there are people who will advise you about what to do-- which may or may not include hiring them to do the thing they are telling you you should do.

Also: each one of the "hats" I listed: those are all full-time jobs in and of themselves, each and every one of them.  And there is only one you, with only 24 hours a day to work within, and you also want to, say, be a musician-- write, perform, sing, play, work on your chops, record albums, go on tour, film music videos.  And maybe even have a life, besides!

So.  How do you navigate ALL THAT.  Who do you delegate what to, how do you find and choose them?  How do you excel at and balance everything. 

These are good questions.  And, if there was a "one size fits all" answer to them we would be in the field of science instead of art.  Art reflects the vast diversity and ever-changing everything-- so the advice of what Madonna should or shouldn't do certainly is different from Miles Davis which is different from Leonard Cohen which is different from L'il Naz-- all very successful artists-- all very different from one another-- and, in fact, that is in part why they stand out and are successful.

So-- hence the need to find what YOU, individually YOU- should do, and not do, and what you should take on, and not take on. 

On that note, if you would like some guidance/advice/tips on any of the "hats" mentioned, or navigation thereof, you could book me for a consultation session, and I will do my best to you help YOU.

In doing so I will ask you to send me, in 1 email:

1. 1-2 recorded songs you are most proud of, and when they were released (if they have been)
2. 1-2 live videos, preferably the most recent you've got
3. 1-2 produced videos ("music" videos that are NOT live-- if you have them-- if not no worries)
4. A short bio or list of career accomplishments
5. 1-3 career goals and a realistic date by which you would like to achieve them.
6. What specifically you would like to discuss in the consultation, in relation to #5, or in general.

This is an easy-to-follow "guitar style" chord chart, designed by AV herself.  It also includes a lyric sheet of the full lyrics to this song, which is clearly labeled and divided into the sections of the corresponding chord chart. 

A download link of the chart and lyrics will be sent to you upon checking out and paying.

Written by AV for her mom’s birthday, this song chronicles the tough immigration story of her mother’s mother (AV’s grandmother); who would always tell her daughter when she left home for far away not to cry— and if she could manage that she would get a dollar.  The song was not meant to be released publicly, but after a lot of prompting by her mother AV added it to a few concerts, and thus ended up with a live-in-studio recording of “A Dollar and a Suitcase” — and it has since become one of AV’ most popular songs to date, requested at nearly every concert since.  AV added it to her live performance in 2016 on the CBC program “Vinyl Cafe”, hosted by the late Stuart McLean, with her mother seated in the audience.  The show is syndicated to the USA via NPR radio, and served to expand AV’s audience to that market.

Written over 3 years ago "Everybody Matters" is an energetic, old-school gospel/blues tune, with congregational clapping as the main rhythmic pulse throughout the song.The lyrics are a long list of contrasts between "first world" ideas of what"everybody matters" looks like: life support, cheap consumer goods made elsewhere, and rich people making headlines-- versus what the rest of the world experiences : starvation, slave labor, little to no media attention.  The observation AV makes is if "everybody matters" certainly a greedy and classist society seems to say, well: "some a little more" (or a lot more). By the end of the song the lyrics admit that even those in "first world" countries feel the anxiety of this "need to get ahead, you can feel it to your core"-- and leaves the listener wondering, alongside AV herself, if it is really possible to truly value human rights AND believe in the unquestioned, unchecked, unlimited greed of insatiable materialism. 

Your choice of WAV (high res) or mp3 (compressed) files.

9 cm x 9 cm stickers on peel-able wax paper.  Perfect size for on your laptop or car bumper.

Delivered by download as mp3 (compressed) files.

Released in 2009 this is a complication of live performances from concerts given by AV between 2007 and 2009; some from in Canada and some from Australia, at a well-known venue called “The Basement.”  Some of the songs are solo; some are performed with bass player James Forrest, and some with drummer Chris Flanagan.

All but 2 of the songs appear on AV studio albums.  The 2 that do NOT appear on any other albums are “On Your Street”— for which a music video was produced, which AV’s first music video; and “A Dollar and a Suitcase”; a song which chronicles the tough immigration story of her mother’s mother (AV’s grandmother); who would always tell her daughter when she left home for far away not to cry— and if she could manage that she would get a dollar.  The song was not meant to be released publicly, but after a lot of prompting by her mother AV added it to a few concerts, and thus ended up with a live-in-studio recording of “A Dollar and a Suitcase” — and it has since become one of AV’ most popular songs to date, requested at nearly every concert since.  AV added it to her live performance in 2016 on the CBC program “Vinyl Cafe”, hosted by the late Stuart McLean, with her mother seated in the audience.  The show is syndicated to the USA via NPR radio, and served to expand AV’s audience to that market.

I am often asked by other upcoming songwriters to evaluate and give feedback/advice on their songs (music, lyrics, structure, arrangements)-- whether because they are working on them in the process of getting ready to record an album, or just as a hobby.  So, after doing this for a long time I finally realized I should put this as an "item" in my store, so here it is. 

Songwriting is very personal-- and what constitutes a "good song" is very subjective.  Taste-- in style, era, genre-- is also a big factor, as is a person's musical and lyrical influences.

So, to that end, when I do these consultations I always ask the person to send me not only a link to the song(s) they would like evaluated, but links 5 or so songs they particularly think are great and/or are influenced by-- by different artists, or by the same artists, it doesn't matter.

So, once a time period is arranged for the consultation know that that is what I will ask for in advance of the session, sent in 1 email:

1. A link to the song(s) you want evaluated
2. The lyrics to those/that song(s)
3. Your list of links to 5 or so other people's songs you admire/are influenced by.

Note that the time I will take to go over this in advance of your consultation is incorporated into the price of the consultation.

My Songwriting Experience:

Throughout my career I have won a number of song writing awards, the first of which was waaaaaaay back in 2002 for a song I wrote when I was 17, called "Waterfront."  The prize money I used to record my first album, and it also included a trip to Nashville.  Around that same time that same song caught the attention of NYC producer and talent scout Leo Sacks, who brought me to NYC to audition for several labels, including Epic Records, and which led to working in studios such as Sony NYC and the (now defunct) Hit Factory.

Since then I have won the Cobalt Music Prize twice (2017 and 2019) for the songs "All That I Can" and "It's Happening" (the latter of which I wrote to perform with an elementary school choir): and I won the "R&B Recording of the Year" in 2018 for "All That I Can", and have had a long list of nominations for other songs at the same awards.   

I have also had several songs chart on commercial radio-- the most successful of which was in 2019 for my song "Hurt People Hurt People", which went to #1 on a big station in Germany which has a listenership of 3.3 million, and the song reached #55 in the Top 100 pop charts for the country-- which is apparently unheard of for an independent, non-German artist. 

Locally my song "Feelin' Fine" was played on the now defunct "Magic 99" commercial station, and was apparently "the most requested song by a local artist in the station's history."  I have also been lucky to have chart support from public, community, and college radio, nationally and internationally; for every album I have released.

While on tour and at home I have taught many group classes in songwriting in various schools around the world, with students ranging from never having touched an instrument or written a song before, to 1st year university students in music college-- and a vast range in between. 

I have been commissioned to write songs with various school groups-- including the afore-mentioned award-winning song "It's Happening," performed with the Sifton Elementary School Choir-- and I have been commissioned to write songs for organizations such as the Commonwealth Games and the Canadian Paraplegic Society, among others.

I have also written songs with other songwriters, ranging from the multiple number one hit songwriter Dan Hill, who reached out to me based on his admiration for my song "Everybody Sings in Nashville," and who was recently induced into the Canadian Hall of Fame; to local Edmonton artists such as Martin Kerr, on the recent 2020 pandemic song "Isolation Groove."

General Education/Related Experience:

I am a graduate of Grant MacEwan's Music Performance Program, at which I received a scholarship in academics, and besides my performance skills and extensive experience I have solid knowledge and background in music theory and ear training. I also studied classical music for a few years at the King's University College.  Prior to that as a child and teenager I took violin, recorder, and piano lessons (not all at the same time), and wrote songs for my school music classes to perform as early as Grade 6.  I played with musical instruments as early as I can remember-- apparently even as a toddler, "making stuff up"-- but never remembering it the next day.  Age 9 is when I finally played a song I wrote on the piano over and over and over again enough that I can still remember it to this day-- making it by far not my best song, but my oldest :)).

If you would like to know more about my professional achievements, career history, and musical influences you can find them at my bio on my website www.annvriend.com/bio.html.

Your choice of WAV (high res) or mp3 (compressed) files.

This is a full length, 11 song album.  Released in 2008 it is a concept album built around the fictitious story that AV was an international spy, who fell in love with a spy from the “other side”, who then, through their love affair, decided eventually to defect together.  The premise (perhaps ahead of its time) was that once something was on the internet people would believe it as fact— this happened to AV when a journalist once wrote she played guitar (which she didn’t/doesn’t), and then other journalists read this and wrote it into their own pieces when covering AV.  So, she decided to make up an entire story, and re-wrote her bio on her website to reflect it.  She assumed most would be in on the joke, but, as with the “guitar playing fable,” an astonishing amount of people believed it.  Relatedly, the spy story explores topics like if it’s always best to tell the truth; if loyalty is more important than love; if ideals are more important than pragmatism.

It is a lush, epic, indie-pop album, with swirling big strings, digital keyboard sounds, and AV at the piano (not guitar!)

The track “St.Paul,” ended up on heavy rotation on commercial station Magic 99, and AV’s cover of “Rockin’ In The Free World” was placed at #13 in “CoverMe” Magazine, in the “50 Best Neil Young Covers Ever”, with a blurb stating:

“The only “Rockin’ in the Free World” cover I’ve heard that wasn’t, well, rockin’. Canadian singer-songwriter Ann Vriend dispenses with the endless guitar solos and hollering that characterize pretty much every other cover. But don’t mistake this for some soft ballad. In her own way, Vriend rocks, putting piss and vinegar into her vocals that still roar over the lush orchestral production. Her cover may be kinder and gentler, but the machine-gun hand remains.” 

Your choice of WAV (high res) or mp3 (compressed) files.

This is a full length, 11 song album.  Released in 2014 it was critically acclaimed, and contains the heavily requested "A Need So Wide” and “Those Records”, as well as “The Greatest Killer”, co-written with Canadian hit songwriter Dan Hill.  It is the first AV album produced with Tino Zolfo/Poppa Champagne, and this album marks the new sound of AV's "ghetto soul pop”, that continued with her award winning singles “All That I Can” and “It’s Happening”, and her German radio hit “Hurt People Hurt People”.  The album is AV’s first project in which she delved into her neighborhood of McCauley, Edmonton, for the inspiration and subject matter of the songs.

(This is a great gift idea, if I don’t say so myself ;))

As we all all painfully aware, not much is left for options in the way of physically in-person performances at the moment, but I do have my attic set up with my piano (keyboard), ambient lighting, and a good quality camera and microphone.  If you would like to book a performance I can set one up as a private link on my Youtube channel, which can be shared with your exclusive audience or sent as a gift to someone, to watch live or recorded to watch later.  

Message me at av@annvriend.com if you have questions before or after booking— to set up details such as show length, schedule a date for the performance, and maybe a request or 2 if it’s a song I know— including my own— to ensure I have time to make sure it’s under my fingers and is of maximum quality for you and yours.

Pricing is negotiable depending on financial situation and how many viewers are anticipated.