\"Soulful. Unique. Amazing.\"
This is how listeners describe Heidi McCurdy’s voice.
\"Sultry jazz-pop with soul and wit.\"
This is how they describe her songs.
With hip rhythms, thick harmonies and memorable melodies, Heidi’s music enchants listeners and compels them to groove along. She draws on an eclectic array of influences—jazz, world, gospel, soul, Stevie Wonder, India Arie, Erykah Badu, Bjork, Bonnie Raitt, The Police—and mixes them up with a modern pop sensibility. Her CD, a collection of songs recorded with several producers in a variety of styles, is fittingly entitled “Fickle Mind.” It was released in April 2006.
Heidi’s songs have garnered acclaim from a wide and varied audience. The title track of the album won first place in the Write On ’97 songwriting contest (selected out of 500 entries in the pop category). In May 2004, Placebo earned Honorable Mention with international Song of the Year. She has won numerous awards on Garageband.com (a listener voting site) including Best Female Vocals and Track of the Day many times over, and was in the top 20 for over three months. Recently, her song Play My Game was featured in the TV show Chris and Bob’s Road Trip, The Word Nerds podcast, and CTV/Comedy Network’s sitcom Robson Arms. Various songs have recieved airplay on college radio, CBC and Galaxie. Reviews from the press have been overwhelmingly enthusiastic.
Heidi’s musical history is diverse. In the early 1990’s, she co-founded the world/funk bands Maisha and Yellow Belly. Yellow Belly released an independent CD, completed two cross-Canada tours, and had several songs top the charts on MP3.com and college radio. Yellow Belly shared stages with The Bare Naked Ladies, Papa Wemba, Steele Pulse, and 54-40.
Following that project, Heidi created her own ensemble and has been performing funky originals, neo-soul classics and jazz standards ever since. She has also been a featured vocalist with Bittersweet, the Alexander Browne Orchestra and Johnny Ferreira and the Swing Machine, and a guest with numerous other prestigious bands in Vancouver and San Francisco. She has performed in Europe, the U.S.A., and Canada, including the Vancouver International Jazz Festival in 2005 (with Bittersweet). Her current backing band—Urban Tribe—consists of some of Vancouver, BC’s finest musicians.
Audiences love Heidi for her unpretentious persona and soulful performance, her winning blend of natural talent and sophisticated skill. Listeners everywhere are instantly transformed into long-term and loyal fans.
Read more...