Album Notes

Rose Cousins, originally from Canada’s smallest province, Prince Edward Island, now makes her home i n Halifax, Nova Scotia. She still carries many of those important rural­ living life lessons with her: live well, love and work hard. Whether it’s a day spent writing at home or many consecutive days on the road, Cousins knows dedication is paramount.

With multiple awards and nominations, including: East Coast Music Awards Female Recording of the year (2008), Mountain Stage Newsong Contest (2007),
Nova Scotia Music Awards for Best Folk Recording and Galaxie Rising Star
(2007), Prince Edward Island Music Awards for Folk Recording and Female
Vocalist ( 2007) , Cousins’ firmly believes she’s pursuing her passion and purpose.

Since her 2006 debut release, If You Were for Me, Cousins has charmed audiences throughout North America, from intimate house concerts to sharing the stage with Symphony Nova Scotia. Rose explores love and loss, longing and loneliness, and the strength of the human spirit. Her music combined with her humorous banter makes it customary to both laugh and cry during a live show. The Send Off , produced by Luke Doucet, is a strong, creative sophomore follow up. It draws on her first affair with music as Cousins reintroduces the piano as an integral aspect of her writing. Piano appears on three tracks starkly different from each other: Young Once, a gentle lullaby to a new life, I Don’t Car e, Mary Margaret O’Hara’s stellar ode to losing love, and All the Time it takes to Wait , a devastating composition detailing one of life’s difficult realizations.

“ The Send Off is about letting go: all of the ways we let go, don’t let go, how great it can be and how hard it is.”

The album’s title track The Send Off, and the beautiful waltz The Dancers , are about the most blatant form of letting go, the loss of a loved one. Maybe I Knew addresses the need to let go of love and the ensuing understanding of realizing one’s part in the process. The al bum’s lead track I Were the Bird reveals an understanding of the joy in one’s own life when we look at ourselves and appreciate what we have, not what we don’t.

“I’m proud of all of the songs on this record and notably the inclusion of tunes that come from a place of pure joy.” Celebrate and Sadie in the Kitchen realize the joy that can enter our lives when we allow it.