Montreal-born Pamela Brennan began performing
as soon as she was able to get out from hiding behind her mother's bell-bottoms.
Excruciatingly shy as a child, Pamela found self-confidence through performance;
first banging away on a piano, then jumping around in a tutu, and finally
settling in behind the microphone, the most comfortable place so far.
Always struck by singers who had the ability to reach deep inside and speak
directly to their listeners, Pamela's influences include performers like
Ella Fitzgerald, Marvin Gaye, Joni Mitchell, Patsy Cline, Shelby Lynne
and Gillian Welch. Singers with soul and purpose.
A founding member of independent Ottawa pop/rock band Hennessey, Pamela
co-wrote and performed on their debut disc Dig It Up (1996),
which attracted such diverse fans as Hockey Night In Canada’s Ron
MacLean and author Daniel Richler.
Relocating to Toronto in late 2000, the band released their second album Life
on AM Radio (2001), a more cohesive production which found
its way onto the college radio charts, received commercial play across
Canada and video play on MuchMusic, and gained support from new fan Mike
Bullard, who booked them numerous times on his late night CTV show “Open
Mike”.
Hennessey toured across Canada and opened for well-known Canadian artists
54-40, Big Sugar, The Grapes of Wrath, Tegan and Sara, The Skydiggers and
The Waltons. Always hard at work (once playing 7 gigs in 5 days!), the
band spent 5 years playing extensively throughout Ontario in order
to support the promotion of their albums, but finally had to call it a
day in 2003.
Free to explore a new creative direction, one that would allow her to speak
to an audience on a more intimate level, Pamela set to writing and performing
solo for the first time in Toronto, where she still resides.
Co-produced with singer-songwriter/producer Peter Murray (Wooden Stars)
at his Junction Soundbox studio, Pamela’s debut solo album One
Hundred Photographs is personal and immediate, with lyrics and
arrangements that evoke a melancholy, bittersweet feeling and draw the
listener in.
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