Carolyn Arends

Carolyn is a classic artist. Her music comes from the depth of her soul and crosses all boundaries. She is a painter of words - words that articulate things that you feel deeply, but never express. She is a good friend.
- Brown Bannister

Carolyn Arends

"My mom claims as soon as I could talk I would sing myself to sleep. It wouldn't make sense, but it would rhyme."

A fitting start for the girl who would blossom into the gifted singer and songwriter Carolyn Arends is today. Only now, her songs make sense. Profound sense. Which is why Reunion Records President/CEO Terry Hemmings called Carolyn "a rare find" when announcing her signing as an artist and staff writer early in 1995.

Carolyn's debut album on Reunion, I Can Hear You, signals this Dove award winning songwriter's arrival as a performer in her own right. Heavyweight industry producer Brown Bannister, who has worked with Amy Grant, Kim Hill, Paul Overstreet and Twila Paris, among others, produced I Can Hear You and became an instant kindred spirit for Carolyn.

I Can Hear You begins with This is the Stuff, a song Arends calls the project's "thesis statement." "Looking back on the road I've traveled," she sings over a galloping, engaging acoustic track, "all the things that matter most have caught me by surprise." The lyrics serve not only as her thesis but as a warning to the listener: you may be caught by surprise by this 27 year old Canadian's startlingly original musical and lyrical vision. Insight and wisdom pop up in unexpected lyrical twists and turns throughout I Can Hear You, as Carolyn uses the project's 11 self-penned songs to build a compelling case for the importance of embracing each moment as it comes.

Arends herself is a series of surprises and contradictions. Her easy smile and laid-back West Coast manner (she still lives in her hometown near Vancouver, BC) mask her intensity and the sometimes iron-willed clarity and direction she brings to her music. Her speech is peppered with references to modern-day contemplative writers like Frederick Beuchner, Thomas Merton, and C.S. Lewis, yet her love of old movies, sitcoms and all things silly reveals her desire to not take herself too seriously. And her reputation as a commanding performer seems to be at odds with her self-described "'incredibly shy" personality.

"I cried every day in kindergarten from the sheer stress of interacting with other five year olds," she confesses, "but I love being on stage communicating with people. There's really no explanation for it - it's just one of those things that tells me this is what I should be doing. I heard Lyle Lovett say once that he was a recording artist because his personality required amplification. Ditto for me - minus the hair."

Carolyn's love of words and music began even before kindergarten. Her earliest memories are of singing gospel music with her family, "riding
around in the car picking out harmony parts from Bill and Gloria Gaither records." She wrote her first song (for Mother's Day) at age nine, and music quickly became the dream. "I was taking piano lessons," she says, "and then as soon as I got my first guitar, songs just started pouring out."

Still, she was hesitant about pursuing music professionally. Despite her family's overwhelming encouragement, Carolyn got it into her head that she should choose something "sensible"' as a career. "I thought I'd be a doctor and went to University on a biochem scholarship. After a year, I discovered I didn't like the smell of formaldehyde. My bio class was at 8:00 am and chem class was at 9:00. I have a musician's body and early mornings were just not happening for me! I think God planned it that way to re-direct my life appropriately," laughs Arends.

She switched her major to psychology, with minors in English and music, and met and promptly fell in love with Mark Arends, her husband to be, who played a major role in helping Carolyn re-focus on music. "Mark was the one who said, 'It's obvious to everyone but you that you should be doing this music thing.'"

In her senior year, Arends went to the Christian Artist's Seminar at Estes Park, where publishers took an interest in the rough demos she'd recorded in the basement of her church. Within months she signed a writing contract with Benson Publishing and began turning out songs that would be recorded by artists as diverse as Michael James, Susan Ashton, 4Him and Lisa Bevill.

"My original thought was that I would only write songs for other artist, and then I began almost involuntarily creating material that was so personal I knew only I could really record it. Over time I began feeling more drawn to the artist idea. Now I can't imagine not having this outlet."

Stylistically, Arends' desire was to mesh together her folk and pop sensibilities. "I was excited by the idea of coupling a progressive rhythm sec-tion and other pop elements like electric guitar with the rootsy instrumentation (acoustic guitar, fiddle, mandolin, accordion and dulcimer) that has always been a part of my music." The result is the acoustic pop that makes I Can Hear You an exhilarating aural blend - the perfect backdrop for Arends' unaffected, compelling voice.

The audience response at Carolyn's performance in colleges, clubs and churches along the West Coast confirmed that there was something very special about the unassuming, vulnerable direction her music was taking. "I discovered very early on as a performer," she says of that time, "that doing some kind of act or striking a pose was simply not going to work. It's not me - it wasn't authentic, and all the artists I admire are people who are just being themselves. I respond to honesty, and so my whole live show Is about being myself and trying to make a connec-tion."

Speaking with Carolyn Arends or listening to her music, her passion for life is easily traced to what she describes as "the core of who I am" -her faith in God. "I've been a Christian for a long time," she states candidly, "but the last couple of years have been incredible. I have come to the life-affirming, faith-affirming realization that God is here, every atom bears his fingerprints. and he's making himself known to us in the details of our lives."

All of the songs on I Can Hear You radiate from this faith in God. Whether she's celebrating marriage (Home Fires Burning), learning from past regrets (What I Wouldn't Give and Altar of Ego) or simply chronicling her journey of faith (Reaching, You Take My Soul By Storm, and All is Well) she is clear on what she hopes I Can Hear You will ultimately convey to her listeners.

Carolyn fondly quotes Malcolm Muggeridge when she says, "'My desire is that these songs will help anyone who hears them to discover that every happening - great and small - is a parable whereby God speaks to us and the art of life Is to get the message."