From this weekend’s Multicultural Festival in Dartmouth, where she’ll share the stage with crooners Paula Cole and Sarah Slean to the Cisco Bluesfest in Ottawa next month, where she’ll perform alongside rocker Joe Cocker, Divine Brown is all over the map.
And that’s exactly the way she likes it.
“My album is a diverse album, so I don’t really discriminate in terms of who I might … match myself up with on a lineup,” the Juno award-winning vocalist told Metro Halifax earlier this week. “I dig all styles of music.”
Her passion for what she calls “dabbling” in different musical styles becomes immediately apparent when you push play on her latest release and take in all 13 tracks, from first single Lay It On The Line to the catchy hidden tune Dirty Day.
“The album, The Love Chronicles, is about taking you on a trip through different periods of soul music and R&B, with elements of pop,” a raspy-voiced Brown said from a Toronto salon, a day after attending the MMVAs and a day before filming her new video for ’80s-inspired Sunglasses.
“It starts from the late ’50s right up into contemporary times,” she explained. “It’s sort of meant to be versatile because I’m a versatile singer.”
“Versatile” is the perfect word to describe Brown, who has a five-octave vocal range and will be all over the country this summer, stopping by Toronto’s Pride Fest, the Calgary Stampede and many other events along the way.
Brown is perhaps best known for radio friendly single Old Skool Love, a song from her self-titled album that she performed at the 2006 Junos, the last time she breezed in and out of Nova Scotia’s capital city. This time she’s performing at Alderney Landing, an outdoor venue nestled on Halifax’s famous harbour.
“I love outdoor festivals and I also prefer more of an intimate vibe,” she said. “It’s summer and people are in a really feel-good head space.”
