Halifax-based, singer-songwriters Jill Barber, Rose Cousins and Meaghan Smith will perform in support of their collaborative holiday CD A New Kind of Light, benefiting Maritime food banks, at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium on Friday, Nov. 30 at 8 p.m.

A New Kind of Light features both original material from Jill Barber, Rose Cousins and Meaghan Smith along with their individual and collective interpretations of some old holiday classics. The CD was recorded at CBC's Studio H in Halifax this past spring and summer.

"The project started in November 2005, when we were approached by CBC Radio to come up with a repertoire of seasonal songs to perform on Mainstreet's Annual Food Bank funding drive," said Barber. "We gathered our favourite Christmas songs, settled on arrangements, and began rehearsing them as a trio. As song-writers, we felt that it was important to compose a few original tunes that expressed what the season meant to us. The performances went over so well that CBC invited us back to record songs for future broadcast."

"We wanted to record a full album and donate all proceeds of the recording to food banks in the Maritimes," said Cousins. "When we presented this idea to CBC they were on board immediately, put together a team -- funding was soon secured and a plan was set in motion."

"This project has been a joy to work on! We are so excited to perform at the Rebecca Cohn and are eagerly awaiting the album's release," said Smith. "We are confident that our efforts will pay off when we realize our initial goal of passing along 100% of the proceeds to the food bank, and knowing that we have been able to give back to the community that has given us so much."

Find out how to buy the CD

On Wednesday, November 14, the twelve-song collection of holiday songs, titled A New Kind of Light, will be available in all Lawtons Drugs locations throughout the Maritimes.

Listen to samples
from the CD

"Each month, Maritime food banks help more that 62,000 people, one third of them children," said Executive Director of Feed Nova Scotia, Dianne Swinemar. "We'd like to thank the musicians, Lawtons Drugs and CBC for making this project possible. Thousands of individuals and families will benefit in times of need because of this wonderful CD project."

Barber, a two-time 2007 ECMA Award-winner, including Factor Recording of the Year for her latest album For All Time, recently toured the Maritimes as part of Stuart McLean's Vinyl Café and is set to tour Atlantic Canada with Ron Sexsmith this month.

Winner of the 2007 Mountain Stage New Song contest in New York City this past month, Cousins' debut album If You Were for Me garnered her two 2007 ECMA nominations, including CBC Galaxie Rising Star Artist Recording of the Year and SOCAN Songwriter of the Year.

Smith has been hard at work since the release of her 2004 EP titled Lost With Directions. Her first official full-length album, Take Me Dancing, is set for release in January 2008.

Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childhood days, recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth, and transport the traveler back to his own fireside and quiet home!
-Charles Dickens