It’s April 2014. After years of relentless touring, singer-songwriter Coco Love Alcorn has taken almost four years away from the tour circuit to raise her daughter Ellie. Disconnected from other musicians, Coco has been experimenting writing songs with a five-track-looper, layering vocal tracks on top of each other in real time. As she gets the hang of the technique required to build songs by sampling herself she crafts a soulful song called “The River”. Excited about this new direction, Coco films herself performing the gospel-tinged track in her bedroom and posts the raw, magnetic performance on YouTube.
The River video quickly spreads like a wildfire on social media and, before long, Vancouver choral director Karla Mundy has arranged Coco’s loops for a choir, 60 voices strong. Within months the song is being performed by well over 1,000 choir members in Canada, the US, and the UK. It’s an aha moment for Coco who realizes that she - accidentally - has written a kind of choral music.
In support of the Sept. 16 release of her new record Wonderland, the charismatic singer will be performing with local choirs across Canada.
Her local stop will be at the Waverley Hotel in Cumberland, Sunday, Sept. 25.
Fearless and versatile, Coco Love Alcorn has worked in soul, jazz, folk, blues, R&B, pop, rock, country, hip-hop, classical, electro - even children’s music. Over two decades, she’s written, recorded, and performed with everyone from Joel Plaskett to Loudon Wainwright to Matt Andersen to Valdy but it wasn’t until she became a mother and took a step back that a new direction came in to focus.
“Everything I’ve ever done has led me here, to Wonderland, a collection of songs that is an invitation to connect, an invitation to sing, and an invitation to myself to dig deeper than ever in performance”, Coco says.
Instead of just another record, Wonderland became a project redefining Alcorn’s career.
“After all those years of thinking I was chasing down a sound it turns out I was searching for the right feeling. That feeling is connection.”
Tickets for the 8 p.m. Cumberland show are $20 and are available at Bop City, The Waverley, by phone 250-336-8322 and online at CumberlandVillageWorks.com