Nova Scotia-via-Toronto singer-songwriter Sandy Bell’s debut solo album, Break of Day: Songs for Colin, was born out of heart-wrenching grief, after losing her only son Colin Bell in a tragic train accident. He died at age 20 while walking home one night, listening to music on his headphones, in Brantford, Ontario. (See below for greater detail.) Produced by Andrew Collins (five-time JUNO-nominated and seven-time Canadian Folk Music Awards winner).
Listen on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/album/2RyNNWvkxOCQ79xAfqyrDG
While Bell has sung and written music for much of her life, and co-founded country roots band The Wanted, for decades she was devoted to raising her boy and professionally promoting other music artists’ dreams. But she kept her own dream alive to someday release a solo album. It took retiring and moving to Nova Scotia for Bell to finally do it, at age 63 – even though this was never the album she imagined recording.
Bell is a published poet, and “Alberta Blue Sky” offers the strongest showcase on the album for that talent. Set to a stately, almost formal musical structure, the lyrics tie together disparate strands of images, under the unifying, blue Alberta sky.
Alberta Blue Sky on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/TuN6uHqp8Fs?si=ZLReS29crXz2rhqX
“Wasteland” slowly unspools its haunting, minor-key melody, perfectly captured by the cream of the crop of Toronto roots musicians (like John Showman, and Andrew Collins, for example). Bell was worried about the state of the environment and how a dying planet and the nuclear threat might affect her young son’s future.
The harmonies sit sweetly in “Hold Us Together,” a tender-hearted waltz about what it takes to sustain a relationship – whether with one’s sister, son, or partner. Showman’s fiddle sends the song soaring throughout. “Colin was a teenaged boy when I wrote it and we had started experiencing a bit of the normal turbulence that comes with the territory,” says Bell.
“Baby Blue” is as sad and bittersweet as it gets. “I wrote the song after my son passed away, reflecting on some of the difficulties Colin faced experiencing mental health issues when he turned 17,” says Bell. “His whole life Colin was a talented, compassionate, funny, universally loved young man. “In some ways, it felt as if we lost him first to mental illness and various medical interventions and then to death.”
A classic honky-tonk weeper, “Catch A Falling Star” finds Bell trying to capture some light to make it through a very dark time. She wrote it after her son Colin died, recalling when he was in the depths of mental illness, and afterwards when she was in the depths of mourning his loss. The lyrics combine his pain with hers.
In a musical departure from the rest of the album, the title track, “Break of Day,” is a down-and-dirty blues. When the song began to emerge, it kept Bell from sleep, and she was compelled to stay up all night until she finished writing it. Richard Henderson transcribed it the next day, and his plaintive lap steel solo is sublime.
“Covering Hank Williams’s ‘I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry’ was a no-brainer for the album,” says Bell. “I’d sung this with my band The Wanted out in Toronto and loved the song. I slowed it down considerably, and James Robertson came up with his cool guitar lines on the spot.”
An archetypal juxtaposition of merry form and mournful content, “If You Went Away” leans the closest to bluegrass of any song on the album. The catchy chorus and sprightly lap steel are gentle but captivating.
“We Praise the Day” could easily be misconstrued as a straight-up Gospel country song; but it’s more of a zen appreciation of how lucky we are to have been materialized in the same place and time as our loved ones, for however long we have together. Burke Carroll’s pedal steel carries the day.
In another musical departure, the riff-rock of “Hang On” equates the intensity of Bell’s grief at her son’s passing with the physical pain of giving birth to him. In both cases, the only way through is to breathe.
“Before I wrote ‘I Know You By Heart’ I was overwhelmed with this desire to put into song how much I love Colin,” says Bell. “Despite this gigantic impulse and how daunting it seemed to fulfill, this was an easy song to write. It’s probably my sweetest song.”
ABOUT COLIN
Bell wants people to know that her son, Colin Bell Pimentel –- who received treatment for a mental health illness that began when he was 17, and which doctors declared resolved by the time of his death –- was a gifted drummer, tennis pro, and artist. Says Bell: “Colin sparked joy wherever he went. He was caring, kind, wise, and fun. Everyone loved Colin – especially the girls, old people, and children, but none more so than his parents. His heart was wide open –- he’d always say “peace out” when leaving –- and he had a calm demeanor that put everyone at ease, a quick wit, and an enduring sense of justice that we should all do the right thing by ourselves and others. He’s an inspiration to us all.”
MORE ABOUT SANDY BELL
Sandy Bell is best known for her fight to protect her natural garden in The Beaches, Toronto, and her precedent-setting court victory under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, that equated freedom of expression with religious freedom for the first time. She worked for several decades in Toronto’s music industry (for Arraymusic, The Esprit Orchestra, and the Jeff Healey Band), promoting and producing other artists’ concerts, and developing the groundbreaking Array Space in 2013. As a singer-songwriter, Bell co-founded the country-roots Toronto band The Wanted and was co-lead singer of the group for 10 years. They enjoyed a residency at The Cameron House, and appeared regularly at The Gladstone Hotel, Moonshine Café, country fairs, corporate events, and performed at Hugh’s Room. The Wanted recorded and released five of Bell’s songs in 2020, on their self-titled album The Wanted. But it was only when she retired and moved to Nova Scotia that Bell was finally able to release her own solo album. As a girl, she studied voice and sang in choirs, later played in different bands, and worked with various writing partners over the years, but she’s always been a “naïve songwriter” who ekes out notes on a guitar, creates melodies in her head, and sings into a recorder to add lyrics.