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Short Bio (50 words)

Songwriter, poet and ironic social commentator evalyn parry is gifted with a sharp pen, a quirky musical sensibility and a wicked sense of humour. “Equally funny and dangerous” (CBC Radio), “parry breathes new life into the folk tradition with her politics, passion and poetry” (Penguin Eggs). Evalyn’s outspoken, personal and political creations hold out a powerful vision of social change, while her irreverent wit holds nothing sacred. Her newest CD is entitled Small Theatres. evalynparry.com

Longer Bio (250 words)

Songwriter, poet and ironic social commentator evalyn parry is gifted with a sharp pen, a quirky musical sensibility and a wicked sense of humour. “Equally funny and dangerous” (CBC Radio), “parry breathes new life into the folk tradition with her politics, passion and poetry” (Penguin Eggs). Evalyn’s outspoken, personal and political creations hold out a powerful vision of social change, while her irreverent wit holds nothing sacred.

Her third release, Small Theatres, is a double CD package (Borealis Records), featuring one disc devoted entirely to her musical offerings and a second to her performance poetry. Produced with John Switzer, musical accompaniment on both discs is provided by a host of special guests, including parry’s brother, Richard Reed Parry (The Arcade Fire), Sarah Neufeld and Pietro Amato (The Arcade Fire and Bell Orchestre) award-winning musicians Suzie Vinnick, Anne Lindsay (Blue Rodeo), Jenny Whiteley, and Ken Whiteley.

Parry has been featured The Halifax Pop Explosion, The Calgary International Spoken Word Festival, Hillside Festival (Guelph Ontario), The Vancouver Storytelling Festival, The Ottawa Folk Festival, Toronto Pride Festival, Harbourfront Centre (Toronto), North by North East, and The Lincoln Center Out of Doors Roots of American Music Festival (New York). She has been a frequent contributor to CBC radio, and both her previous CD’s enjoyed critical acclaim and charted on national campus and community radio.

Complementing her musical adventures, evalyn is also an actor, playwright and theatre educator. She is a founding member of the Independent Aunties (Clean Irene & Dirty Maxine), and she runs a theatre program for queer youth at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in Toronto.

really long bio (500 words)

Songwriter, poet and ironic social commentator evalyn parry is gifted with a sharp pen, a quirky musical sensibility and a wicked sense of humour. “Equally funny and dangerous” (CBC Radio), “parry breathes new life into the folk tradition with her politics, passion and poetry” (Penguin Eggs). Evalyn’s outspoken, personal and political creations hold out a powerful vision of social change, while her irreverent wit holds nothing sacred.

One minute she’s singing a ridiculously cheery countrified number about her stalker ex-girlfriend; the next, she’s performing a powerful spoken word piece about “the bottled water scam” and its devastating environmental consequences. Moments later, she gives the audience goose-bumps with a poignant true-story song about a Great Lakes sailor reflecting on the miracle of his life after surviving terminal cancer and visiting the watery grave of the Edmund Fitzgerald on the 29th anniversary of its sinking. She rounds out the set with a hilarious song written from the perspective of a maxi pad.

Her third release, Small Theatres, is a double CD package from Borealis Records, featuring one disc devoted entirely to her musical offerings and a second devoted to her performance poetry. Produced with John Switzer, musical accompaniment on both discs is provided by a host of special guests, including parry’s brother, Richard Reed Parry (The Arcade Fire), Sarah Neufeld and Pietro Amato (The Arcade Fire and Bell Orchestre) award-winning vocalist and bassist Suzie Vinnick, violinist Anne Lindsay (Blue Rodeo), two-time Juno-winning roots artist Jenny Whiteley, and legendary Canadian roots musician Ken Whiteley.

parry grew up in a family involved in a wide and esoteric variety of traditional arts and culture, from Morris dancing to the staging of mediaeval pageants, singing sea shanties to playing the Appalachian dulcimer and the Anglo concertina (yes, the same one concertina which Parry now plays). She credits her unusual upbringing with sparking her passionate pursuit of the power of words; storytelling; live performance and folk music’s capacity to both preserve cultural identities and to ignite social change.

parry’s live appearances have recently included: The Halifax Pop Explosion, The Calgary International Spoken Word Festival, Hillside Festival (Guelph Ontario), The Vancouver Storytelling Festival, The Ottawa Folk Festival, Toronto Pride Festival, Harbourfront Centre (Toronto), North by North East, and The Lincoln Center Out of Doors Roots of American Music Festival (New York); in addition to numerous university and colleges. Her spokenword commentaries have been featured on CBC radio and television; her spokenword videos featured on BRAVO, and both her previous releases enjoyed critical acclaim and charted on national campus and community radio.

Complementing her musical adventures, evalyn is also an actor, playwright, theatre creator and educator. She is a founding member of the Toronto-based Independent Auntie Theatre with Anna Chatterton - a duo known for the award-winning comedy “Clean Irene and Dirty Maxine”. parry also runs a theatre program for queer youth at Toronto’s Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. She likes to ride her bike.