Faith Nolan

Nolan was born in Nova Scotia, a fifth generation Canadian, in a predominantly Black community whose cultural roots resemble those in the Southern United States. A Black activist from a musical family, Nolan sings about Black history and heritage, feminism, and lesbian and children's rights. Enhancing her musical abilities is her educational background in theatre, opera, and writing and her commitment to community work.

Faith Nolan is a singer and composer who plays folk guitar sprinkled with funk and reggae; who plays slide guitar, tambourine, and harmonica in the earliest blues traditions; and who speaks the cultural language of African-North American music: spirituals, gospel, jazz. Faith is one of those rare artists who can grab a song and make the message ring out true and clear.

Faith's most recent release in 1996 her CD entitled Faith Nolan Compilation 1986-1996 combines her favorite original compositions recorded in the last ten years. 1996 she released Hard to Imagine, songs about the continual labour of love and struggle. 1989 she recorded Freedom to Love, original compositions about Native, anti-racism, ending homphia as well as songs by Billie Holiday and Bessie Smith. In 1987 she put out Sistership a tribute and commemoration to women's continuing struggles for equality. Africville, 1986 the first album and songbook about Black History in Canada from slavery to the displacement of Black people in Africville, Nova Scotia in 1969.

Faith Nolan was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia and her parents and extended family were coal miners in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. She later grew up in Toronto's working-class Cabbagetown. Her commitment to social justice comes from her life experiences and the people she grew up with, and she works through the cultural tool of music. Her music is her political work, a politics firmly rooted in her being working class, a woman, African Canadian and lesbian. Faith is a singer, song-writer, and guitarist. She has performed at Concerts, Music Festivals, Conferences, Universities, Rallies, Women's Events etc... using music to bring about social change for a fairer and better world.

Faith, a composer and guitarist whose style varies from blues and folk, to jazz, with a taste of funk and reggae, is a seasoned performer who has built a strong and faithful audience. Faith's original compositions, as well as her covers of better known songs, are strongly rooted in the cultural language of Black North American music: spirituals, gospel, jazz and blues. An accomplished musician who plays slide guitar, tambourine and harmonica in the earliest blues tradition, Faith also possesses a silky voice that wraps itself around a song. Her lyrics voice a concern for the world of the common people. Music may well be in her blood as her mother was a drummer, her late father was a musician and her sister played in a band. An Afro-Nova Scotian activist whose songs deal with a range of issue including Afro Canadian History and heritage, feminism, workers' issue and children's rights, Faith is one of those rare artists who can grab a song and make the message ring out true and clear. Enhancing her musical abilities is her educational background in theater, opera and writing.

Faith Nolan's songs come from a deep commitment to the struggles or people throughout the a world. According to Faith, "Music is a powerful tool that can be used for political and cultural expression." It is in a global context that Nolan used this tool to connect the conditions and exploitation of oppressed peoples, in songs such as "The Richest In The World". Hard to Imagine lyrically tells the story of poverty, racism, violence against women, and the need to struggle for better world to live in.

Faith has also composed and arranged music for the National Film Board films:

Faith has toured across Canada, Europe, Japan and the United States. She has played for countless benefits and is active in a range of social issues. She is currently with Multicultural Womyn in Concert, Camp SIS, Imani Freedom Singers and is a founding member of WRPM, Canada's only sole distributor of Women's Music.

Source:  http://www.nexicom.net/~faith/who.html
http://www.dykemarch.org/SFO/this-year.html
 

Contact: 
Faith Nolan
P.O. Box 690 Stn P
Toronto Ontario  M5S 2V4
Tel: (416) 537-8194
Fax: (705) 488-3190
Email: faith@nexicom.net

To order the Compilation CD
22 songs with lyrics enclosed send
$15 US or $20 Canadian cheque or money order to:
P.O. BOX 690 Station P' Toronto Ontario Canada M5S 2Y4
 

Website:  http://www.nexicom.net/~faith/index.html