April Snow is Stephanie Martin’s second full length disc of original music inspired by the likes of Steely Dan, Joni Mitchell and James Taylor. It reached the #2 spot on the iTunes Top 100 Adult Contemporary chart when it debuted in March. Martin’s first release, Shape, line & harmony received high praise and widespread national airplay and was honoured as a ‘best release of the year’ by CBC Radio 1...

The most impressive thing about this album is not how wonderfully balanced and entertaining it is (which it is); nor just how smooth and soothing to the ear Stephanie Martin's vocals are (which, again, they are); it's that Martin had a serious hand in just about every creative aspect of this LP, most notably as composer.

April Snow dips its toes into the genres of country, pop, and jazz, making each transition feel natural. This is an album that works best in the order it's arranged in - I was impressed at how well structured it was from start to finish

The album contains 13 songs (1 hr, 03 min, 59 sec) and is produced and co-written by Chad Irschick. There are so many highlights here that it's incredibly hard to pick out favourites. I think, though, if pushed I'd have to single out the country based 'A Thousand Goodbye Letters', closely followed by the titular 'April Snow'.

I wonderful album that you'll not only play to death now, but will revisit in months and years to come.

9

Nick Smithson