James Culleton Releases New Album Vanished Days

Vanished Days sees James Culleton’s songwriting take a slightly nostalgic turn in that the album is a series of songs focusing on family and farming in North Dakota.

Vanished Days was the result of a residency Culleton was invited to by the Museum of Art of North Dakota. The residency took place at The McCanna House, located west of Grand Forks, a turn of the century house designed by Joseph Bell DeRemer, one of North Dakota’s first and finest architects. The Museum was given the house and surrounding acreage by Margery McCanna Jennison, a long time patron of the gallery. The residency offers artists, composers, and writers unfettered time to work in a setting that preserves the history and integrity of one of North Dakota’s first architect-designed, country homes surrounded by rich, agricultural land. Culleton visited the residency for three consecutive years, dug into the history of the people and the place, in particular looking for interesting stories to tell through drawings and song.

The album is a collection of 9 songs that speaks to days of farming long since passed in the prairie as well to the history of the McCanna Farm. The title track Vanished Days describes the days of the wheat farming in the 1890’s. Homeseeker’s March is the lament of a farmer who has been renting land for too long and is looking to move to North Dakota to buy his own farm. Dear Margery is a song based on letters between Charles McCanna and Margery McCanna in the 1940’s.

A series of music videos was also created for the album with the help of Leif Norman, videographer and photographer, and Curtis Wiebe, master puppeteer. These videos will be released in the next few weeks to coincide with the album release.

The recording of the album took place at the Exchange District Studios with Shawn Dealey. The participating musicians on the recording are some of Winnipeg’s finest: Joanna Miller, Gilles Fournier, Benoit Morier, Grant Siemens, Marc Arnould, Don Zueff, JD Ormond, Annalise Koche-Schulte and Andrina Turenne.

An event to celebrate the release of Vanished Days will take place at the Times Change(d) High and Lonesome Club for April 9^th, 2016 at 7pm. A future release and art exhibit is being planned for the summer of 2016 in Grand Forks, North Dakota.