Cindy L Spear (formerly known as Cindy Spear Polley) is an accomplished professional poet and song lyricist originally from New Brunswick, Canada, but now living in Victoria Australia. She is a graduate of the University of New Brunswick with a degree in English Literature. She has two poetry books Favoured By Romance published in 1980 (by Fiddlehead Poetry Books) and Awakened in 1995.
"...where love is strong as death
and deeper than legend."
Cindy has had a number of articles, poems and photos published in a variety of literary journals, including the award winning “New Brunswick Reader”. One of her articles with photos and poems “Singing the Songs of Ireland” was the cover story (Jan. 1996) of the New Brunswick Reader and received much international attention. In it she tells of her travels to Ireland, “A journey into the heart of her ancestors and into the heart of a good friend.” This good friend is Irish singer, Joanne Hogg, of the Celtic Rock band IONA with whom Cindy has co-written two recorded songs, Inside My Heart (a renowned favourite) and Journey Into The Morn (of which became the title track of their fourth album). This album to date is Iona’s best selling CD. It was released by EMI Music Canada (1996), Forefront (EMI) in the USA and Alliance Music in the UK. It has been distributed and received critical acclaim all over the world. Guest artists on the album are Maire Brennan of Clannad and Robert Fripp of King Crimson.
Journey Into The Morn was voted as one of "Q" Magazine's (UK) top 50 albums of 1996 and one of "Q" Magazine's top 5 folk albums of 1996. Also, voted as of one of BillBoard’s (USA) top favourites as well.
Few of the many reviews that have risen are:
“ ‘Journey’ finds IONA making the killer album that was always within their grasp.” ‘Rock ‘n Reel’ (UK)
"The album is simply breathtaking with the merging of guitars, synths and uillean pipes perfectly accompanying Joanne Hogg’s haunting, spine-tingling vocals.” Stevie Doc’s Solid Rock Review - Ireland
“ Inventive melodies, impressive musicianship, emotional vocals and intelligent lyrics. Buy it!” The Observer - New York
“A rock band full of imagination! ….” Marquee - Japan
After the success of Journey Into The Morn, Iona released a live album called Heaven’s Bright Sun, which also featured Cindy’s collaboration Inside My Heart due to its popularity. The song Journey Into The Morn was re-released on a collection called Celtic Inspiration by Alliance Music (UK). This year saw Inside My Heart released a third time through Iona’s latest DVD “Live From London”. See clip of song as posted in "Truth For Free's" Myspace Videos:
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=1180334763
(To read more about Iona's CDs go to: http://www.iona.uk.com )
And to top it off, this year a 10 th anniversary special edition of Journey Into The Morn will be released under Iona’s new Open Sky label with different artwork, possibly 5.1 surround mixes and a DVD with interviews and other additional footage. Last but not least, there is now an extended version of Journey Into The Morn song on Dave Bainbridge’s (of Iona) Songs For Luca 2 which is a special project dedicated to helping raise funds to continue their home based Son-Rise program for their autistic son Luca. Many well known artists have contributed to this worthy cause. See link as it now available for sale through Iona's website.
http://www.iona.uk.com/newindex/2004_pages/News_2004_5/luca2_13june06.htm
During Cindy’s years with Iona, many musicians, artists (and fans of Iona) acquired and enjoyed Cindy’s second poetry book. She became known around the music circuit by established artists such as Chris Eaton, Kerry Livgren (of the famed band Kansaa), Sandy Simpson, Jeff Johnson, Out of the Grey, Margaret Becker, etc as the Musician’s poet. Cindy’s poetry was not only found in the homes and hands of these people but also her poetry readings backed by Iona’s atmospheric instrumentals and extensive interviews were heard in many venues, special events, ect including live and pre-recorded shows on CBC TV, CBC Radio and other local stations in Canada. July 13 th 1996 at the Imperial Theatre in Saint John, NB Canada, at a benefit concert for the Belfast Children’s Vacation fund sponsored by Famine 150 (the Great Irish Famine 150 th Anniversary Commemoration Committee), Cindy joined Iona on stage on this portion of their tour of North America. It was a night to remember and one that she will never forget! Also, Cindy’s poems with Iona’s music (as well as the song Journey Into The Morn) was featured in a video in 1996 titled “When The Ships Sailed In”-a project of the Great Irish Famine 150 th Anniversary Commemoration Committee. This video was distributed all across Canada in schools, colleges, and museums, ect and told the story of the Irish Famine immigrants who landed in that part of the world. Cindy wrote a special poem for this tribute called Famine Irish, which was featured on the video, published in The New Brunswick Reader and heard on the airwaves of CBC radio. (See a selection of my poems in my blog.)
What have others said of Cindy’s poetry and how did it all start? Fortunately she has had the honour of meeting and communicating with many wonderful, critically acclaimed writers, artists and musicians around the world. She has been inspired by many of these individuals in her writing. Writing has been a passion since her first poem was penned at the age of 10. At that moment she knew it was her destiny. All her teachers recognized the gift and encouraged her. At the age of 14 she had her own poetry column in the local newspaper and first song recorded in USA. She continued on this road, playing piano and guitar and composing her own songs. At the age of 19, upon completion of a Creative Writing course and during her second year at University, her first book was published by Fiddlehead Poetry Books and received critical acclaim across Canada. Dr. Fred Cogswell (now deceased) former publisher, Editor of Fiddlehead Poetry Books, English Professor Emeritous UNB and member of The Order of Canada helped lead Cindy into this wonderful world of poets and introduced her and her work to many well known writers around the globe. His statement on Cindy’s work:
“Cindy Spear’s lyrics express simply, melodiously, purely, some of the best impulses of the human spirit.”
George Mackay Brown (now deceased), Scotland’s best-loved writer from the Orkney Islands, also mentored Cindy and said: “The Muse has gifted you, may it long prosper.” Cindy dedicated two poems to George in her Awakened collection which brought great joy to the failing Scottish writer in his last years. Others who have inspired and helped spread the word of her poetry are personal friends, Kerry Livgren (of famous Kansas band), Jeff Johnson of Ark records whose music inspired many poems in the Awakened collection, as well as Iona.
Jeff has sold her books through his Ark record store and has said of Cindy’s poems: “her poetry has such great depth and the imagery is magical.”
Another that cannot be forgotten is Jeff Johnson’s artist David Hastings who also did the book cover of Awakened. He was a wonderful friend and source of encouragement. His untimely death (to cancer in his early 50’s) saddened all who knew him and inspired one of Jeff’s albums The Memory Tree.
As to Iona’s reaction to Cindy’s poetry, the band’s members were inspired and wove breathtaking musical landscapes around her words. Irish singer Joanne Hogg, first set the melody and Dave Bainbridge turned Inside My Heart into a masterpiece of epic proportions and Journey Into The Morn into a gentle uplifting song of encouragement. Joanne has also set to music another poem from her book called Bliss but it has not yet been recorded.
What is Cindy doing today? She has once again picked up the mighty pen after a long break from the writing arena. There have been many changes in her life over the past eleven years that involved moving from Canada to Australia, having another child and running a national business. With home schooling her 9 year old daughter along with the other responsibilities, it has not been easy to find time for contemplation and creativity. But the past couple years she has been very active in co-writing with many fine artists around the world. Some of these collaborations can be heard on www.myspace.com/clspearmusic.
One of her projects included helping her son, Aaron David (Polley) with the writing of his last solo release. She co-wrote a number of tracks for the collection that have been born from the spiritually challenging landscape of Australia. Although she is far from her east coast Canadian home and her beloved ancestral Ireland, which inspired so much of her work 10 years ago, a new leaf has turned and with it has come fresh vision and creativity.
Aaron’s new CD "I AM FOUND" was released January 29th, 2007 and you can listen to samples of his songs on his myspace page: AARON DAVID
Inspiration has come from a number of sources: one being from the friendship and works of the great American artist ENRICO whose talent, versatility and virtuosity have been highly regarded since the 1980’s. ENRICO has been described as being "charismatic" with a "hauntingly beautiful voice." He is a highly accomplished singer and musician and is very passionate and precise about his craft. His musical works and fine photographic art have inspired Cindy to write a theme based compilation of poetry for a future CD. Also, Cindy & Enrico have created a song together called "Perfect Lover". It is featured on Enrico's new CD, I Am Here.
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