Formed in Edmonton’s inner city neighbourhood of McCauley, AV and The Inner City is a brand new, already award-winning Soul-Roots and Gospel vocal group, comprised of a diverse group of six established Edmontonian vocalists. Born after hosting weekly, collaborative concerts on her porch during the pandemic, multi-award winning artist AV (Ann Vriend) invited her most frequent, impromptu co-performers to form a Soul infused, Gospel style vocal group.
Comprised of JUNO-nominated Indigenous vocalist Debbie Houle, Jazz singer Johwanna Alleyne, Pop/R&B band “Mercy Funk” lead singer, Crystal Eyo, Czech songwriter Alenka Lundell, and multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Jenn Dahlen, the group is led by celebrated Edmonton artist, AV (Ann Vriend).
“Nobody Is You” is a song about contemplating the loss of a relationship, and realizing the importance of it. It starts off very sparsely, but as The Inner City voices join it becomes a less lonely song, and ends as an emphatic, unapologetic, and anthemic declaration of love.
Picking up their first award this summer on a Western Canadian festival run, the group received the “Emerging Artist Award” at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival and received an explosive review from legendary concert promoter Vic Bell, calling them an “act that could have closed the Main Stage any night of the festival.” With a sound as organic and seamless as the formation of the group itself, AV and The Inner City embrace their cultural diversity and wide range of musical experience to inform their Soul-based, wide ranging delivery.
As the group gears up to write and record brand new music, AV and The Inner City have just released their first single as a collective, a reimagined version of AV’s single “Nobody Is You”. A melancholy ode to finding appreciation in a love lost, “Nobody Is You” featuring The Inner City is just a sample of what is yet to come from the vocalists, has just been released onFriday, September 8 2023.
“Nobody Is You” was written and produced by AV and longtime drumming associate, Elie Mercier. AV performed all other instruments on the track, which was mixed and mastered by Brandon Unis.
About “Nobody Is You”:
Soulful and melancholy, “Nobody Is You” is a song that unites Soul, Gospel, and a dash of Contemporary Pop, beneath a contemplative tale of regret about a relationship. Opening with sparse instrumentation and AV’s soft vocal, the initially lonely song gradually builds to include drums, bass, and percussion and the stirring harmonies from The Inner City. AV’s exceptional Blues-hued voice emotively ascends to new heights with the inclusion of the additional instruments and vocals, bringing the emotion of the song from reflective sadness to acceptance that the one who got away was simply irreplaceable. With melodic nostalgia in its Gospel-style harmonies and space between notes, “Nobody Is You” grows into an anthemic and resolute embrace of a commonly experienced, personal truth.
