Twilight Hotel

I was looking at some photos of a musician friend’s leatherwork the other day and I realized that many musicians I know also express their creativity with artwork of one kind or another.

This thought started when I saw that Brandy Zdan has been doing leatherwork and is selling it on Etsy.com. Brandy’s shop is called Soul Moon Leatherwork and Vintage. I have known Brandy from her musical talents as one half of Twilight Hotel. Dave Quanbury is the other. I saw some paintings that he had done last time they played in London.
I love listening to their music and see them play as often as I can. They have now moved to Austin, Texas but I hope to see them again this fall when they do a showcase in Ottawa at a conference we are attending.

If you have never had the opportunity to hear them play – you should. They are a talented duo with excellent songwriting skills, gorgeous harmonies and great stage presence. They are multi-instrumentalists with Brandy playing a “62 Harmony Rocket, a Honer Accordion and a lap steel guitar. Dave plays an old parlour guitar (upside down) and the last time I saw them he had made a stomp box. Their last album, “Highway Prayer“, was produced by Colin Linden and with that they were Juno nominees in 2009 (I think that they should have won). There is another album in the works  “When the Wolves go Blind” and I can’t wait!

I have a few sample photos of Brandy’s latest creations. In one of the photos you can see where she even did the tanning herself. If you have never tried this – you have NO idea how time consuming and physically straining it is! Kudos to her!
From there, she has used the shapes of the edges as inspiration and created these wearable art pieces.

Dave has been making art by painting on existing album covers. He leaves some elements from the original cover unpainted and adds his creative ideas on top. I had hoped to give some samples but I wasn’t able to get any for you at this time.

Besides the new album, they have been busy working on other projects as well – Dave has been playing Trumpet and Coronet in a marching band – Brandy has been doing some backup singing with some Texas musicians.
Such multi-talented artists! Check out their website for more information on Twilight Hotel
http://www.twilighthotel.ca/