Bio
How the West was one plus one plus one: meet Belle Starr, the talented new trio of Stephanie Cadman, Kendel Carson and Miranda Mulholland. The band’s namesake outlaw is a stereotype-flaunting renegade who did hard time for horse theft. Perhaps the fugitive Belle Starr is an extreme role model, but for a group that spent one of their first music video shoots learning how to hotwire a car, the Bandit Queen provides a certain kind of rebellious inspiration.
Make no mistake: Belle Starr is a band that defies expectations. On their first full-length album, the trio presents a cleverly curated collection of top-quality tunes, an unexpected repertoire rooted in their impeccable taste in modern music. From treasured Canadian indies to the marquee icons, Belle Starr puts their twist on the old time folk resurgence, tuning their fiddles to the more recent past.
As a whole, Belle Starr’s self-titled album orbits themes of love and identity. “Now whatcha gonna do when the planet shifts,” asks the opening track, John Hiatt’s “Cry Love,” a catchy staccato kick-off that immediately dispels any assumptions that Belle Starr makes typical fiddle music. “New Girl Now,” penned by Jack Marks, is a tale of moving on while trying not to look back. This lively brush-off is told with countrified toe-tapping sass. Other highlights include the gritty romance of Springsteen’s “Tougher Than The Rest,” and the graceful battle cry of Justin Rutledge’s “Be A Man.” The album includes original Belle Starr instrumentals that strengthen the starry sky sparkle of their sound. “Arthur’s Air”, “Charity Kiss” and “Plough The Sea” draw three individual styles together, and fuse considerably modern influences with old time tradition.
There’s always a story behind a fiddle (or three). Stephanie Cadman, a champion step-dancer (who now provides Belle Starr’s rhythm section), speculates that, “fiddlers tend to choose an instrument close to the quality of their speaking voices. My violin has a lot of low end to its tone, which I like. I have a low voice, so my violin and I match. She doesn’t have a name but she’s definitely a woman too.” Kendel Carson brandishes an oddball German-made fiddle approximately a century old, recommended to her by her very first violin teacher. “It has a false label inside and it is slightly askew. I don’t mind, maybe I am too.” Finally, Miranda found her fiddle at Mariposa Folk Festival. Too bad it had an owner. Eventually, her friend sold it to her to buy a pedal steel. Of the coveted instrument, Miranda says, “It’s a really growly and lovely violin and has a velvety dark tone. The only clue I have is a label inside that indicates that it was repaired in Toronto in 1895…so it’s a bit of a mystery, which I like.”
Miranda, Kendel and Stephanie make an impressive trio, and bring experience from all genres. As busy solo artists, Miranda is a member of indie darlings Great Lake Swimmers; Kendel is well known in the Americana world, in part from her work with “Wild Thing” songwriter Chip Taylor; and Stephanie is a prize-winning fiddler and dancer from Ottawa.
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“Talented and a delight on stage, these women should go places.” – Ottawa Citizen
“Miranda Mulholland, Kendel Carson and Stephanie Cadman have come up with a highly listenable full-length debut album that showcases their vocal abilities as much as their instrumental prowess.” – Exclaim
“It’s no surprise that their debut full-length collaboration is at its best when the trio is serving up a fury of folksy strings and extended fiddle solos.” – The Grid
“What unfolds on the disc is a curated blend of cover songs and original instrumental compositions that allows the group’s top-notch fiddle skills to take over as the primary set of voices.” – Vue Weekly
“Country trio Belle Starr too busy for ‘messin’ around’” – Toronto Star
“Belle Starr…bring a sense of strength to their newly released disc.” – Canadian Press
“They’ve also stolen a bit of their namesake’s outlaw tendencies when it comes to their music.” – Edmonton Journal
“If there was a Canadian Fiddle All-Star team, surely the ladies of Belle Starr would be captains.” – Guelph Mercury
Toronto Star
2013-04-16
By Ben Rayner (Pop Music Critic)
Oh, sure, there’s always time for one more band.
The three singin’-and-fiddlin’ young women of Belle Starr were hardly lacking for work before they convened this rootsy little trio of theirs. Miranda Mulholland is already a member of the Great Lake Swimmers and Rattlesnake Choir, Kendel Carson is an indispensable element of boyfriend Dustin Bentall’s band, the Smokes, and Stephanie Cadman presides over an eponymous trio hatched from the ashes of her former group, Celtic Blaze.
All of them are also in-demand session and touring players often called upon to sub in for each other in different projects; in the past, for instance, they were all members of the Paperboys at separate times, while Mulholland first met Cadman while switching places with her in Bowfire. What on Earth, then, would possess them to take on even more musical duties?
“We’re all pretty equally all over the map,” says Carson. “And that’s been one of the greatest challenges: finding a good chunk of days where we can all be together in one city. What city?”
“It’s actually a lot easier than it sounds,” says Mulholland. “Everybody’s a little bit crazed about our schedules, but because we know when we can’t work, it almost makes it easier because it’s quite clear when we can work.”
And when they do work, laughs Cadman, “there’s no messin’ around.” It’s all focus.
”We all come back from something that’s so different, too,” adds Mulholland. “Great Lake Swimmers is so different from Belle Starr. So the energy when I get back with these guys is such a nice shift, and going back with them. It’s always a nice change.”
Mulholland is the one who dreamed up Belle Starr over “a few bevvies” whilst attending a Canadian Country Music Awards event in Vancouver three years ago in the company of her future bandmates.
The telegenic trio found an early supporter in the Country Music Television network, which has acted much like a traditional record label (or “a cool uncle who happens to have some money,” laughs Mulholland) in bankrolling Belle Starr’s two studio efforts to date, last year’s EP The Burning of Atlanta and the new full-length Belle Starr – not to mention a whole whack of posh music videos to help satisfy CMT’s thirst for new content.
There are, Mulholland points out, precious few opportunities for artist development like that around in this day and age. And Belle Starr is indeed still developing. The three members all agree that it took recording two releases’ worth of covers – the EP and LP take on songs by everyone from Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, Bryan Ferry and Dolly Parton to Fred Eaglesmith, Justin Rutledge, Oh Susanna and the Skydiggers, whose Josh Finlayson produced the new album – to properly figure out how to blend their talents. You can hear those talents blending at the Drake Underground on Tuesday night.
Now that they’re through “just singing together and seeing what felt right,” the next step is writing together.
“Before, if we’d all brought our own songs, it would have been Kendel’s song, then Miranda’s song, then Stephanie’s song,” says Mulholland. “But these are all songs that we all love, that we all brought to the table.”
“It would have been a lot more disjointed,” says Carson. “It’s as new as anything really could be at this moment, but now I feel like we have such a good place to build from for writing. It’s far more clear to me now which songs that I start writing might work, whereas before I didn’t know if any of them would.”
And no, while it shouldn’t be noteworthy in this day and age that three women have formed a band together – as Kendel Carson notes, you never see stories remarking upon how “five dudes with beards have a band” – Belle Starr will concede that the new gig is a nice break from being in a van with a bunch of boys all the time.
“All of us are always in bands with a bunch of guys,” says Mulholland. “We sub in for each other, but we never get to be in a band with girls.”
“Having three females, it was a very nurturing environment,” says Cadman. “Not like a bunch of dudes who are, like, ‘That sucked. You shouldn’t sing that again.'”
NOW Magazine
2013-04-11
(Sony) By SARAH GREENE
NOW RATING: NNN
The ladies in Toronto’s Belle Starr seem eager to get in touch with their masculine side. On their debut album, they cover Bruce Springsteen’s “Tougher Than The Rest”, Neil Young’s “Love Is A Rose” and Skydiggers’ “Pull Me Down”, to name a few. (Skydigger Josh Finlayson produced and plays on the album.)
This can lead to a bit of pronoun confusion – as it does on a Locomotion-y version of Jack Marks’s “New Girl Now” – but it’s also a good strategy for experimenting with varied sounds. They do an acoustic version of Roxy Music’s “Same Old Scene”, for example.
Trio members Stephanie Cadman, Kendel Carson and Miranda Mulholland all sing and play fiddle, but don’t expect a string symphony. Two different supporting bands play, one on the covers that make up the bulk of the songs and another on three instrumental originals that help ground the album.
Top track: Be A Man
No Depression
2013-04-04 Belle Starr live at the Railway Club: April 3, 2013
By Skot Nelson
The legend of Belle Starr’s been inspiring creativity for a century now: there’s been dime store novels by too many authors to name, movies and songs from artists like Bob Dylan and Mark Knopfler that have riffed on the Texas outlaw’s tale.
New to that legacy is a collective of some of Canada’s brightest musical talents: Kendel Carson, Miranda Mulholland andStephanie Cadman. The three Canadian fiddle stars have joined forces and formed a new band named Belle Starr. They released a debut EP last year and have a new eponymously titled full length album out this year.
All three have accomplished careers well beyond their years: Carson has released a fine solo album, toured as an opening act for John Prine and plays as a guest with any number of touring bands; Mullholland is a regular member of Great Lake Swimmers and has played on albums by Justin Rutledge and the Cowboy Junkies; Cadman is a noted solo artist and choreographer whose reputation proceeds her. If this were the early 80s, it’d be tempting to trot out the supergroup label. Mercifully it’s not, so let’s just say there’s quite a bit of talent between the three women of Belle Starr.
Vancouver’s Railway Club was the venue for the first show of the band’s first ever national tour. With a history rolling back to the 1930s, it’s a good place to start a new legacy.
The show took an interesting twist from the get-go: the sight of Kendel Carson strapping on an acoustic guitar is a new one, and it’s a bit disconcerting at first. A killer rendition of John Hiatt’s Cry Love put those guitar skills to good use. The song is the opening track of the trio’s new album, and one of its highlights. Dolly Parton’s Jolene followed with all three Belle’s sharing vocal duties and producing beautiful harmonies.
Mulholland took the need for the instrumental Charity Kiss, apparently inspired by a blind date with a clown (pro tip: lay off the novelty horn, Bozo.) With all three of the band members on fiddle again the song did a nice job of showing off the band’s most notable talents.
The band’s set continued, alternating between original compositions and covers that included Neil Young’s Love is a Rose, Justin Rutledge’s Be a Man and the Talking Heads’ This Must be the Place.
That diverse collection of songs says a lot about Belle Starr’s past and future. The band’s album is a tribute to the music its members grew up listening too. It’s a fine collection of songs that pays tribute to the past and sees the band finding a sound of its own. From the well known to the more obscure (the album includes a cover of the Skydiggers’ 20 year old hit Pull Me Down) the album has a cohesive sound that comes from a band that’s at ease with its sound. It’s a highly listenable collection of songs that points towards a bright future as the band creates more original music.
Watching the band live what impresses most is the seamlessness which the members move between parts. All three of the Belle’s take various turns on lead and backing vocal, and the fiddle work of all three is impressive.
When you’re watching the video for This Must be the Place below keep in mind this little detail of the story about its filming: the night before they filmed it, Mulholland caught Carson up late studying. When she asked her what she was doing, the explanation was simple and–in hindsight–obvious: “I’m learning how to hotwire a car.”
Keep that in mind when you catch them live, and it may be a good idea to make sure your doors are locked when you park.
Exclaim!
2013-04-02
By Kerry Doole
There seems to be something of a trend of rootsy Canadian female singer-songwriters joining forces in new duos and trios. Following in the footsteps of the likes of Trent Severn and Scarlett Jane are Belle Starr, the twist here being that all three members are also acclaimed fiddle players. Those fearing an excessive amount of fiddle sounds can rest easy though, for Miranda Mulholland, Kendel Carson and Stephanie Cadman have come up with a highly listenable full-length debut album that showcases their vocal abilities as much as their instrumental prowess.
Assisting the cause are such A-list players as Josh Finlayson (who also produced), Kevin and Gary Breit, Maury Lafoy, and Stuart Cameron. Belle Starr show impeccable taste, in terms of outside writers to cover, adding a feminine touch to tunes from Springsteen, John Hiatt and Bryan Ferry, alongside Canadians Justin Rutledge (and Michael Ondaatje!), the Skydiggers, NQ Arbuckle, Neil Young and Jack Marks. Roxy Music classic “Same Old Scene” is given a haunting makeover, while lively and catchy Marks tune “New Girl Now” (not the Honeymoon Suite hit) is an obvious choice for first single. The trio touch upon many musical bases: “Heartbreaker” has a retro, jazzy lilt; “Art O’Leary” is a folk-styled ballad built upon fiddle and voice, confirming less can be more; and haunting instrumental “Plough the Sea” closes things out on a melancholy note. Look for the trio to break big on the folk fest circuit.
Ottawa Citizen
2012-09-10 BELLE STARR KICKED IT
Ottawa Folk Festival by Patrick Langston (reviewed Sunday)
Belle Starr gave us twin fiddles, a guitar, vocal harmonies and step dancing. Ottawa native Stephanie Cadman is the fiddler/dancer (her band mates being Kendel Carson and Miranda Mulholland) and straps on her dancing shoes for some numbers. Born to move, she also sings, fiddles and, even when not wearing her dancing clogs, stomps out the rhythm.
The trio – they take turns singing lead and were accompanied by a bassist and drummer – played their own tunes, Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” and Fred Eaglesmith’s “Summerlea”.
They also covered Bruce Springsteen’s “Tougher Than the Rest”. Emmylou Harris has sung the tune, and one suspects she would have applauded Belle Starr’s version with its driving and scrappy fiddles. Talented and a delight on stage, these women should go places.
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Belle Starr 
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Belle Starr 
Blue Rodeo 
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Elliott BROOD 
Greg Keelor 
The Sadies 
Skydiggers 
Suzie Ungerleider 
