Brenda Weiler

What started as putting off college for one year to explore music, snowballed into four critically acclaimed albums, the Minnesota Music Award for Best Singer/Songwriter, Best Female Vocalist, & Best Folk/Acoustic Artist, over 100 live performances a year, and a wide following throughout the country. Now, after signing with independent label Virt Records, Portland-based (via Minneapolis via Fargo) singer/songwriter Brenda Weiler returns with Cold Weather, her long-awaited follow-up to 2001’s Fly Me Back and her first nationally distributed release.

Coming from a family with eight children, each of whom sang or played an instrument, and with a father holding a doctorate in music, Brenda learned early how music could affect people. Although she played cello for ten years and sung in choir, Brenda didn't pick up the guitar until the summer after she graduated from high school. She immediately started writing songs, and that fall, while taking a year off before going to college, started performing in her hometown of Fargo, North Dakota and soon released her first full-length album, Trickle Down. As her musical career rapidly grew, she decided to put off college indefinitely, and began touring full-time. Traveling across the Midwest and eventually, throughout the country, it wasn’t long before Brenda played to packed houses at venues ranging from intimate coffeehouses to larger theaters and performing arts centers. Brenda has shared the stage with such artists as Joan Osborne, Dar Williams, Melissa Ferrick, Greg Brown, and Lucy Kaplansky.

Brenda, 25, has taken home multiple Minnesota Music Awards, was awarded the City Pages "Best of the Twin Cities" Critics Pick for Best Female Vocalist, and was a 2-time recipient of Musician of the Year honors by High Plains Reader (Fargo). Cold Weather, Brenda's newest release, was named one of the Top 10 Albums (Local Artists) of 2003 by The Oregonian.

Cold Weather was co-produced by Alex Oana (Semisonic, Alice Peacock, Jonny Lang) and Brenda, along with John Hermanson and Darren Jackson (aka Kid Dakota). Cold Weather was recorded at CityCabin in Minneapolis (home to recordings by The Replacements and Soul Asylum when the studio was known as Blackberry Way). The album’s eleven tracks, all but one written by Brenda, build on the insightful pop/folk that has won over a legion of dedicated fans, while offering new sonic explorations and a delving into darker territory, both musically and lyrically. Topics range from love and its struggle to war and depression.