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Vanessa Carlton cancels shows due to medical emergency


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November 7th 2013
By Nicholas M. Pescod - Radio Nation
npescod@msn.com


Vanessa Carlton was forced to cancel her performance in the Pacific Northwest due to complications after she was diagnosed with an ectopic pregnancy in mid-October. This includes her Vancouver show at Tom Lee Music Hall.

“Unfortunately, today, a week to the day from my emergency surgery I started getting intense nerve pain in one of my incisions. I was all set to fly to Vancouver on Wednesday but, alas, I am not ready yet,” Carlton wrote on her Facebook page yesterday. “So, sadly, I will need to cancel the first four dates of my November tour - this includes Vancouver, Bellingham, Portland and Seattle. I need to stay close to my doctors and the hospital in case this initial pain turns into something more serious. I'm ready to get back out there mentally though, and if all goes even remotely as planned I will be ready for San Francisco.”

She has also cancelled her performances in Bellingham, Wash., Portland, and two gigs in Seattle.

Carlton has come a thousand miles since her Grammy Award nominations in 2003.

“I was starting from scratch,” she says. “The scariest set of decisions you have to make tend to be, in my experience, the most important steps that you need to make.”

Carlton was approaching her ‘30s and was without a label, a producer and a direction.

“I would say that was a really hairy period for me,” she says. “I had to leave everything that I had known behind.”

She eventually found herself at Real World Studios in the United Kingdom, over 3,300 miles away from her home.

That’s when the tides began to change for the Milford, Penn., native. “I figured out how I can grow for the rest of my career,” Carlton says. “I am very grateful that I found Steve Osborne who is the producer who I found in England who I did the record with. He opened up the door to the rest of my musical life.” In 2011 the Pennsylvanian released her most recent record, Rabbit on the Run, which was produced by Steve Osborne.

“Once I stepped away from the major label system and started doing stuff that I knew I thought was cool and that was going to make me happy,” she says. “Once I started making decisions that came from those places everything kind of fell into place and everything got better. The sound on the albums got better, the song writing got better, the performances got better and I think I am a more generous and happier person.”

Carlton is best known for her multi-Grammy Award winning hit single A Thousand Miles, which also made it in the top five on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. Her debut album Be Not Nobody was released in 2002 and certified platinum in the United States.

The singer/songwriter, who has only performed in Canada a handful of times, has rarely performed in Vancouver. She says in the few times she’s travelled to Canada she has enjoyed it.

“I rarely go to Canada, so when I am in Vancouver it is kind of like going to Europe,” she says. “I have a friend that lives in Vancouver and it is definitely its own thing and I like that because it’s a different rhythm.”

The Pennsylvania native says that people who have not heard her more recent music often expect it to be similar to that of her Grammy nominee material.

“They are expecting something from a stranger. That’s not who I am,” Carlton says. “It’s almost like a different lifetime for me.” Carlton is currently working on a new album, which she hopes to release sometime next year. “I’ve been working on it for over a year,” she says. “I want it to be a trippier experience and I think the new stuff is really important when it comes to tripping.”

Carlton, who loves to showcase her talent all throughout the United States, says she enjoys performing in Chicago, Tampa, Seattle, Portland and San Francisco. “America, I think, is really the best country in the world and it is really incredible to tour.”

She has also performed in Greenland and recalls a strange incident at one of the bars she was playing at.

“We were playing at this bar and that was one of the weirdest and darkest shows I’ve ever played. I think it was because everyone was so drunk. It was really bizarre,” Carlton says. “An older woman took me aside and into the bathroom and gave me this weird voodoo doll.”

More information on the tour cancellation can be found at https://www.facebook.com/notes/vanessa-carlton/first-four-november-tour-dates-cancelled/10151798386698303 or by visiting www.vanessacarlton.com .


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