News: YOUTH RUN SPY HOP RECORDS TO RELEASE UTAH SINGER/SONGWRITER JOEL BROWN’S FIRST ALBUM

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CONTACT: Virginia Pearce, virginia@spyhop.org 801-532-7500


YOUTH RUN SPY HOP RECORDS TO RELEASE UTAH SINGER/SONGWRITER JOEL BROWN’S FIRST ALBUM

SALT LAKE CITY, UT (April 25, 2011) — Spy Hop Records, one of the countries few entirely youth produced record labels, is set to release its first album of the year. Singer/songwriter Joel Brown, who was paralyzed at the age of nine, has been working with the label since last year on his deeply personal collection of songs titled “In Retrospect”. Brown will perform on May 10th at University of Utah’s Dumke Recital Hall to launch the album.

The 22-year-old University of Utah junior has been writing songs and performing locally since he was fifteen. Joel draws heavily on personal experience for his honest lyrics and emotionally charged performances and he’s got quite a few unique childhood memories to draw from. At the age of nine, Joel moved with his newly divorced mother to Magna, Utah from Maryland and a few months later was in a car accident that left him paralyzed from the chest down.

“As a youth produced record label, it’s so important that we get to work with young, talented artists to create something worthwhile,” said Spy Hop Records producer Gabby Huggins about signing Brown. “We saw Joel perform at a Spy Hop records organized showcase in December of 2009 and all agreed that he had that unique talent we were looking for.”

His songs, among other things, address growing up in a wheelchair and life without a visible father and are sung with a sometimes painfully open heart. In “Lullaby”, Joel sings an earnest serenade to his single mother, "Why is your pillow crying? Maybe it’s lonely like you”. In song after song, Brown showcases some seriously honest songwriting.


“The most important and hardest element in writing a song is simply having something to say,” said Brown. “Once you have that, you just play”.

Joel will perform on May 10th, 2011 at 7:30pm at University of Utah’s Dumke Recital Hall, 1375 E. President's Circle, Salt Lake City, UT Admission is free.

Preview “In Retrospect” here: www.myspace.com/joeltbrown or http://spyhop.org/spyhoprecords/

The album will be available for purchase for $10 at the release concert or on ITunes, Amazon and CD Baby.

About Spy Hop Records

Spy Hop Records is a class offered under the Loud & Clear Audio Program of Spy Hop Productions. The program was created in 2008 with a goal of creating an independent, artist-driven record label that produces, distributes, and promotes unsigned bands from the Salt Lake area.

Spy Hop Records is a yearlong experience that provides its teen participants with the unique opportunity to run an independent youth-produced, record label. Participants in Spy Hop Records actively seek out and develop local youth talent, while focusing on a variety of business and creative skills, including recording, marketing and retail management, and art design. Participants collaborate, while earning a stipend, to create and release four albums by local young musicians, including the Musicology band. www.spyhoprecords.com

About Spy Hop Productions

Spy Hop Productions is a nonprofit youth media arts and education center whose purpose is to empower youth to express their voice and with it create positive change in their lives, their community, and the world. Our mission is to encourage free expression, self-discovery, critical and inventive thinking, and skilled participation via the big screen, the airwaves, and the web. Recognized by the White House as one of the top arts and humanities based organizations in the country, Spy Hop was chosen as a finalist for the 2010 National Arts and Humanities Youth Award given by the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. www.spyhop.org

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Virginia Pearce
Spy Hop Productions
Director of Marketing & Community Partnerships
801-532-7500
virginia@spyhop.org

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