Name: If By Rudyard Kipling by Chris Birkett
Duration: 6 min 24 s
Description: This song "If" from my forthcoming album titled Be Creative features the famous poem by Rudyard Kipling. Thank you to Rosita Stone for additional vocals, Glen Milchem (Blue Rodeo) Drums and Fergus Hambleton for Clairinet.

love this rendering Chris and the addition of your own lyrics really brings the meaning home.

one of my favourite poems! great idea to turn it into a song!

Just beautiful! Inspiring! Touching! Thank you for this! So lovely!

This poem has always been inspiring for me - especially when the world is slow to react or hard on you. Thank you Chris for putting Kipling's wisdom to music

IF ... Rudyard Kipling could hear you now, his musical soul might sing.

Original Song. Written by Dale Sheppard. Lyrics by Kim Sheppard. Recorded, Engineered, Mixed, Produced by Dale Sheppard. All instruments played and recorded by Dale Sheppard except - Drums courtesy of Nicola D’Adamo; Companion Drum Beat (BOSS - DR-3); additional Synth and Keyboard tracks courtesy of  Russell Ovans; Lead Guitar and additional Rhythm Track courtesy of James Love. Vocals - Dale Sheppard. Chorus Vocals - Kim Sheppard and Dale Sheppard. Valuable mixing and arranging feedback - Chris Birkett, Russell Ovans, David Murphy, James Love, Kim Sheppard, Marisa Sheppard, Rob Golden.

She's Sowing Time - Radio Edit (Original Song)

This song "If" from my forthcoming album titled Be Creative features the famous poem by Rudyard Kipling. Thank you to Rosita Stone for additional vocals, Glen Milchem (Blue Rodeo) Drums and Fergus Hambleton for Clairinet. 

If By Rudyard Kipling

Interview on  May 14, 2024  with Jeff Sammut about Chris Birkett's new album, "She's My Guitar" announcing the album release concert at Hugh's Room in Toronto on August 17, 2024.

SiriusXM Canada Now With Jeff Sammut - Chris Birkett

Interview on CBC Montreal with Duke Eatmon and Sabrina Marandola

CHRIS BIRKETT INTERVIEW CBC Montreal Aug 13th 2024

This is a sacred Hindu Poem sung by Ananda Giri. The track was built around the voice by Jim and Chris Birkett at Chis' Paris studio. 

Nivena Yajaman

Socialite

Number One

A track from the up coming Chris Birkett album, scheduled for release summer 2025. Photo by Ernie Kestler 

I Roam

The writing process for this song started with setting a theme.  I chose to not write a romantic Christmas song this time around and instead opted for the theme of the warmth of family gatherings. I then thought about the melody, aiming for something catchy and uplifting. With the lyrics I was careful to include imagery associated with the season. Finally the arrangement (produced by Tim Bovaconti)  includes classic instruments like sleigh bells, piano (played by Peter Collins) and even sound effects of clinking glasses and party chatter to give the song that magical festive quality. 

All Roads Lead Home This Christmas

Melanie Peterson-All Roads Lead Home This Christmas

This song talks about finding your inner freedom in the tough material world we live in.

Prison Break - Featuring Tristan Avakian

A song from Chris Birkett's album "Freedom" featuring David Hykes on Harmonic overtone solo

Chris Birkett Bio 

Chris Birkett is a multi-talented, award winning producer, singer/songwriter, composer and sound engineer. His music collaborations with A-list international artists like Sinead O'Connor, Alison Moyet, Dexys Midnight Runners, Talking Heads, The Pogues, Bob Geldof, Quincy Jones, Mel Brooks and Steve Earle have sold over 100 million records and earned four Canadian Junos, a Grammy, a Polaris Music Prize and three international AMPEX Golden Reel Awards for excellence in the music business.
Chris is no stranger to Canadian music, having co-produced five award winning albums for the legendary Buffy Sainte-Marie, including her comeback album “Coincidence and Likely Sto-ries” (1992) and the Juno winning “Running for the Drum” (2009). He received a Canadian Screen Award for best sound on the 2022 feature biograph “Buffy Sainte Marie: Carry It On”.
His career began as a guitarist, playing in London clubs before touring with Memphis artists Rufus Thomas, Ann Peebles and King Floyd. At 23, Chris was performing with the pop group Love Affair, whose song "Everlasting Love" ruled the UK charts. The following year, he joined the band Omaha Sheriff who had just signed a major recording deal with Tony Visconti, man-ager of Good Earth Records and producer for David Bowie and the Moody Blues.
With Visconti as a mentor, Chris expanded his career to include producing, engineering and mixing many UK and international hits including Sinead O'Connor's #1 song “Nothing Com-pares 2 U”. His London studio was a beehive of activity that was rated #2 in the world on Bill-board's top studio charts.  At the same time, Chris' own single “Where Do We Go From Here?”(1992) was picked by Ed Bicknell (Dire Straits' manager) to play alongside U2, Peter Gabriel, Bob Marley, Tears for Fears and Queen on Polygram's “One Voice One Love” al-bum.
In 1993, Chris left the UK for France and built a recording studio inside his chateau near Bor-deaux. There he produced albums with the Buena Vista Social Club and other world-class musicians, including Etran Finatawa, whose debut album was nominated for a BBC Radio best world music award. In 2006, he moved his studio to Paris, where he released his second album, “Freedom” and received growing acclaim for his work with world musicians like Alger-ian sensation Ali Amran.
In 2012, Chris moved to Toronto and finished work on his third album "Be Creative" featuring performances from many talented Canadian artists including Glen Milchem (Blue Rodeo) and Rick Emmett (Triumph). Now a Canadian citizen, Chris' latest album credits include co-pro-ducer of Buffy Sainte-Marie's Polaris and Juno award winning album “Power in the Blood” (2016) and the recent Juno winner, “Medicine Songs” (2017), both for True North Records. In 2019 he released 11:11, his fourth album under the band name The Free Spirits. 

Chris is currently creating new recordings for a range of talented Canadian and European mu-sicians and mentoring and producing Inuit artists through the Hitzmaker's label. He's also im-mersed in his own upcoming albums and has been releasing singles that include “Precious Love” for his documentary filmmaker wife Joan Prowse, “2022” an upbeat refllection on 2 years of social isolation, “Icky Cottage Blues” a summertime sing-along song with his fun-lov-ing band The Happy Campers, and “Everyone Deserves a Home”, which earned a provincial community service award and a spot on Global News with Susan Hay.
www.chrisbirkett.ca

If By Rudyard Kipling

Chris Birkett

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