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Ellen Reid

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Ellen Reid
Ellen Reid performing with Crash Test Dummies in 2019
Ellen Reid performing with Crash Test Dummies in 2019
Background information
Birth nameEllen Lorraine Reid
Born (1966-07-14) 14 July 1966 (age 58)
Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada
GenresRock music
OccupationMusician
Instrument(s)Vocals, keyboards, accordion
Years active1989–present
LabelsArista, ViK., Cha-Ching, Deep Fried

Ellen Lorraine Reid (born 14 July 1966)[1] is a Canadian musician. She provides backing vocals, piano, keyboards and accordion for the Canadian rock band Crash Test Dummies.[2][3]

Early life and education

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Reid was born and grew up in Selkirk, Manitoba.[4][5] She studied piano as a child,[6] and later attended the University of Winnipeg.[7]

Career

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While studying in Winnipeg in the late 1980s, Reid joined a band "Brad Roberts and the St.James Rhythm Pigs" who were playing in local taverns. She mainly played piano and sang backup vocals behind lead singer Brad Roberts. The group, renamed "Crash Test Dummies", performed at the Winnipeg Folk Festival in 1989, and released an album, The Ghosts That Haunt Me, in 1991.[8]

Reid recorded with the Crash Test Dummies on all of their albums;[9] on the band's fourth album, she sang lead vocals on "Just Chillin'", "Get You in the Morning" and "A Little Something".[8] She also shared lead vocals with Roberts on the single B-sides, "Filter Queen" and "Party's Over". She also sang lead during some concerts on "Samson and Delilah (If I Had My Way)" and on the hit, "The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead", a cover of the XTC song.[1]

In 2001, Reid released a solo album, Cinderellen.[1][10][11] and toured in support of the album in early 2002.[12]

In 2002 Reid took part in the recording of the Crash Test Dummies' Christmas album, entitled Jingle All the Way. In 2004 she was also involved in the recording of the Dummies' Songs of the Unforgiven album.

Reid, Brad Roberts and Stuart Cameron continued to record together, and toured throughout 2010/2011 in support of The Crash Test Dummies album Oooh La La![13] The band came together again for tours in 2017 and 2018.[14]

Discography

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Crash Test Dummies

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Solo

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References

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  1. ^ a b c "Ellen Reid | Biography & History". AllMusic. 14 July 1966. Retrieved 26 June 2016.
  2. ^ "Crash Test Dummies God Shuffled His Feet" Archived 11 June 2017 at the Wayback Machine. Drowned in Sound, by Colin Weston 7 January 2001
  3. ^ "The Crash Test Dummies". The Canadian Encyclopedia, Durrell Bowman, 9 December 2009
  4. ^ "After 25 years, Crash Test Dummies still Mmm, Mmm good". Winnipeg Free Press, Jill Wilson | 10/11/2018
  5. ^ "At home with Ellen". Selkirk Journal Newspaper Archives, 31 December 2001 - Page 17
  6. ^ "Selkirk's Reid hits the big time". Stonewall Interlake Spectator, via Newspaper Archives. 14 August 1991 - Page 12
  7. ^ "Crash Test Smarties" Archived 27 July 2020 at the Wayback Machine. Macleans, Nicholas Jennings, 27 March 1995
  8. ^ a b Kevin King. "MORE THAN JUST ANOTHER DUMMY". Selkirk Journal, via Newspaper Archives. 6 November 1995 - Page 18.
  9. ^ "Hometown reunion for Roberts, Dummies". Winnipeg Free Press - 10 October 2010, Winnipeg, Manitoba
  10. ^ "Ellen Reid Cinderellen". Exclaim, By Michael Edwards. 1 May 2002
  11. ^ "Ellen Reid Cinderellen". AllMusic Review by Jason MacNeil
  12. ^ "A Dummy makes a savvy debut". Alan Niester, "The Globe and Mail", 1 February 2002
  13. ^ "Crash Test Dummies – Oooh La La". by Matt Melis, 12 May 2010,
  14. ^ "Weather Turns Perfect Just In Time for Barenaked Ladies at Burls Creek"[permanent dead link]. Jewel 88.5 Toronto, 23 July 2018
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