Canadian born with Indigenous roots (her maternal grandmother was a Cree Indian), Powder grew up as Cheryl Briem in the tiny northern Manitoba town of Wabowden (population 498). Her married name is Cothrun, but for the sake of simplicity uses her last name from a previous marriage as a stage name.
There was not a lot of opportunity in her little home town, especially musically but she developed some great friendships, some which still remain. Her mother and a few family members still reside there, and Cheryl loves to head north for a visit whenever she has a chance.
Raised the oldest of five children by a single mother, there was not a lot of material things and they never even had a car. Her mom to this day still doesn't drive. Cheryl remembers a time when running water meant running down to the lake to get it. She was raised with the value that if you want something, you have to work for it. Her very first acoustic guitar, a 1988 Ovation Collector's Series guitar was not aquired until she was 25 years old. She continues to use that same guitar for performances today.
Her first musical influences were her mother, Grace Briem and aunt Olive Beebe, who also sing and play guitar. A self-taught musician, Cheryl's only vocal lesson was from her mother who simply said, "Sing, louder"! When she was only six years old, she and her auntie Olive who was fifteen at the time entered a “Smiling Johnny Talent Show” in Wabowden and won first place!
After graduating from Wabowden School with a class of only six students, Cheryl attended Brandon University in '80-'81, but due to lack of funding returned to her hometown to work at the Council Office then as a Steno for the RCMP for a couple of years. She was a member of the Manitoba Metis Federation and was the secretary for the Wabowden Local in 1984. Cheryl was promoted to Thompson, Manitoba to work RCMP Telecoms (911) for two years then began her music career which took her across Western Canada and Northwestern Ontario for nine years of living "On the Road", playing in small clubs, sometimes performing almost every night and living and travelling in an old school bus converted into a motor home. She played as far east as Hearst, Ontario and as far west as the Queen Charlotte Islands in British Columbia. There was never much time nor opportunity to do any original recordings, so that was put on a backburner until just recently when her and her husband George built their own home studio where they reside, in Spring Creek, Nevada called "Moose Trax Studio".
Along with being a singer/songwriter, this independent artist also records and produces her own music and plays the bass, electric and acoustic guitar.
Cheryl's debut album “Can’t Wait To Fly” which she began recording in the summer of 2007, was long awaited by friends and fans and since it's release on July 17, 2008, has received excellent reviews, some of which may be found out at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/cherylpowder Soundclips of the entire album may be found here and are available for purchase either as separate downloads or ordering the physical CD. Cheryl co-wrote the title track with Grammy Award winning singer/songwriter, the late Harold Gay in 2003. With two exceptions, all the original songs on this album were penned by Cheryl or with a co-writer. Many of the songs lean toward the country genre with a mix of country/rock, ballads, country swing and even some slide guitar thrown in by excellent guitarist Ken Baeth who provided all the lead guitar tracks on the album except for the lead on "Burn" which is credited to ex-bandmate, Joel Utter. Cheryl's husband, drummer George Cothrun provided all the percussion and some harmonies, and she did the acoustic and bass guitar tracks, a little keyboard, some harmony vocals, plus all the recording and mixing.
"Can't Wait To Fly" was well embraced by her home province of Manitoba, most noteably by the Winnipeg, Manitoba based radio station NCI FM which broadcasts right across most of Canada and has a "Listen Live" link at their website at www.ncifm.com. Their very popular show, "The National Aboriginal Top 30 Countdown" is broadcast each weekend across Canada via radio stations and the internet and spotlights the best Aboriginal music in North America. Cheryl's song "Burn" entered the charts in August 2008 and hit Number One on October 11, 2008. "Crazy Together" another track off that album, is now in the Top 5 as of August 29th, 2009.
Cheryl is currently doing a solo act but is working on rehearsals for a four piece band called "The Powder Crew" including her drummer husband George Cothrun, and another couple - Ken and Lora Baeth, with some gigs booked for the near future. Another album is in the works which will include her new single "Just A Kid" and will be released in 2010.
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Burying Me Alive
This independent Canadian artist residing in the US played bass, lead acoustic, rhythm acoustic, sang,wrote the song, did harmonies and recorded this song herself in her home studio. Pretty well did everything except drums and lead guitar. Off the debut CD "Can't Wait To Fly" available at cdbaby.com
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Pop
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Burn
This song is the first single off the debut CD "Can't Wait To Fly" and on October 11th, 2008, hit #1 on the National Aboriginal Top 30 Countdown on NCIFM radio in Canada at www.ncifm.com
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Country
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