Lamoureux hopes to empower with new release

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This article was published 23/04/2016 (2922 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Renee Lamoureux admits she isn’t one to play her own music when she goes for a run but then her works aren’t always the perfect soundtrack for a marathon runner.

“I found myself getting super pumped and ready for the marathon,” said Lamoureux. “I have a good combo of tunes here.”

The bilingual singer-songwriter raised in Ile des Chenes, one-half of the Keith and Renee duo, hopes listeners will agree when they discover her second solo album, the brave result of a moment in Lamoureux’s life when she reached a crossroads.

She has followed her dreams for years, music as her driver, but whether it’s age or seeing those close to her reach some of life’s milestones, it caused Lamoureux to contemplate where she wanted life to take her next. It influenced her to create an album with a purpose.

“I just found myself writing these sort of inspirational songs, like almost emphatic I want to say,” said Lamoureux, now living in Winnipeg. “At first I was speaking to myself but I think it could resonate with a lot of other people as well, not to be afraid to go after what you’re passionate about in life.”

Her final product, Dare To Be You, follows that mantra, featuring several empowerment anthems including the foot-tapping I’m a Fighter, which placed in the semifinals of the 2016 International Songwriting Competition. It is the eighth album she has been involved in.

Lamoureux didn’t set out to craft peppier songs when she started writing but she’s embracing the feel-good vibe her new release emits.

She spent two years putting this solo effort together, whittling 40 newly-composed tunes down to her 11 finest.

She may have found herself recently at a crossroads, but the life that got her this far has been rich. She didn’t predict when she graduated from Gabrielle Roy, Ile des Chenes’ French school, she would find herself crisscrossing North America in pursuit of music—she didn’t even have the urge to fly.

Lamoureux hit it off with singer/songwriter Keith Macpherson more than a decade ago, uniting to become the folk-rock duo Easily Amused that switched its name to the simply-titled Keith and Renee. In recent years they’ve added a tinge of country to their musical repertoire.

Along the way, they’ve been in demand on television shows like Canada A.M., had their songs appear on Degrassi: The Next Generation and visited Kenya as an ambassador for the humanitarian organization Free the Children.

Lamoureux has also had the pleasure of touring with Jann Arden and performing with stars like Blue Rodeo and Tegan and Sara.

Not bad for a gal from Ile des Chenes.

“The opportunities that I’ve had to travel all over the world,” she said. “When I remember graduating from high school I had no idea that this was where my path was going to take me.”

She makes it home often enough, particularly to where her parents, Art and Simone, reside. It’s the community where people have always had her back.

“I’m proud to say that Ile des Chenes still supports me, and I think they’ve always been proud of everything that I’ve done,” she said.

To learn how to buy her new album, visit www.reneelamoureux.ca.