City and Colour

City and Colour is the recording name used by Dallas Green, a Canadian singer-songwriter born in 1980 in St. Catharines, Canada. Green is also the guitarist and vocalist of the post-hardcore band Alexisonfire. Under the City and Colour name, he records acoustic and folk-oriented songs and often performs with a changing group of Canadian indie rock musicians, including Daniel Romano and Spencer Burton of Attack in Black.

Name and project history

The project name combines Green’s own name: “Dallas” refers to a city and “Green” to a colour. He adopts the alias because he feels uncomfortable issuing releases under his full name. Green begins sharing City and Colour songs online in 2004 for fans to download, then gathers and rewrites several of them for the debut album Sometimes.

Albums and recordings

Sometimes is City and Colour’s first full-length album and is released in 2005. Its cover artwork is designed by Scott McEwan in a tattoo-inspired style. The album later appears in a physical US release through Vagrant Records. Green’s second album, Bring Me Your Love, follows in 2008 and expands the sound with instruments such as harmonica, banjo, drums and lap steel, giving it a stronger folk character. The album includes “Sleeping Sickness”, featuring Gordon Downie of The Tragically Hip, as well as contributions from Matt Sullivan and members of Attack in Black. Its lead single is “Waiting...”, first issued through Green’s official MySpace page with a making-of video. The title comes from a Charles Bukowski short story and also appears in the closing track “As Much As I Ever Could”.

Little Hell is announced in 2011 and produces “Fragile Bird”, which becomes City and Colour’s highest-charting single and reaches number one on the Canadian rock/alternative chart. Green’s fourth studio album, The Hurry and the Harm, is announced in 2013. If I Should Go Before You follows in 2015, led by “Woman”; it reaches number one on the Canadian iTunes Store and receives multiple Juno Award nominations, including Artist of the Year for Green and songwriting recognition for “Blood”, “Lover Come Back” and “Wasted Love”.

In 2018, City and Colour releases Guide Me Back Home, a live compilation drawn from Green’s 2017 solo Canadian tour, An Evening with City and Colour. The release includes recordings from shows in Banff, St. John’s, Halifax, Vernon and Corner Brook, and comes out through Still Records, a label Green establishes as a subsidiary of Dine Alone. In 2019, the project returns with A Pill for Loneliness, preceded by “Astronaut”, “Strangers” and “Living in Lightning”, and nominated for Juno recognition in the Adult Alternative Album of the Year category in 2020. Green also issues the two-track EP Low Songs in 2020, consisting of Low covers and tied to a Bandcamp Juneteenth fundraiser and a limited 7-inch release whose proceeds support the Black Youth! Pathway 2 Industry project. In 2023, City and Colour releases The Love Still Held Me Near, preceded by “Meant to Be”, “Underground” and “Fucked It Up”.

Live work and collaborations

City and Colour tours extensively in North America, the UK and Australia across these album cycles. Green performs support dates with artists including Tegan and Sara, Girl in a Coma, William Elliott Whitmore, Lissie, P!nk and Butch Walker. He also opens for Alice in Chains in 2019 and performs with them on “Nutshell” and “Got Me Wrong” on several dates. During one of those shows, Jerry Cantrell gives Green a guitar after their performance in Montreal.

Style and labels

City and Colour is associated with acoustic rock, alternative rock, folk, folk rock and indie folk. The project releases music through City and Colour Inc., and Green also works with Dine Alone Records, Vagrant Records and Still Records. Alexisonfire remains an important part of Green’s background, but City and Colour is his separate solo recording identity.