Listening Lounge & Music Shop

Hinterlands has a gorgeous, melancholy, evocative sensibility. Beautiful songwriting and singing…

Veronica Rueckert

Wisconsin Public Radio

The eclectic ability of Courtney Collins to adapt to a style is uncanny. Violet Night is an excellent recording that should be sought out by all musical thrill-seekers and by those who appreciate the injection of some mystery into their rock.

Rick Tvedt

Rick’s Cafe

Courtney Collins has got quite a few tricks up her sleeve. The best of ’em might just be Jeremy Ylvisaker, a friend from Minneapolis she teamed up with to make Welcome to Christmastown, a holiday album filled with echoing lo-fi guitars, sultry vocals and creative vision.

Ylvisaker, who plays guitar and bass for Andrew Bird and belongs to a plethora of Twin Cities bands (Alpha Consumer, Dosh and Fog), added a number of the fantastically spacey effects, while J.T. Bates and Michael Lewis provided the sounds of drums and upright bass. Collins lent her voice and a ’60s lounge-pop esthetic to the effort. The result is an album that covers a wide swath of musical territory – from Vince Guaraldi’s “Christmas Time Is Here” to more modern seasonal offerings by Low and Ron Sexsmith.

Jessica Steinhoff

Isthmus

Arena Venus’ signature instrument is Courtney Collins’ silky voice, which sounds especially good when she is singing a cappella (“Riu Chiu”) or when she is harmonizing with the Melismatics’ Ryan Smith on “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.”

Kenneth Burns

Isthmus

Arena Venus has a secret weapon in singer Courtney Collins, whose sultry and expressive voice would sound great singing just about anything. Fortunately, she’s chosen to pair it up with charging power pop and the resulting album Plucked radiates sheer joy.

Kenneth Burns

Isthmus