More Songs

Gregg Lawless is a great Canadian songwriter with whom I collaborated last year.
Here are some of his wonderful songs I was happy to lend my voice to:

Endlessly (written after a trip to Nfld, honouring my Aunt Maisie)
You Keep Me Waiting
Camille Claudel (live recording)
Sugar (live recording)

Musings
These songs are so much a part of me. Their excavation was sheer joy and self-indulgence. Much of my time in the last seven years was spent singing the great classical art songs and choral works of composers such as Debussy, Faure, Poulenc, HugoWolf, Schubert, J.S. Bach, Healey Willan, Samuel Barber and many others.   These works have been deeply rewarding to sing and to study, their beauty and power timeless.

When I first heard Debussy’s Claire de Lune and La Cathédrale Engloutie for piano my whole world turned on its head. A similar thing happened after hearing Samuel Barber (Adagio for Strings). This is when I became curious about French Art Song and begged for singing lessons.  I wasn’t a good enough pianist to play that stuff and I had to express what I was hearing and reacting to, so voice it was - the most personal instrument.

The melodies that comprise my solo CD Songs That Won’t Fall Away found their way up through my memory  and are an hommage to my father and to my roots. They are obviously different from the classical world I have been steeped in, but they share something profound.  They too are timeless. They survive in our collective consciousness. Unlike the singer, the songs do not fall away. And in both cases, my job as a singer is to serve the song.

Many of the melodies are ancient. The stories are always relevant because of the depth of their message. Much like a parable they are effective because of their simplicity.

I tried some of the songs with different instrumentation, but always came back to them as they were transmitted to me: simply sung. They felt more emotionally compelling, the more I stripped them down. It’s part of my journey to discover that in singing less, one can sometimes communicate more.  My deepest wish is that these songs will stir the heart of the listener. And serve as a reminder that we are all deeply connected.