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Nov. 7 - Nov.14, 2004 |
Heather McLeod's Bones
Canadian folk songstress delivers a compelling third album
By Kerry Doole
Originally Published: 2002-09-29
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Heather McLeod
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It is an unfortunate fact of Canadian musical life that most independent artists need to work day jobs to sustain themselves and subsidize their work.
That is definitely the case with folk singer/songwriter Heather McLeod. During the 12 years she spent in Montreal, she worked at jobs ranging from telemarketing to garbage collection to teaching English. When we chatted with her recently, Heather had just landed a job more suited to her creative talent. She is now in Thunder Bay, working as co-host of a CBC Radio show.
Between what she terms 'joe jobs,' McLeod has found the time and money to release three excellent CDs. The latest, Bones, is her best yet, and she'll trek to Toronto to launch it with a CD release party at Graffiti's on Oct. 25. That gig will also serve as a 'thank you' party to local fans who helped McLeod record the album by pre-purchasing copies of it. Creative financing indeed!
Bones is the follow-up to 1999's acclaimed Graffiti Love Song. "That album was ambitious, but it tried to be all things to all people," McLeod analyzes. "I think this new one shows maturity. I was really figuring out what my voice was as an arranged singer/songwriter."
Her music may fall into the generic folk category, but McLeod isn't afraid to weave Latin, jazz or pop stylings into her work. Her musical heroes range from Bach to Joni Mitchell and Tom Waits through to Gordon Lightfoot and Stan Rogers, while her clear and pure voice has elicited comparisons to Texan songstress Nanci Griffith.
Bones was recorded in Toronto, and it marks the first time she worked with an outside producer. "I took a lot of time in making my choice, and boy, did I luck out," she says of David Woodhead. "Within five minutes of talking to him on the phone, I thought 'I like this person. At the very least I want to meet him'."
She chose well in Woodhead, who has worked with the likes of Loreena McKennitt and Scott Merritt. He recruited such top players as drummer Al Cross (Big Sugar), fiddler Anne Lindsay (The Jim Cuddy Band), and guitarist Kim Ratcliffe, and added bass, mandolin and steel guitar himself. Harmony vocals from Rebecca Campbell and Moxy Fruvous' David Matheson lend further texture.
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