On a joyride
Cormac Rea
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Grant: "I feel at home in Ottawa."
photo: Ivan Otis
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Jenn Grant's Echoes hints at greatness
Canada has been graced with a long line of outstanding female singers and songwriters over time. From the vintage (Joni Mitchell, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Anne Murray, Rita MacNeil) to the dubious (Céline Dion) to the more contemporary (Sarah McLachlan, Diana Krall, Kathleen Edwards, Sarah Harmer and Feist etc.), Canadian women have been flexing dulcet chords for many a decade. Music critics far and wide have been quick to hail the next big thing but, especially in the wake of Feist's hugely popular The Reminder album, the praise has often been premature in the giving and, even, a pressure cooker for an emerging artist. Fortunately or unfortunately, PEI by way of Halifax native Jenn Grant will need to hear these comparisons for a long while to come. With her first effort, Orchestra for the Moon, Grant made rapid headway. Four-star reviews were widely bestowed, as were nominations in the East Coast Music Awards. Grant hit the road with bands like Great Lake Swimmers and The Weakerthans, Danny Michel, Martin Tielli and Justin Rutledge before coming to grips with the infamously difficult follow-up album. Echoes, a warm analog record put to tape at the bucolic Puck's Farm outside Toronto, is the haunting final product.
Echoes plays much like the 28-year-old Grant herself comes across when I meet her at an Ottawa café after a recent CBC show: honest, alternatively playful and stubbornly limited with her answers and, in other moments, vulnerable and not terribly comfortable
with the act of dissembling; she clearly doesn't yet take herself for the superstar many presage. A dead ringer for Audrey Hepburn, Grant is no actress either - I get the impression she's more comfortable grounded, hanging with friends or simply playing the guitar, than she is answering questions about her life and artistic process. Who wouldn't be, you might ask - but, in the glitter glam music business, artifice is almost a given. For one of the only Canadians selected to play the Grammy Awards, Grant comes across refreshingly, well, normal."I've met Feist a few times and she's lovely. She's a great point of reference too, when you're playing in the States or something. But I didn't do music live until I was 24 because I had stage fright for, like, 10 years," Grant says, laughing wryly. "I kind of did an art degree in the meantime. I do all the artwork for albums as well."
The packaging of Echoes is marked by the addition of Grant's artwork - a personal touch that is increasingly rare and anachronistic in an age of blank MP3 product. It's unsurprising, really, to find that imagery - a stark contrast of golden detail and dark, jagged figures - perfectly exemplary of the album's content. Echoes is a deeply personal work, where love and its ruin is splayed, racked and drawn.
"[The imagery] was made for the album. It was exactly how I was feeling at the time. Echoes is based on personal stuff but the songs are immaterial really - I write by stream of consciousness," she explains.
Now signed to Toronto's Six Shooter label, Grant's stream of consciousness style is taking her all over - a European tour to Scotland, Ireland and England is on the horizon.
"Six Shooter wanted me to make the kind of record that I really loved, so I did. They put a lot of work into this too and it's great - the label is like a big family. There is a real community vibe there and a lot of working together. Justin Rutledge is one example. I have an interest in Justin's career, for example, because I love him! I'm not in love with him or anything, it's just good to have someone on the road with you that's a friend too."
"And I love Ottawa," Grant adds. "I have a lot of connections here. My grandfather was a cabinet minister here - the Minister of Veteran Affairs - he was kind of a big deal. I feel at home in Ottawa."
Nevertheless, Grant will have to put off any chance of living in the capital for some time. After her performance at the Grammys, Grant has a variety of stateside gigs across New England, including an unusual stop at broadcasting network NBC.
"It's a showcase. In my imagination, they all have suits on and are sitting around a table. And I'm just going to go into the office and play music," she says, laughing at the novelty. " ButI don't think it's a birthday party or anything."
Jenn Grant CD Release
W/ Jon & Roy
@ The Black Sheep Inn
Feb 14
