Such are the things that dreams are made of. Three young Canadian girls head off to Nashville to record their first album with big-time CCM producer Otto Price, and get big-time distribution for their disc nationwide through CMC Distribution. Everything about Carried Away has been done with slick professionalism—tight production, rich packaging and a very cool website (www.carriedaway.ca).
By the time you’re reading this, they will have finished their eight-stop coast to coast bookstore tour to launch Closer To You, and will have just completed nine further dates opening for Bryan Duncan on his Ontario tour.
The ticket, for sisters Colleen and Pam Walker and their cousin Christine Prankard, is their fine sense of harmony. Closer To You is a harmony-rich album of hard-edged pop music. Although (according to the credits) the group members don’t contribute to the album’s instrumentation, their voices really are the focus. Price, their producer, has worked with ZOEgirl, Out of Eden, BarlowGirl, former Sonic Flood lead singer Jeff Deyo and Rebecca St. James. If these names are familiar to you, then you already have some idea of the sound on Closer To You.
When you play with the big boys they do tend to dominate the game. The girls only wrote three of the 12 tracks themselves, and their name comes from the Sonic Flood song which they cover here with assistance from Deyo. There are two other songs from Deyo and members of his new band, plus several from Marianne Adams and Garry Kean (with or without Price).
Even so, cutting through all the production wizardry, the real dynamite of this album is in the girls’ strong voices, sharp harmonies and refreshing devotion. They haven’t just recorded an album of worship music because that’s what the worship industry demands; every song rings with praise, because that is where their spirits dwell. That’s why it’s so easy to get carried away—right along with them.
On a frosty Friday in February, in a small town near Toronto, far from the centre of the action, a crowd flooded into a community theatre for a night of music. Tim Alberts, a local record producer, and Philip Cottrell, his long-time collaborator, had gathered some friends for the release of their first album. I arrived knowing little about them, but quite a bit about the friends who were lending their reputations to the project and to the launch. Musicians know musicians, and are known by the company they keep.
The opportunity to hear these players, I knew, would easily cover the price of admission: David White (of The Dustkickers) and Glen Soderholm (a fine singer-songwriter) were there to lend supporting vocals while Fergus Marsh (who’s played with Mark Heard, Bruce Cockburn, Steve Bell, and has a great album of his own) brought his bass and Chapman Stick. Drummer Gary Craig, who’s played with Colin Linden, Cockburn and Jan Arden, was at the concert, too, although not featured on the album.
Alberts and Cottrell are both talented musicians and fine songwriters. Of Spin’s 12 tracks they each wrote six, which musically intertwine seamlessly with a guitar-centric sound, digging deeply into the roots of folk, rock and country, reminding me of many strong artists of the '70s. Both contribute one acoustic instrumental to the package. Of Cottrell’s songs “African Road” reminds me of Cockburn, “Diamonds and Gold” is like an understated Neil Young blues, and “Was a Dreamer” draws from the Celtic roots of East Coast folk.
Lyrically, the album is more divergent. Alberts’ writing often demonstrates his spirituality, whereas Cottrell usually keeps such things beneath the surface. The most frequently appearing character in these songs is “She.” In the opening song “She looks like sunshine” but “She is rain” (Cottrell); in the second song “She reads the pages in the Bible that he gave her/ Someone forgave her but somehow you’d never know” (Alberts); and in the beautiful “Magdelena,” Alberts’ “She” is an aging Mary Magdelene looking back on her significant story. The strength of their writing comes in how they show, but don’t tell, leaving the conclusions to their listeners.
(www.moonlitmusic.ca)
D.S. Martin is a Canadian poet and writer. For years he’s been fascinated with the many roots and branches of contemporary music, particularly from a Christian perspective.
