Emily Haines's moody blue voice and enigmatic lyrics

Speaking of unique female artists with quirky rythmns and good singing voices---
Emily Haines is a chip off the old block--her father Paul Haines (1932-2003) was a poet-songwriter-crtic for the jazz and progressive rock scene in Paris New York, New Delhi (where Emily was born), and New Mexico until he moved to Canada, and most famously wrote the libretto for Carla Bley's sprawling 1971 meisterpiece Escalator Under the Hill. Emily came up through the Toronto club scene fronting a band called Metric. I just purchased an EP yesterday called What is Free To a Good Home? and I liked it enough to jump at a chance to see her live if she comes through town again. Her lyrics are just a little mysterious without being opaque; her voice is like a cool breeze in November; and her piano self-accompaniment is sparing and competent. A good example is "The Bank," in which she sings of how so many work so hard just to be able to fill up their time with empty pursuits:

Whatever it is spit it into a bottle and sell it to me/I’m looking to buy freedom from my sobriety/Just like Huey Lewis/I need a new drug/I need a new drink/I need a new drug that does what it should/So take me to the bank/Take me to the bar/Can you take me to the hot spot?/This is what we worked so hard to afford /but...Take me to the bank/Can you take me to the bar?/Can you take me to the hot spot?/This is what we worked so hard to afford/ but how I wanna hide/The next time you visit me here/How about coming out to my place/We can sit on the floor and play my brother’s records/We can sit on the grownup bed/Couple with the coin/Lighting up to join the coping crowd/My big brother said to stay unsatisfied/Never work a day to pay off your desire/Couple with the coin/Lighting up to join the coping crowd

My only concern is about whether Haines has enough variety in her compositional and stylistic repertoire to sustain a career. Perhaps she and her new band, The Soft Skeleton, have answered that question already. They have just released a full-length album, Knives Don't Have Your Back. I haven't heard it yet, but I recommend checking it out, starting with the band's website. The album is a compendium of songs reflecting on episodes in her life from the past decade--mourning the loss of her father, the early days of Metric and its growing commercial success, and the dilemmas of artistry. Not coincidentally, the album design matches that of Escalator Over the Hill.

Mary Margaret O'Hara: Building a Mystery

I had neither seen nor heard Margaret Mary O'Hara before yesterday's concert at the Edmonton Folk Fest. I didn't even know that Maureen O'Hara had a sister.

After the concert, I wanted to tell Mary Margaret about the ethnic restaurants in my neighbourhood.--African food for Africans, Chinese food for Chinese people, Vietnamese for Vietnamese: she would like gastronomic authenticity, or so I think. Sure, there have been few murders around here lately, and you wouldn't want your kids to run around in their bare feet, and several prominent signs have been posted recently stating that "This Community Does Not Tolerate Prostitution", but hey...she and her band would like to eat in some of these places, I can tell just by looking at them.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find her address and she doesnt' even have her own website. After recording the critically-acclaimed album Miss America in 1988 (named by MOJO magazine as one of the top 100 albums of all time), she never recorded another, except for the Christmas EP and the recent soundtrack to the recent film Apartment Hunting. In Canada, Chart Magazine recently named Miss America #14 on its list of best Canadian albums ever. Fittingly, she has recently been named to the Alternative Canadian Walk of Fame for "achieving international music legend status on the strength of one 17-year-old album, and for refusing to play celebrity"

Interestingly, on the way home from the concert I began associating her in my mind with the old Carla Bley/Paul Haines collaboration Escalator Over the Hill. Then I found out on angelfire.com that she had contributed a track to the 1993 Paul Haines Album.

According to writer J.J. Ecto -- if that really is his name--"Seeing Mary Margaret O'Hara let fly elicits a level of emotion not unlike that of being witness close up to the product of Van Gogh's madness." And I would add that--rather unusually for artists of this ilk--I think that she has a very good singing voice, one that I imagine would sound very good in a country and western context, which unfortunately is not weird enough for her occasional humourous forays into extemporaneous scat-rap. She successfully marries the most heartfelt of lyrics (Yes I even thought of Patsy Cline) with an outre improvising jazz sensibililty, because that is who she is. Check out "When You Know Why You're Happy" and "Not Be Allright"---already two of my favourite songs.

She also refuses to record anywhere that is not within walking distance from several Catholic churches, as she claims these are her favorite places to "hang out".

She's even been on You Tube.

What a find. Who knew?