Sarah McLachlan interview; Canadian CDs

["Martin R. Lamb" <martinn@csri.toronto.edu>]

Prissy Little Waif No More (Network Sept/Oct 1991) -- by Jeff Bateman
--------------------------

Sarah McLachlan, Canada's answer to Enya and Kate Bush, is swaying in
her Doc Martins at a New Orleans juke-joint called the Maple Leaf.
A boa constrictor, brought by a friend, is coiled around her shoulders.
"He tightened up a little and gave me a massage," she recalls with
delight.  "I tell you, the guys stayed so far away.  And the women...ooh, 
I got some dirty looks."

McLachlan's dance-with-snake wasn't a case of her falling under the fabled
spell of magnolia-scented New Orleans, where she and producer Pierre Marchand
spent six months cocooned in a ramshackle Victorian mansion recording her
new album _Solace_.  It was entirely in character, she insists.  "people are
horrified I'm not the prissy little waif they hear on the records."  She
laughs.  "I even fart sometimes."

_Solace_ is markedly less ethereal than her 1988 Nettwerk Records debut, 
_Touch_.  Her soaring soprano remains a thing of wonder, yet Marchand 
(producer for Luba and the McGarrigles) has junked the first album's 
relatively conventional arrangements for exquisite soundscapes comparable 
to his friend Dan Lanois.*

_Solace_ tends towards the dark and moody: titles like "Black", "Lost" and
"Path of Thorns" reflect a 23-year-old dealing with the increasingly
complicated entaglements of love and life.  "The album is about simplicity, 
innocence and getting back what's been lost.  Sometimes I'd like to be 
four years old again, but that's no answer."

The bi-coastal McLachlan, raised in Halifax and now living with her cats,
Porkpie and Beast of Eden, in Vancouver, keenly missed the ocean during
her Louisiana sojourn.  ("I find waves very soothong.  It's a back-to-
the-womb thing.")  But she found a measure of amniotic bliss by escaping
to the Gulf of Mexico ("kinda like Lake Huron, only dirtier") at the height 
of Mardi Gras festivities.  "I was freaked out by the inhumanity of the 
the whole thing...it's about drinking, getting stupid and having guys
throw beads at you if you flash your tits [a long-standing Mardi Gras
tradition].  Not that I mind showing my tits, but I won't do it for beads!"

----------------------------------------------

*The names mentioned in the article are all Canadian anglophone recording
artists.  (Except of course Doc Martins, which are leather sandals.)

For more shocking words and also her parents' reaction to her appearing
naked in her "Path of Thorns" video, you will have to read her interview 
in Toronto's NOW magazine.  I do have a copy, but is about 5 times as long 
as the one here, and I don't have the time nor the finger power to type it in.
However I'm willing to send a copy to somebody who will volunteer to do it.
(Ron Hill, are you there ?-)

A record store chain (A&A) in Toronto has just announced PRICE WAR.
Many titles are on sale at $11 and $13.  _Solace_ is available at $13.
The 2 CD singles are $7.  (There are 3 songs each, one track from the
album and 2 special versions: "Path of Thorns - radio edit", 
"Shelter - violin version", and "CBC sessions" of "Sad Clown" (from _Touch_)
and "Black".)

(Jane Siberry titles on sale include _No Borders Here_, _Speckless Sky_,
and _The Walking_, for $11 each.  _Two Rooms_ costs $13.)

I disagree with the writer of the article above that SM is a "Canadian Enya."
That "title" should belong to Loreena McKennit.  She is a songwriter/singer/
harpist, who writes/produces all of her materials, and sets poems by Shakespear
and Tennyson to music.  The style is folk/Celtic/pop, with "World Music" throw 
in.  I recommend her to anyone who liked Enya's stuff, esp. tracks like "Exile"
and "On the Shore."  McKennit used to produce her CDs with her own money, so her
previous releases are quite expensive - $23.  However she just signed with
Warner Bros., so her latest, _The Visit_, is available for $11.

I wouldn't mind buying and sending discs to the States, but each US cheque
I deposit will require a $2.75 service charge.  So as long as that's paid for...
Of course, you can also pick them up personally when you are in town for 
Sarah's concert (at the Winter Gardens Theatre) on November 22. :)
--
"The throw of the rose is all you live for" KB

Tippi Chai
GUEST ON : {decvax,ihnp4,allegra}!utcsri!martinn  ||  martinn@csri.toronto.edu
Disclaimer: all opinions, pinions and onions expressed herein are solely mine.