| Catherine MacLellan |
| Silhouette |
Catherine MacLellan — Silhouette
•≡ Canada's elegant singer Catherine MacLellan includes cover version of father Gene's classic Songbird on her classy album.
Location: Halifax/Charlottetown ~ Prince Edward Island
Album release: July 5, 2011
Record Label: True North Records
Duration: 57:46
Tracks:
01. Stealin' (3:26)
02. Keep On Fighting (5:20)
03. Now And Then (2:59)
04. Eastern Girl (4:19)
05. Keep My Eye On You (3:43)
06. Lines On The Road (4:07)
07. Black Crow (4:51)
08. Sparrows (4:49)
09. Old Tin Can (3:26)
10. Trickle Down Rain (3:53)
11. True Love (3:49)
12. Same Way Again (4:27)
13. Snowbird (4:31)
14. Chop That Wood (4:07)
Written by:
≡ David Baxter / Catherine MacLellan 1
≡ Gene MacLellan 13
≡ Catherine MacLellan 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14
CREDITS:
♠ Remi Arsenault Bass, Vocals
♠ Reg Ballagh Drums, Percussion
♠ David Baxter Composer, Engineer, Producer
♠ Burke Carroll Pedal Steel
♠ Jim Cuddy Vocals
♠ Kyle Cunjak Photography
♠ Chris Gauthier Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Vocals
♠ Ryan Hutchinson Design
♠ Jadea Kelly Vocals
♠ Catherine MacLellan Composer, Guitars: 12 Str. El. + El. + Ac., Hi String Guitar, Piano, Producer
♠ Gene MacLellan Composer
♠ Darryl Neudorf Mixing
♠ James Paul Mastering
♠ Jason Sniderman Organ, Piano
Album Information
• Silhouette is the highly anticipated new album from Catherine MacLellan. The record captures MacLellan at her best — stitching together elegantly woven songs with her memorable blend of heartfelt lyrics and catchy melodies.
• Produced by David Baxter and featuring special guest performances from Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo fame and folk songstress Jadea Kelly, Silhouette is a reminder that Catherine's songwriting and musicianship are unparalleled among performers of her generation.
REVIEW; Posted on 2011/07/24 by themaxonline; Score: ****
• One of the things I liked about Catherine MacLellan‘s sound is that she makes such captivating melodies, even if she has no backing instrumentation other than her own vocals and guitar. On her newest record Silhouette, she doesn’t sacrifice her abilities even with the addition of some electric guitar on some of the songs such as on her most rocking song yet Stealin’ and Keep On Fighting. There’s a slicker sound on the production but it doesn’t diminish the charm that was present on Dark Dream Midnight or Water In The Ground.
• Catherine has a gentle voice. What she doesn’t have in strength she makes up with a convincingly delicate ability to carry a song. She speeds things up with Tin Can but the next track Trickle Down Rain is a lush low-tempo song waiting and wondering “where do you go/when you leave me alone?” Among the many references to birds on this record, black crow, sparrows, raven, keep an ear open for her cover of the classic Snowbird, a signature for Anne Murray written by her father Gene MacLellan.
Eastern Girl matches the beautiful melodies that I attribute to Catherine but with a full sound and soft backing vocals. If any song from this record goes anywhere, it’s this tribute to home and the “rolling hills…lush green fields of grass…endless rocky cliffs.”
• In addition to Stealin’, which is serving as the album’s first promotional single, True Love is another highlight on the album. One of the more full sounding songs with drums and electric guitar, an avenue that Catherine has opened up to for this record but such an expansion is natural to her sound. Still sombre yet still beautiful.
• It took only one listen to this album to decide that it already is one of the best of the year so far. Repeat listens confirm that further. A wonderful blend of folk, country and light pop elements Silhouette should give Catherine a more prominent position on the Canadian music scene over the next year. Fortaken: http://www.themaxonline.net/
Review by William Ruhlmann; Score: ***½
• The best-known song written by Catherine MacLellan's late father, Gene MacLellan, is "Snowbird," which she finally gets around to covering on her fourth album, Silhouette. The daughter also has an interest in aviary companionship, though she is more likely to be communing with a "Black Crow" or "Sparrows," not to mention using flora and fauna as metaphorical imagery to trace the ups and downs of human emotional relationships. Her takes on these images can be surprising. "Black crow, black crow, stay with me a while," she sings familiarly, for instance, reversing the usual reaction to the bird. Similarly, she begins "Eastern Girl" with this verse: "Staying way up in the mountains/Where it's so hard just to breathe/And everything looks like a miracle/So hard to believe." The miracle MacLellan is most interested in, and which she finds most difficult to believe in, is love, of course. In song after song, she sings in a lazy tone, rarely rousing herself, yet managing to be heard over the folk-rock arrangements, and she ponders, as she puts it in "True Love," "What is true love?," answering herself, "I don't know." In "Lines on the Road," the imponderable thing seems to be death rather than love, but no matter what, MacLellan's narrators just keep looking at the nature around them and wondering about eternal issues without coming to any conclusions. Happily, she seems content to keep wondering and sharing her observations with her listeners. She has yet to write a song as catchy as "Snowbird" (a somewhat cheerier song about love gone wrong), but her more introspective stance draws listeners in and leads them to examine the questions that fascinate her for themselves.
Also:
By Martin Chilton, Culture Editor online9:05 AM BST 06 Oct 2011, Score: ***½
• http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/worldfolkandjazz/8809282/Catherine-MacLellan-Silhouette-albumreview.html
BY CHRIS JONES, 16 SEPTEMBER 2011, 14:17 BST
• http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/reviews/albums/catherine-maclellan-silhouette-67712
En france:
• Hop, avec celui-ci dans lequel elle reprend le hit de son pere "Snowbird", les 5 albums de Catherine MacLellan sont disponibles sur ce blog.
Website: http://www.catherinemaclellan.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/catherinemaclellanmusic
Label: http://truenorthrecords.com/Albums.php?album_id=724
____________________________________________________________