MICHELLE MCADOREY at the Monarch Tavern (12 Clinton), Wednesday (November 18), 8 pm. Pwyc-$10. 416-531-5833.
It seems strange to be welcoming Michelle McAdorey back after 12 years. The former Crash Vegas singer never really left – at least not forever.
She recorded her last solo album, 2003’s Love Don’t Change (a record of duets made with Eric Chenaux), while she was pregnant with her son, Arlyn, who stars in the video for the title track from new record, Into Her Future (DWR).
“[Being a mother] was blowing my mind,” says McAdorey over tea at the Centre for Social Innovation in the Annex. “So I paused for a period of time with a newborn baby. And then I just kept writing and playing.”
Recorded with McAdorey’s long-time friend and Crash Vegas collaborator, Blue Rodeo’s Greg Keelor, at his Lost Cause studio near Peterborough, Into Her Future was inspired by British Isles folk music.
“I’ve had this I-can’t-say-minor obsession with bands like Steeleye Span and Fairport Convention,” says McAdorey, who also appreciates quieter singers like Nic Jones. “They’re singing a lot of old folk music, and when I’m watching video footage, they seem so free of persona. It definitely informed writing for me. I’ve always been drawn to those kinds of melodies.”
McAdorey wanted Into Her Future to be her version of a pop record. And it is. Featuring James McKenty (guitar, bass and engineering), Chris Altmann (pedal steel, piano, electric guitar), Tom Street and Taylor Knox (drums), Mike Boguski (synths and organ), Graham Walsh (synths) and Anna Ruddick (bass), it’s at times mellow and melancholic (autoharp tune Run Into Me is reminiscent of Cass McCombs, whom she recently discovered) and at others rocking and riveting. (Its psychedelic moments fit right in with Rick White or the Sadies.)
Culvert Jack, based on the writing and correspondence of McAdorey’s railway-track-laying great-uncle in the Ottawa Valley, takes several twists and turns, encompassing psychedelic French pop alongside British folk.
Though folkier than her work with Crash Vegas, Into Her Future feels vital and fresh. It’s actually less of a downer.
“Well, it’s pop,” says McAdorey. “I’m reaching for optimism – melancholic optimism. There are forces that try to deny you who you are, and you can get depressed by them. They can shake you down. But then how do you cut through that and reach for something that is possible?
“I have this kid and I look at his face and know there’s got to be something that I’m reaching toward. That makes it sound like [what we’re striving for] is always somewhere else, but I think it’s really about trying to arrive in the place you already are.”
Michelle McAdorey talks about how she met Kirsty MacColl at an airport:
music@nowtoronto.com | @sarahegreene
