COUNTR
C
anadian singer songwriter Catherine MacLellan has been attracting a lot of
attention in her huge nation with the release of Church Bell Blues (True North
Records). This album of original compositions finds MacLellan mixing folk, country,
even touches of blues and rock. If her sound is classic Americana MacLellan’s
gorgeous voice sets her apart from the herd. MacLellan lives in Halifax, the largest
city on Canada’s East Coast, but one that is only home to 150,000 citizens. This, she
emphasises, suits her.
Y AMERIC
“Halifax is big enough to be a city but it still has a very small town feel and I like that,”
she says. “There’s a really vibrant music scene here – folk, Celtic, rock, pop, indeed –
and lots of small venues. We support one another too and that’s what makes it special.”
Canada’s music scene – after years of being the butt of jokes about the nation’s best
musicians all hightailing it to the US – has taken off with Arcade Fire now one of the
world’s most popular rock bands. ANA
“I’m aware of all those bands coming out and becoming big internationally but I don’t
really feel part of that scene. See, they’re rock bands coming out of big cities like
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s
Montreal and Toronto. I’m part of an East Coast folk scene so I’m more connected with
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folk clubs and festivals happening up and down the coast and that includes America.
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k

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Touring Canada is hard work as it’s so big. You play a gig and then you might have to
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drive all day before you reach the next town!”
MacLellan’s father was the noted singer-songwriter Gene MacLellan (he wrote many
standards including Anne Murray’s Snowbird). He died while MacLellan
was still a teenager but she counts him as her formative influence.
“My dad definitely remains one of my biggest influences. We both write
from a similar point of view. Also, he passed on a lot of his influences to
me so I’ve learnt to write songs from the same artists he did. When I was
a teenager and buying awful 80s pop he would go to the dollar bins and
buy me old albums by Dylan, The Band, stuff like that which has really
helped me develop. I guess he saved me from listening to Paula Abdul
for the rest of my life!”
MacLellan’s loose, relaxed music, blending as it does country and folk
with touches of rock, recalls Canadian alt-country pioneers The Cowboy
Junkies. Were they, I wondered, an influence?
“Funny you should bring them up as someone else recently made that
comparison. I did once own that famous album of theirs, The Trinity
Sessions, so maybe that has unintentionally influenced me. I’d never list
them as an influence but I can see how we approach making acoustic
music having certain similarities, sure.”
MacLellan will make her first UK journey ever in November when she
arrives here with two other Canadian folkies to perform. “I’m so looking
forward to it. I’ve been dreaming about visiting the UK since I was a
child and now I’m going to arrive here and sing for you guys! The people
I’m performing with are really talented – Old Man Ludecke is a great
storyteller and banjo player. You gotta come see us.” I try and warn
Catherine about the rotten weather that has bedeviled these islands this
year but she shrugs it off.
“I grew up on Prince Edward Island so I
know plenty about bad weather. We have
a pretty long, tough winter way up here.”
Is Prince Edward Island comparable, I
enquire, to Canada’s far eastern Newfound
Land as famously portrayed in the book
and film The Shipping News? “No,” laughs
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s
i
c
MacLellan, “they really have it hard up
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there. Halifax might seem distant and cold
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k

to someone in London but we have it easy
P
a
Art Garfunkel
Church Bell Blues
compared to them.”
True North
Garth Cartwright
TND50
Properganda 0 5
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