Like a gentle but insistent breeze coming in from the east, Catherine MacLellan’s new album Coyote is a delightfully immersive experience which sometimes makes you softly shudder, sometimes smile at its crispness but leaves you feeling refreshed and enlivened by its presence.
Coyote features 14 exceptionally revelatory and deftly authentic songs that demonstrate to all who listen just how adept at evoking a dynamic range of emotions and connecting on a profound level the PEI resident is as a composer of original music.
Coyote is MacLellan’s first album of original solo material since The Raven’s Sun, which was released in 2014, earning a Juno Award in 2015, and seventh album in her storied and lauded career. In the interim, she lovingly crafted an album to honour the legacy of her father, noted Maritime musician/songwriter Gene MacLellan, called If It’s Alright With You: The Songs of Gene MacLellan which was released in 2017 and subsequently turned into a theatrical production. In 2018 a National Film Board documentary, The Song & The Sorrow, which is about the relationship between Catherine and Gene, was released and has become a vital tool in raising awareness of mental health issues.
“I had already intended to make this record, but not exactly how it is now. I had some idea that I would make a solo record and then that work about my dad sort of took over, so my project got put on hold by my own choice. By last summer, I was really ready. When the show was wrapping up in 2018, I knew I needed to get back to my stuff. So, it’s been great to dig back into those songs in a recording studio, and finally it’s seeing the light of day,” said MacLellan from her home in rural Prince Edward Island, about 20 minutes from Summerside and a little over an hour out of Charlottetown.
“The recording happened over a longer period than I expected, and some of the songs had been kicking around for quite a while. Then, because the process was taking longer, new songs came out during the process, which was really fun to be able to put some really fresh stuff on the album. And I also decided to produce this album, although I hadn’t really intended to put my name as producer on this project, but it just kind of happened that way. I have always been part of the production on my albums, but I decided that I was basically doing the job about halfway through. I realized I had learned a lot more than I thought I had about that end of the recording process and I guess it was the practice and experiment of actually having the confidence in myself to take on that role.”
A significant portion of Coyote was recorded in MacLellan’s home, which is part of her family legacy and filled with a sense of closeness, love and a spirit of creative independence.
“This is a cool old house that has lots of history of music in it and actually lots of albums have been recorded in this house. So, it felt like a continuation of that tradition. I think it helped the album end up more of a true vision of what I had for it from the start. One of the reasons I stopped working with my old producer was we were just having some creative differences and I could see where I wanted the project to go, so I took it there myself. It was so nice to have people at the end of the project, the musicians that came in towards the end who recorded in my living room, say how much they appreciated the experience and loved the final result. I don’t know, it just felt very hands on and when the album was done it felt like I could really own it. It really was what I wanted,” MacLellan explained, adding that the vision was to bring together both her contemporary songwriting sensibilities and embrace the traditional music and instrumentation that is so much a part of her surroundings in Atlantic Canada.
“One of the things I really wanted to have on this record was some of the traditional sounds of the music here in PEI. We have got some really great musicians that are known throughout the traditional music world, but I have never used them before on my records. So, it was fun to get that kind of vibe going with more traditional fiddles, and bodhran and accordion. That was one of the things I really wanted to have as part of this record. And then also working with the amazing Claire Macdonald as my drummer – she is just amazing, and she really helped me get the vision of what I wanted for drums and percussion, because I don’t always have the words to express what I want, and she was able to take the feeling of what I wanted and make it a reality.”
Ultimately, there is no grand scheme or concept behind Coyote other than MacLellan’s remarkable, and inimitable way of connecting with her audience through her music – songs that are as often about love and loss – sometimes both at the same time – and the entirety of the emotional continuum in between.
“I guess I hope that everything I do connects with people and their own experiences, because so much of human experience is something that we think, and feel are very individual end up being somewhat universal. Just to be able to connect with the people who are listening to the music, and I guess to the sort of honesty and transparency of my writing, that’s what I hope happens,” she said.
“More than other records, the overall tone I guess is of dealing with reality. My life has been full of ups and downs over the last little while and during the things that have happened, oh God, I have learned more about who I am through the experiences I have had over the last few years than almost any other time in my life. So, I am glad some of that is coming through in the music. Music has always been the way for me to process things; it’s always been like that. I started writing when I was a hormone-fueled teenager, but also a girl who had lost her dad at 14. I was super shy and super confused and very sad. And that’s how I began writing songs, and I didn’t even know what was happening but as I kept doing it, I realized, yeah, I can’t figure out how to communicate with people one on one, but I can write songs.
“It did help me figure out my brain and it still does. And in a way, I don’t want to consciously use it as therapy, but it certainly has been over the years. And with this new album, for once in my life, it wasn’t hard to write songs about happiness. All the songs that made it onto the record kind of dell out of the air and into my lap, and that is always such a good feeling when a song comes along fully formed. And a lot of the songs I wrote in just terror, but as a way to kind of process it and get out my sadness and my anger and resentment.”
In tandem with her desire to incorporate traditional instruments and players on Coyote, for the first time since beginning her acclaimed solo career with her debut album Dark Dream Midnight In 2004, MacLellan has embraced her natural surroundings and was inspired by the sometimes tempestuous, and hauntingly beautiful and evocative elements of wind and sea that demark life on an island.
“I have intentionally practiced incorporating nature in some respect over the years. I really have been a fan of poetry, especially ancient Chinese poetry like haikus, and how they really take one item like a cherry blossom and it sets you in a scene and it comes with its own history and its own imagery, where one word shouldn’t normally evoke those things but does. It’s definitely something that I love, and I love using the world that I see around me as tools to explain a feeling or a time in my life,” MacLellan said.
“I always wanted to write about the sea, but I never did. So, I tried to make myself this time because I live on an island and it seems foolish not to use that. Breath of A Wind is a powerful song but so quiet and it came from that exercise. I think probably why we didn’t choose it as a single is because we don’t want to lead with such a quiet song, even though it does have a powerful message. It’s about my struggles with depression and I remember I was in this dark state and my ex came up to me and asked if I was okay. And I said, ‘oh yeah, fine,’ but I obviously wasn’t fine. What I needed to say at the time was I am not fine, and I still find it really hard to say that because I don’t want to lay my baggage on other people.
“It’s a bit of a reminder to myself that it’s okay to ask for help. In fact, it’s necessary, and it’s also okay to fall apart. We’re expected to always be ‘on’ especially in the music business, so that’s where that came from. It was probably one of my worst days and I wrote this song while I was literally weeping because I was so sad.”
In the press material for the release of Coyote, MacLellan talked about the impetus behind each of the songs, including the powerful title and opening track.
“All around my house in PEI you can hear the coyotes howling and hunting and yet in 10 years, I’ve never seen one. They are mysterious creatures that make themselves known without ever being seen, and this mystery is what inspired this song. I wanted to tap into some of their strength and wildness,” she said.
A number of the songs are about the bitter ending of one relationship and the blossoming of another one. Most notably, The Road is Divided and Come Back In are the best representations of the former, while the joyous All the Way In and the hopeful Waiting On My Love represent the latter.
About the song Too Many Hearts, which encapsulates the wisdom and insight of someone who has lived life, loved and lost and remains hopeful, MacLellan wrote, “I don’t believe in failed relationships. Sometimes things end, even though there is still so much love left. When going through a breakup, sometimes you can decide whether or not you will be heartbroken. It can be hard, but it doesn’t mean it has to end in hate or a feeling of failure. It’s just the next step in a longer life journey.”
MacLellan had an album release party for Coyote in Toronto on Oct. 22 at The Rivoli, and then performs a couple of shows back home in PEI, including Nov. 22 in Montague and as part of Christmas with Matt Anderson on Dec. 19 in Charlottetown.
“I tend not to do big coast to coast tours anymore, but I am definitely on the road quite a bit. The last few years have kept me closer to home, which has been really nice for change. But I am definitely going to be heading to Alberta and B.C. this spring, and Ontario as well. And then I will be going to Europe and Australia later next year. I never go out for crazy amounts of time, because I usually like and need to be home, but I am still pretty busy,” she said.
For more information on other tour dates, Coyote and more, visit http://www.catherinemaclellan.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for a quarter of a century. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
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