To say that Leonard Cohen is among the most admired, most respected, most beloved of modern day artists is an obvious fact, and probably also a gross understatement. For his ardent admirers within artistic circles and his legions of loyal fans around the world, his written words seared themselves into their very souls, his performances stirred hearts, minds and souls of all who witnessed them.
His poetry transfixed all who read it, and in some ways transformed them – his boldly revelatory language and the way his songs and poems about love and lust seemed to be infused with an evangelical fervour and sacramental tone that goes far deeper than simple passion and affection.
It is little wonder that his songs have been interpreted and re-interpreted by hundreds of artists throughout the globe, each allowing the words and melodies to flow through the filters of their own thoughts and feelings.
Toronto-based singer/songwriter Andrea Ramolo, like many others, has been inspired by the work of Cohen for her entire life, recognizing and identifying with the searing honesty, the joy, the heartbreak, the passion and spiritual complexity of his creative outpourings.
On Nov. 7, the second anniversary of the death of the Canadian cultural icon, Ramolo will release her personal tribute to Cohen in the form of the album Homage. A true love letter to the masterful moulder of words and phrases, the album sees Ramolo dive headlong into 10 Cohen compositions, not simply covering them in her own inimitable style, but immersing herself in their meaning as if she were the character speaking from within the songs themselves.
It is a bold, reverent and truly evocative collection, and one that came to Ramolo through a serendipitous series of events, melded with an otherworldly sense of inevitability, as if the project was pre-destined to be brought to fruition.
It started when Ramolo was asked to perform at the Corona Theatre in Montreal as part of an all star spectacular to honour the 40th anniversary of the movie The Last Waltz, a concert film documenting the final show by The Band, which featured a plethora of guests. The show came mere days after Cohen’s passing in 2016 and Ramolo got the idea in her head to do one of his songs at this show. Great minds think alike, and it turned out that Gavin Gardiner of the band The Wooden Sky was also thinking of doing a Cohen song. So, it was settled – the evening would end with the two of them doing a duet.
“We closed the night with Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye. This place was filled with over 1,000 people just partying and getting real rowdy and just celebrating The Last Waltz. And all of a sudden there was this beautiful silent moment where you could hear a pin drop, and they did this montage of wonderful portraits of Leonard behind us on the screen. So, we did this duet alongside the violinist from The Wooden Sky and it was such a touching moment,” said Ramolo.
But the connection goes back a few years earlier, when Ramolo, along with her partner in the group Scarlett Jane, Cindy Dore, were hired to perform alongside Leonard’s son Adam Cohen at the Place Des Arts backed up by the Montreal Symphony. The pair actually lived in Cohen’s house for a few weeks.
“It was just an incredible experience to be in this man’s house. I always felt connected to his spirit and his ghost even before he passed. And I am sure lots of artists feel the same. He is transcendent, and he has inspired many of us to do what we do. From that moment at The Corona on, I just developed this infinite love for that song Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye. Leonard speaks and sings about love so beautifully. It’s almost like you can’t tell sometimes if he is talking about women or about God. Everything is so sacred and elevated and so rich. I have gotten off on just everything that has come out of his mouth,” she said.
“It is so potent. Every line that he created was just so potent. Everything has meaning, and a purpose and timing is essential. In that moment on stage I got so welled up and of course it was for Leonard and for his passing and all the people in the room and that energy, we were all connection to this person who meant so much to them, in their instructive years and their growth as musicians or as listeners or as just people falling in and out of love and making mistakes and picking themselves up again.
“But it really struck a chord with me that night. It was the first time I had ever sung it and I was like, ‘wow, this song is so powerful for me, and I don’t know why it is so powerful for me.’ I couldn’t relate at the time because I actually was in a very happy and romantic relationship. But I took that song, and I started covering it across Canada after I released my last album Nuda. And then I took it overseas to Italy for my 11-concert run over there. And I closed the night every night with this song and after every single show I had people come up to me saying they loved my version and asking me where they could listen to it or buy it.”
She said the seed for recording that song and perhaps others by Cohen was born from those experiences. By this time on her journey, she had been doing the song for well over a year and had created a version that was well and truly all Andrea Ramolo’s.
“They are Cohen’s lyrics but it’s almost like an actor who picks up a script and needs to embody the character. It just felt so close to me. Later I was doing a house show north of Toronto, a place I have played regularly and did that song, and the host came up after and asked if I would come back and do an entire evening of Cohen songs. And that was when the light bulb went off. It was during that conversation after the guests had all left and I said I would love to do a Cohen night. Wait a minute, I would love to record Cohen songs. I had no plans to do an album so soon after Nuda, because Nuda was released in 2017, and here we are in 2018, but I started preparing and getting the demos ready right away,” she explained.
“I listened to every single one of his albums from front to back a couple of times. So, the listening process is what took me the longest, because it was really hard to narrow down which songs I wanted to honour. That was the most difficult and scary choice for me in the end. I have always written my own songs, so the challenge was to find my way into somebody else’s songs and what better writer to sort of dance alongside with than Leonard Cohen.”
Ramolo approached Michael Timmins of the Cowboy Junkies, who produced her Nuda album, with the idea, which he loved, and which his understated production style suited perfectly. The music and production are there, but at the forefront of the listener’s experience is Ramolo’s intensely evocative voice, personality and soul.
“Michael’s production is sparse and spacious and has a lot of room to breathe, so you can really actually focus on just the textures and the tones – the vocals and the lyrics,” she said.
“I will say that I think Michael had more fun working on this than he did working on Nuda. He was just really excited about it, and he really loved and was impressed with all the demos. I recorded all my own demos, and we really worked more as partners this time. I took more of a producer’s approach to this project, more than I did with Nuda. I really wanted to be a lot more hands on, because I didn’t write the songs. I had more of the desire to put more effort into developing the sound so that it was really me. I built all the tracks from the ground up and I provided these tracks to the musicians I hired, not only as inspiration but also wanted some of these components and key parts and key sounds that I experimented with in the final production.”
When it came to song selection, Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye was an obvious choice, and the recording of it has extra poignancy because by the time Ramolo and Timmins got together to work on it, she was now experiencing the bitter grief and sadness of the end of her previously blissful relationship.
“It is the heart and soul of this album, which is the reason why I just added my own little flair to the recording. After my break-up, I ended up writing him a piece of poetry in Italian because he is from Italy and that is my second language because my parents were both born there. To honour the passing of that relationship, the song all of a sudden made sense to me in a way that it hadn’t before. And it was almost like singing the song and the emotions I felt in Montreal that night a few years ago was like my psychic sense of self know what was coming and could feel the sadness in that departure before it even happened. It was a weird foreshadowing. I ended up recording a spoken work piece at the end of the instrumental solo for that song, just before the last verse, to honour that and to kind of tie in all the threads. It just made sense. It was the complete picture, the complete story,” she explained.
“When I recorded Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye, I was a mess, an absolute mess. But it’s interesting because as much as I connected with the material, there was a little bit of distance, a little bit of separation because there aren’t my songs. Meaning I could concentrate on the tones and the sounds and how I wanted it t be conveyed and how I wanted to sing the songs. The phrasing and the rhythmic language of each lyrics that I delivered, it was a very musical experience for me, more musical than any other albums I have done, because there was that separation between me and the story, me and the writing. And I enjoyed that exercise.
“It’s all about growing and I wanted to grow in this way as an artist. I found my voice. I don’t push myself to sing too high in the register like I did when I was young. I do have a really low, warm sounding voice that I wanted to explore with Cohen’s lyrics. It was a love exercise. And it’s just such brilliant writing. There isn’t a throw away word or phrase anywhere. His writing is sacred; he really is sacred. I think this is why I am so attracted to him as well as a writer and as a songwriter. He fuses together the sexual and the spiritual in his writing. There is this duality of them being very sexual and sensual at the same time as being sacred and spiritual. In this world, where religion seems to be lost, he is a pretty good substitution. It was like I was going to church a little bit, without actually having to walk into a denominational building.”
Ramolo continued to discuss her choices of songs to cover for Homage.
“And Famous Blue Raincoat is for sure one of my favourites, although it’s hard to say what my absolute favourite Cohen song is, but this has definitely been a favourite for years. Which is funny, because I read somewhere that Cohen said he was never satisfied with that song. It’s such a gorgeous, haunting, dark song, like a short film. So, I had to do that one. I wanted to make sure I didn’t repeat any colours on the album. I was less afraid to take on really well known songs that are universally famous, and more afraid of repeating the same tones, or rhythms or colours. I definitely got to explore and expand the approach and the arrangements of the songs but using different, weird rhythm patterns.
“The Future was an important one for me to do because it’s prophetic. When he recorded it back in 1993, it just talks about what we’re living in right now; the absolute lack of privacy and the fact that the world is falling apart because of this. Our world is lacking in structure now. You can find out anything about anyone now and destroy anything about anyone, in a split second. I love how crass and bold the lyrics are in that song. He uses the phrase anal sex, and I don’t think anyone, unless you’re in a thrash punk band, can use those words and no one else could ever make them sound elegant and powerful and not offend the entire universe. There is something about singing his songs, those kinds of songs in particular: I don’t know why but it gave me an extra boost of confidence to own that type of language. Whereas I may not have been able to write something like that bold myself, for example, I am able to embody that character that can actually be the voice to sing lyrics like that.”
Ramolo’s first single/video from Homage will be for My Oh My, with the dramatic, elegant, and poetic video shot and directed by Caitlin Cronenberg.
“It’s just very cool, very groovy, very soulful. It almost has this bluesy Portishead vibe, sparse. And I did Suzanne, because it’s my mom’s favourite song. Of course, there’s Everybody Knows – people love that song. We did it a little more upbeat and a little more contemporary sounding. On Dancing to the End of Love it took an approach with my baritone guitar where everything is full of delay and reverb and its really spacey. I definitely started exploring that style of playing on Nuda, but the sound has evolved, even live. I am just more confident with this new thing that is now part of being Andrea Ramolo.”
Selecting from the varied and dynamic menu of musical masterpieces that Cohen created over 14 studio albums, running over a five-decade career was not an easy task, as Ramolo already spoke to. This meant leaving off song classic songs that didn’t fit the tone and tenor that she was driving for with the Homage project, including Hallelujah, arguably the most covered track in Cohen’s repertoire.
“I kept that one off the table because after k.d. lang destroyed that song in the most beautify way, there was no way I could even try to imitate it. I will attempt it live and I have some plans as how to arrange and interpret it. Everybody loves to sing that song, because it’s so peaceful and soulful. I learned that song when I was in Catholic school as part of our choir,” she said, adding that she chose the song The Law because it hadn’t been covered yet.
“I actually couldn’t find anyone who has ever covered that. I would love to be corrected on that, because I did a lot of research because I wanted to just explore and listen to other people’s approach to his songs. I wondered what I could do to make this unique? What can make this sound like Andrea Ramolo, but like I was an actress with a script. So, I am very curious to hear if someone else indeed has covered The Law.”
As evidence of the commitment to the Homage project the Ramolo has is the fact that all of the costs are coming from her own pocket, including purchasing the mechanical licencing to reproduce the songs. She wanted both literal as well as emotional ownership if the project. It’s truly a creation that comes from a deep recess of love and respect, which also means she is willing to endure any slings and arrows of negativity that may come her way from Cohen fans who may not appreciate her interpretations. Ramolo, though, does not believe this will happen.
“There were extra expenses making this album that I didn’t have on previous albums, which is fine. I knew that going in. Of course, an artist needs to be paid for an initial creation of their work. So, I own my production masters, but I don’t own the songs. And I am not concerned or worried about anything at all. You know that true fans of Leonard and true music fans in general are lovers of the songs, and that’s what I am and that’s how I approached this project as well. I am honouring these songs; I am not claiming this work to be my own, I am not trying to take credit for anything,” she said.
“It was literally a love project for me. I paid for everything myself, which I had never done before. I had always had support from labels or granting associations. This time it was an out of pocket deal, so it was a hefty expense for me to do this all on my own. But I wanted to make it to honour these songs, to honour this artist who has inspired me and also because once the ball started rolling in this direction it just made sense. It felt right. Everything was pointing in the direction of making this album, and so I did. If people love Leonard’s songs, they’re still there. And, again music and any art piece is subjective. It’s nice when people like your work for sure, but not everybody is going to like your work in life, and not everybody is going to like you.
“And I think I am at an age and stage where I don’t really care. I am not here to try to impress people or get them to like me. I am here to do what I do, which is to make my art and to find my way into connection with other people. The people who respond well to that are the people I want to connect with. It’s like you don’t go chasing after lovers that don’t want you, that’s a waste of time and energy. You go where the love is. Like Leonard said, love is the only engine of survival, and it really is, right?”
Homage will be coming out on all digital platforms as well as physical copies on Nov. 7. A series of album launch shows take place, starting Wednesday, Nov. 7 at the Burdock in Toronto, followed by shows in Burnstown and Montreal, before Ramolo heads west to play in Western Canada, wrapping up Nov. 25 in Vancouver.
For a complete list of tour dates and to order Homage, visit www.andrearamolo.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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