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Contemporary roots
By Daron Letts Northern News Services Published Tuesday, December 16, 2008 To hear new music from Mary Caroline, check out her Myspace page at www.myspace.com/marycarolinecox
Since drifting North in 2005, songwriter Mary Caroline has earned a reputation as one of Yellowknife's most promising and prolific young acoustic songwriters. Her soft voice roams an alto range that animates powerful, personal and playful Northern narratives.
Caroline's latest musical output, which includes about 30 original songs, contributes to the refreshing wave of Canadian women artists, like Nova Scotia's Leslie Feist and Ontario's Sarah Harmer, who break traditional boundaries to marry folk-roots music with synthetic sound. Caroline is soon travelling to Victoria to collaborate with local sound designer and multi-instrumentalist Travis Mercredi, who is mid-way through the sound design and visual media program at Vancouver Film School, to produce her first full-length album with support from the NWT Arts Council. "We're just going to hunker down and give'r sh-t," Caroline said. "In January we're going to decide what songs to put on the album and then break them down and rebuild them." The disc will offer about a dozen original tracks ranging from minimalist vocal and acoustic arrangements to rich multi-layered songs featuring a variety of instruments and electronic production. "Mary and I have been friends for a while and I know how passionate she is about what she does," Mercredi said. "She's already done a fair amount of work putting together her songs on an eight-song demo. Our idea is to go as big as possible and then chisel it down and find the right way to emphasize the voice." Mercredi will provide electric bass parts and drummer Dale Peltier, a former Yellowknifer who has performed with Diga and Victoria band The Paper Cranes, will supply percussion. The album is slated for a March release with a concert in Yellowknife. In addition to working in the studio, Caroline is booking gigs along the West Coast, including an upcoming performance at Vancouver's Cafe du Soleil. Caroline performs at 8 p.m. Friday night at Fuego alongside guitarist TJ Buggins.
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