Blame Bob Dylan and his laying waste to the Brill Building division of labor between singers and songwriters for the lingering critical prejudice against pulling from someone else’s songbook. Herein, Canadian singer-songwriter Serena Ryder argues persuasively that there’s no reason why an artist can’t be both author and interpreter, with equal authority.
Ryder, who is blessed with an expansive, versatile voice, deserves credit for her wise selection of songs, but also for her daring in approaching these songs from some unexpected angles. Galt McDermott’s “Good Morning Starshine” (from the ’60s Broadway lodestone “Hair”) gets a nifty, syncopated treatment. Toronto songwriter Bonnie Dobson’s “Morning Dew” (which has been covered by everyone from the Grateful Dead to Einsturzende Neubaten) gets an incendiary modern-rock treatment. Paul Anka’s “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore” is re-imagined as a convincing gospel number. A vaguely Caribbean beat is grafted onto the indelible folk melody of Sylvia Tyson’s “You Were On My Mind”. Percy Faith’s plaintive “My Heart Cries For You” gives Ryder a chance to launch her most wrenching performance skyward.
Leonard Cohen’s immortal “Sisters Of Mercy” and the Rick Danko/Bob Dylan collaboration “This Wheel’s On Fire” fail to catch fire with quite the same level of invention, but three of Ryder’s own compositions (including “Out Of The Blue”, co-written with Guess Who/BTO guitarist Randy Bachman) suggest she has her own stories to tell, too.
