• Craft beer and well-crafted songs: Sarah MacDougall shines in her NXNE debut

    DavidMcPherson Posted On June 15, 2012
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    Who would have thought songs about bears, wolves, and loneliness–penned by a woman living in a cabin in the woods with a heavy-heart–could be so arresting? Last night, Canadian song slinger Sarah MacDougall made her debut at NXNE (Toronto’s equivalent to SXSW.) Admittedly nervous, MacDougall did her best to get the audience involved — in one song everyone was encouraged to howl like a wolf or just talk gibberish while she picked a lick on her guitar and later on she left the stage and encouraged the audience to sing the chorus with her.

    The short 45-minute set featured the bulk of the songs from the folk singer’s most recent record The Greatest Ones Alive.

    MacDougall made the most of her time. Despite chattering of barflys sipping craft beers and not paying much attention to her songs, her voice carried the room.

    I was initially introduced to this songwriter when the editor/publisher of Penguin Eggs (Canada’s quarterly Folk music magazine), asked me to pen a feature on her. I had never heard of MacDougall, but am now glad that I was given this assignment so I could discover her arresting voice and strong, well-crafted songs.

    See below for my feature that originally was published in Penguin Eggs to learn more about this talented songwriter.

    “Song poet” Sarah MacDougall finds chaos and calm in life’s storms

    By David McPherson
    Sarah MacDougall channels the “Swedish melancholy” that’s in her blood into her unique brand of folk music.

    Upon hearing the Canadian songwriter’s voice for the first time, one is struck by an instrument that is as lovely and lazy as a midday nap in a hammock. Her sophomore disc – The Greatest Ones Alive – was released independently at the end of August; it features 10 choice cuts and collaborations with fellow Canuck musicians Kim Barlow, Kim Beggs, Gordon Tentrees and Awna Teixeira. She describes the record as “just a bunch of friends getting together.”

    MacDougall has been hailed by some as “one of the most promising musical exports out of Sweden since ABBA.” Big shoes to fill indeed, but she’s up to the task.

    I catch up with her while she’s in the midst of a mini European tour promoting her new record. When she’s not following the white lines of the road, MacDougall calls Whitehorse, Yukon home. While she grew up in Sweden , she’s now lived in our home and native land for half her life; this dual upbringing is a big influence on her music.
    “My Swedish heritage does come out in my music,” MacDougall explains. “I’m very influenced by Sweden , as well as the ‘Swedish melancholy,’ which is in my blood. Swedish people discuss everything and think about things deeply, and it is ingrained in me from growing up there.
    “I am also very influenced by the vastness of Canadian nature as well as the openness and light heartedness of Canadians,” she adds. “Canadians, as I see it, don’t take everything as seriously as Swedish people, and I have definitely taken that to heart since moving to Canada .”

    MacDougall’s new record was partially produced in her current hometown of Whitehorse and the coldness and darkness of this northern Canadian province is evident in the pair of songs cut there.

    “I finally had time to sit down and relax in a cabin in the woods alone where ‘Permafrost’ and ‘We’re all gonna blow away’ were written,” she says. “It was -40 Celsius outside; in that climate it’s very easy to stay inside and pick up the guitar. The recording sessions were one-take deals. I chose to move to Whitehorse because of a friend of mine who offered me a cabin to house sit for the fall and winter last year and I was also going on tour in the Yukon and Alaska, so I thought, ‘Why not hang out for a few months and see what happens.’ I had been living out of a storage locker in Vancouver for a few years and constantly touring, so living in the quiet in the woods sounded really good to me … I just fell in love with the people and music in the north. It’s a really vibrant, inclusive, and interesting music scene in Whitehorse . It’s small, but wild.”
    Reflecting on the songs on the new disc, the title cut — “The Greatest Ones Alive” stands out as one of for MacDougall’s favourites partly because it took the longest to write.
    “Not because it’s complicated, probably just because it’s so simple,” she concludes. “I really just wanted to capture the feeling of loss that one can experience when leaving your 20s, entering your 30s and becoming a grown up. There’s a certain sense of nostalgia that I really felt when I turned 30, thinking about having left Sweden and my family, not having the time to be in contact with my friends because I am just so busy trying to make ends meet, feeling all this pressure to be a ‘successful’ adult etc.
    “You get to a certain point where you need to make a lot of choices,” she adds. “For me, that was turning 30. I had to make a choice, do I want to continue pursuing music and having this crazy ‘stormy’ lifestyle, being away from family and friends all the time, being tired all the time, etc. or should I do the more ‘mature’ thing and settle down, have kids, get a ‘real’ job etc.. How do you keep the child in you alive when you are feeling all these pressures of life and growing up? That was the space I was in when I wrote that song. Since then, I have let my 30-year crisis go and am more relaxed. But it was a really important song for me to write and I feel really happy with how it turned out.”

    Hear songs from MacDougall’s latest The Greatest Ones Alive here: http://tiny.cc/pmayfw




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