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Christine Fellows
Folk music has a bad rap. Tell someone you're into folk and they'll instantly picture a pretty but overly emotional girl with an acoustic guitar and lots of whining, preferably in a bohemian coffeeshop setting.
Christine Fellows is easily classified as a folk artist, with a sound that's somewhat like like a cross between Kristin Hersh and Lisa Germano, but her hand-crafted avant folk is anything but cloying, overbearing, or melodramatic. She's folk, but with inventive turns, and a chamber-pop twist.
She has a slightly breathy and delicate but strong that's matched up with inventive melodies that are full of light and life. Her last album, Paper Anniversary was recorded at home, and evokes the feeling of visiting a friend's comfortably worn living room, patches on the sofa and all.
Fellows is an unusually literate storyteller with a a knack at catching nuances that reminds me of the lyrics of John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats; with a sweet and confident air, her songs are a bit of lo-fi sugar, tackling sensitive subjects like funerals and emergency rooms and falling in love as matter of fact and with a slightly skewed perspective on life. After all, this is a woman who claims a certain weakness for cheap pianos and scotch in the middle of a Canadian winter was responsible for her album Last One Standing.
Christine Fellows also happens to be married to John K. Samson of the Weakerthans, and the more thoughtful sensibilities of her music reflect a philosophy very similar to the Weakerthan's gentle moments, while the upbeat numbers swing and twirl and show a relentless joy for life.
She also has the touch of the Renaissance woman about her: having done composition for dance, television, radio, as well as spoken word and film, mostly within the Winnipeg arts community. I daresay she's not your garden variety singer-songwriter, and anyone with half a heart will see the charm of her music.
Christine Fellows - Vertebrae
Christine Fellows - Instruction On How To Dissect A Ground Owl
Christine Fellows - Departures/Arrivals
Christine Fellows - Veda's Waltz
Christine Fellows - Seconds After
Christine Fellows' official site. Buy Paper Anniversary from Six Shooter Records or iTunes Music Store. Buy Last One Standing from Amazon or iTunes Music Store.
Posted by Queen of the Front Row at 02.13.06 at 2:22 AM
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