POLARIS MUSIC PRIZE LONGLISTED SONGWRITER’S NEW ALBUM, DAYBREAK OVER JACKSON STREET, OUT APRIL 14 VIA PHEROMONE RECORDINGS
LISTEN AND SHARE “WINTERWOOD” HERE
LIVE PERFORMANCE DATES BEGIN APRIL 15
PHOTO CREDIT : Mark Maryanovich // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
Today, Saskatoon-based roots singer / songwriter Steph Cameron is sharing “Winterwood,” the latest track from her upcoming album Daybreak Over Jackson Street. “Winterwood” is about “being at the mercy of uncertain forces,” says Cameron. “Of a moment where time is frozen and clear and our own vulnerability is stark and beautiful.”
LISTEN AND SHARE “WINTERWOOD” HERE
Due out April 14 via Pheromone Recordings, Cameron will support Daybreak Over Jackson Street with a hometown release show on April 15 in Saskatoon before making her way to Toronto for Canadian Music Week.
In 2014, Steph Cameron arrived on the scene like a bracing gust of fresh musical air with her debut record Sad-Eyed Lonesome Lady, receiving unanimously enthusiastic reviews. “This is a monumental, brilliant album… heralds the crowning of a bright new talent,” declared PopMatters in calling it the #1 Canadian album of 2014. No Depression termed it “a stunning debut,” while Exclaim! noted that “Sad-Eyed Lonesome Lady delights from start to finish. Steph Cameron is the real deal.” The record also made the coveted longlist for the prestigious Polaris Music Prize in 2015.
Look for music scribes to again reach for superlatives to describe Daybreak Over Jackson Street as Steph’s new album navigates subtle changes in stylistic terrain. If the debut felt as if it emerged fully-formed from the bohemian streets of Greenwich Village circa 1963, then the extra maturity of this album gives it more of an early ‘70s Laurel or Topanga Canyon atmosphere.
Like her debut, Daybreak Over Jackson Street was recorded at elite Toronto studio Revolution Recording with producer Joe Dunphy. It retains the sparse template of her first record – one voice, one guitar, both recorded in intimate fashion and to tape.
Many of these new songs feature a more mature Cameron looking back upon earlier turbulent times. “As I get a bit older I’m able to recall my youth from a different perspective. Many of these songs draw their content from the life and relationships I had in my youth; to people and places, particularly East Vancouver.” She describes “Daybreak Over Jackson Street” as a song “about living in an impoverished neighbourhood in an urban setting. That song acknowledges some of the elements of life in a slum.” A similar locale, East Vancouver, permeates “Richard,” a haunting ode to a troubled comrade left behind – ‘a hotel is a real sad place for living’.
Having spent some time living in The Kootenays, the great outdoors appears in Cameron’s “That’s What Love Is,” a lovely and gentle tune featuring a circular guitar pattern and such atmospheric imagery as ‘late at night when the coyotes call, the dogs whimper and the leaves fall’. Then there is the fast and breezy “Little Blue Bird,” one ‘sitting in the snow, staring at the stars dreaming of the railroad cars’.
LISTEN TO AND SHARE “CALIFORNIA” HERE
LISTEN TO AND SHARE “YOUNG AND LIVING FREE” HERE
LIVE DATES
Apr 15 – Saskatoon, SK – Village Guitar & Amp
Apr 22 – Toronto, ON – The Dakota Tavern (8 PM) - CMW
