October by Meredith Luce

There is surprising variation in tunes and guitar styles ranging from folk and folk rock to alt-country and quirky pop.

More about Meredith

Meredith has long been acclaimed for her vocals. Billboard’s Larry Leblanc spotted Meredith several years ago at a youth showcase and commented on the maturity and conviction in her voice.

She counts several Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) radio hosts and producers among her supporters. “That is a voice I can’t get enough of,” said Alan Neal after a taping for Canada Live. Several years ago, Amanda Putz, then host of Fuse and Bandwidth, noted, “Meredith Luce is the kind of songwriter who believes that a story is only as good as the way you deliver it…[and she delivers it] with a voice that belies the fact she can't yet legally sip a drop of whiskey.” Meredith has also appeared on CBC’s Vinyl Café, Bandwidth as well as local CBC broadcasts.

Last year on Canada Day she was featured on CTV across Canada on Good Morning Canada.

Meredith has played major festivals in Ottawa and eastern Ontario (Bluesfest, the Ottawa Folk Festival, Westfest, the Stewart Park Festival in Perth, and the Ottawa Fringe). Paul Symes proprietor of the Blacksheep Inn has called Meredith one of the most significant new talents to grace his stage in recent years. Meredith hosts a series at the Blacksheep featuring emerging talent.

The year when she plays on the main stage of the Ottawa Folk Festival with her band, the CBC will record the set for later air play. No stranger to the festival, Meredith became the youngest person ever to receive the Ottawa Folk Festival’s Beth Ferguson Songwriting Award in 2005.

The Ottawa Sun’s Allan Wigney numbers Meredith among five Ottawa acts deserving of an international reputation. She drew notice south of the border this summer when North Country Public Radio, the northern New York affiliate of National Public Radio, selected Meredith for their UpNorth Music project. They have now recorded a six song EP of Meredith’s new songs for subsequent air play and other project opportunities. Meredith will have another occasion to build US audiences when she tours New England in the early fall.

Closer to home, as an outstanding participant at the Humber College Songwriting Workshop at Humber College, Meredith was awarded a demo recording at Toronto’s Megawatt Studios, with Juno winner Haydain Neale (JackSoul) as producer. Meredith was recently selected to play in the Songwriter’s Association of Canada showcase at the Ontario Council of Folk Festivals in October.

About October—the songs

The bluesy title track “October” evokes the coming of Canadian winter with lyrics that began as a poem:

When the colour leaves the leaves

And the fireworks have faded,

Stark naked skeleton trees

Are shamelessly degraded:

Bent by winter’s winds’

Haunting hollow serenades,

The frost is creeping in

Behind the dead leaves on parade.

In “Pages”, the writer’s imagination is mystically celebrated with a memorable guitar riff, echoed in the vocals, and with lyrics suggesting the mysterious origins of the writer’s imagination:

In a room of four green walls,

Histories of people fall

To the ground to form the pages

Of where new stories take us.

“Up and Away” has a magic realism drawn from its original sestina form where the mixing and moving of words creates a puzzle about what is real and what is a dream.

Meredith’s draws on recent experiences of moving out and moving on in life in three tracks. “Sing Me Back Home” is about leaving the places of childhood dreams. The optimistic “Heading Out” reflects on learning life's lessons and then “Heading out/heading on/ to conquer words, to conquer song. “ The rollicking “Needle in the Groove” takes the journey one step further in focusing on shaking off complacency and making a difference: “don’t remain as a nneedle in a groove/ lead on in every move.”

Literary characters also inspire Meredith. The retro 30’s style “Black Cats” is based on an Oscar Wilde short story while“Tess” tells the story of Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles as a country rock tune.

Meredith also details the experiences of her family in “The Ballad of Sally Rae” which tells about family coming to Canada from the West Virginia during the Vietnam War. Her commentary on the effects of war is found in the folk ballad “Count on Me” which mixes the lament about war with an expression of love and support. A similar theme about a personal tragedy is found in “Never Stop Loving You.”

About October—the production

Meredith worked with Juno-nominated producer Dave Draves at Little Bullhorn Productions in Ottawa where the vibe is definitely vintage. Dave records on tape for a warmer sound and uses a variety of vintage instruments and equipment to infuse the albums he records with an old-time, lo-fi sound. The most unusual combination of instruments and recording is in the tune Black Cats where Meredith plays mandolin and Dave an optigan synthesizer while the vocals are recorded with a vintage RCA microphone. Dave contributed other unusal keyboards, percussion and bass guitar to the album.

Backup vocals and the second guitar were provided mainly by Dave Gaudet who is both a member of Meredith’s band.

For more information, consult Meredith's website or myspace page—links are provided in the section on the artist’s links.

Average Customer Review: 5