Most musicians record an album, then cross the country, promoting it. Folk/pop artist Bonnie Ste-Croix is going across Canada, making her new CD as she goes.
Ste-Croix, originally from Gaspe, Que., and now living in Halifax, N.S., is travelling across the country, recording original tunes with some of the most popular folk artists in each province.
She started her recording tour in Vancouver last June; on Tuesday, she was at Record Time Studios in downtown St. John’s, recording her song “If I Could Sail” with local group The Once.
“When I was choosing the songs for the provinces, I wanted the music to gel with songs from the region,” Ste-Croix told The Telegram. “I looked online and I came across The Once and I loved them, and thought they felt like a good fit.”
Ste-Croix contacted the group’s management, and arrangements were made to connect them.
In the studio Tuesday, Ste-Croix and The Once members — Geraldine Hollett, Phil Churchill and Andrew Dale — each laid down their individual harmonies, and tried out instruments like the bodhran, mandolin and bouzouki with Ste-Croix’s guitar track.
The Once, not long home from a tour of Ireland, won four MusicNL awards last year, and took home the Traditional Album of the Year and Emerging Artist of the Year at last month’s Canadian Folk Music Awards.
Ste-Croix has three albums under her belt and has received national airplay as well as an honourable mention in the Billboard World Song Contest. Her songs have been featured in films, and one was chosen for a compilation album honouring the life of Martin Luther King.
Other guests on Ste-Croix’s album, “Canadian Girl,” include Natalie MacMaster (from Nova Scotia), Shari Ulrich (B.C.), Catherine MacLelland (P.E.I.) and The Fates (Alberta), as well as the Inuksuk Drum Dancers Girls’ Choir from Iqualuit.
Newfoundland and Labrador is the last province Ste-Croix plans to visit before Christmas, and the eighth one she’s visited so far. She hopes to have “Canadian Girl” released in time for the 2011 summer festival season.
“It’s been amazing — every recording session has been fun,” Ste-Croix said. “It’s been challenging, co-ordinating everybody’s schedules, but so worth it.”
More information on Ste-Croix and her project is available on her blog at www.bonniestecroix.wordpress.com.
tbradbury@thetelegram.com
www.twitter.com/tara_bradbury
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