Whitehorse Star August 19, 2009
Musician will perform songs from album
Images of lost whales, dancing grizzlies and wolves will be conjured up in the minds of those listening to the Canadian Gothic lyrics of a country-turned-indie musician at Baked Cafe tonight.
Images of lost whales, dancing grizzlies and wolves will be conjured up in the minds of those listening to the Canadian Gothic lyrics of a country-turned-indie musician at Baked Cafe tonight.
Beginning at 8 p.m., transgender musician Rae Spoon will perform songs from his most recent album superioryouareinferior. It’s about the darker side of his experiences travelling Canadian highways and touring Canadian cities.
A lot of the songs are about being seen as an “other” in Canadian towns and cities, said Spoon, who has identified as male for about 10 years.
But the lyrics are also heavy with Canadian imagery, and northern imagery in particular.
From the powerful size of the Great Lakes to cabin life in Dawson City, Spoon has experienced all aspects of the Canadian landscape, and has written about it.
“We become our own wolves,” sings Spoon in his song with the same name, inspired from his time in the North.
“Under the snow dancing with grizzlies in my mind. It’s been too long,” Spoon cries in I Can’t Wait to Hear the Noise, a song about cabin fever in the North.
To listen to the electronic compilation of superioryouareinferior is not to suspect it is the creation of an artist whose previous three albums are country-folk.
Growing up in an Alberta city known for its crooners, Spoon sang as a young child in church and started writing country music at 11 years old. He began touring after high school and put out his first EP at 19 years old.
When his partner moved to Germany for school, Spoon followed and started touring around Europe performing country music shows.
While in Germany, he was introduced to a relatively new world of electronic sound, and began experimenting with the software programs on his laptop.
After two years of life in Germany, Spoon returned to Calgary last year, where he recorded superioryouareinferior in just three days.
Spoon is currently working on his next album and will be performing unreleased songs tonight along with those from superioryouareinferior.
