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We are bringing you Erin Costelo’s second album this year in the space of just seven months. Sweet Marie follows Down Below, The Status Quo which was released in her native Canada in 2016 but here in the states just last March. This one was recorded in 10 days in a timber-frame home on the ocean in Little Harbour, Nova Scotia. The native Nova Scotian was reflecting on the world and on the brink of ending her musical career before finding new inspiration to push back. Although the album was recorded quickly, it took on a bigger life on its own, becoming the subject of a new documentary directed by the Juno-award winning songwriter-turned- filmmaker, Amelia Curran.
It took some time for Costelo to fall into the convenient label of “soul singer” as her influences and talents are very broad. She has previous experience writing for Symphony Nova Scotia and the Blue Engine String Quartet with electronic music being a major part of her formal education. Songwriting didn’t emerge until she had spent some time in Toronto where she felt that people didn’t easily connect to her classical compositions. She released her first album upon her return to Cape Breton in 2007. Her We Can Get Over was named R&B/Soul Recording of the Year at the 2014 East Coast Music Awards. Since then she’s been compared to such high profile names as Nina Simone and Carole King. She’s had the opportunity to open for Mavis Staples, Dr. John, and Bettye Lavette and has recently performed with Levon Helm’s Midnight Ramble Band. Suffice it to say, she’s made impressions with the right people. With that, though, comes high expectations and self-induced pressure.
So, for this recording, she hunkered down with a top shelf group of Canadian players comprised of Glenn Mitchem on drums (Blue Rodeo), Anna Ruddick on bass (Randy Bachman), Leith Fleming-Smith on organ (Matt Mays, Hawksley Workman) and her long-time partner, Clive MacNutt on guitar. Costelo is a keyboardist and has an emotively engaging alto voice, capable of reaching into mezzo-soprano range as heard on the title track and she melds soul and pop seamlessly. As such, although the predominant mode here is R&B, it’s a contemporary fresh take on the sound, not a throwback. She adds strings to some, horns to others, and uses the quintet alone for some too. To appreciate the sheer beauty and range of her voice, listen to her on Randy Newman’s “I’ll Be Home,” the closing track which finds her alone at the piano with light string accompaniment. It’s here where you’ll see why the comparisons to Simone and King hold some sway.
It’s difficult to identify an overriding theme but there are several songs where she seems to be harboring secrets or feelings such as these lines from “Hands on Fire” – “And we sit in the warmth/Of the things, we don’t say” or seeking release and solitude as in “Topic of Notes” – “You’ve got to let it all out/When you’re standing at the top of the world/You’ve got to scream and shout/Save your prayers girl” or from “Shadow” – “I was caught in the wind, like a breath in a bubble/That I would burst if I spoke and caused any trouble.” There’s so much mystery and intrigue in her lines that make these songs deeply personal. To counter the bitterness she sounds like she’s in blissful love on the crescendo, glorious chorus filled “My Love,” clearly one of the album’s outstanding tracks.
She throws us a curve in the groove laden, horn-drenched, danceable, “All in Your Head,” rather unexpectedly about aliens. She recounts, “The evening before the day of tracking I woke up in the middle of the night and the ocean was angry and trees were bending in the wind. It was an eerie scene. In the corner of the sky was an ominous green glow. I immediately though (with a little laugh) ALIENS! It should be noted that I had a few glasses of wine that night and cannot be entirely sure this wasn’t a dream. I woke up the next morning wondering if I had witnesses what I thought I had witnessed or if it was All in my HEAD and immediately went to the keyboard and wrote the song, just in time for the last day of tracking.”
While some of these sounds may source from Memphis, Costelo finds several grooves. Much of the “The Sign” is very Band-like and others are more pop or folk-like in approach. Try to put your finger on it and it soon becomes quite clear that she’s not a derivative artist. She cuts her own path, apart from trends, fashion, or predictable industry conventions. This traces to her role as producer, composer and arranger. That’s what made her an enticing subject for the documentary. She examines every note of each performer and how it floats through the studio and is engineered and conditioned out to the audience with painstaking precision. Her special touches like the flute in “Hands on Fire” and the horn outro in “Lights Down Low” are especially striking.
Costelo’s previous album, Down Below, The Status Quo was nominated for a total of 12 awards in Canada, winning Producer of the Year and Solo Recording of the Year. This one is similarly genre-defying, has less acoustic piano, fewer background vocals and is a bit more organic, likely due to the assembled quintet and a comfortable recording environment. Costelo will be on an extensive North American tour now through mid-winter. Catch this talented musician if you can.
