In advance of her making the trip to the capital for a few shows at the National Arts Centre, we gave Jenn Grant a call to chat about her connection to our city and her new record The Beautiful Wild.
She’s released a beautiful new album. It’s interesting and diverse in lots of fun ways — almost as if she took the best sounds off the last record and used them to inspire the next.
“With each record anyone would mature as an artist and you are more confident in the type of sound you want to create,” said Grant about how this record came together. “With each album my team is more solidified.”
This team includes Grant’s husband, Danny Ledwell, as her producer. The Beautiful Wild their second record together. He worked on Honeymoon Punch and according to Grant the working relationship has stabilized in great ways. “It’s still exciting to work together,” says Grant, but with one record under their belts, they have more experience collaborating.
Jenn Grant is a staple of the Halifax music scene. The day we spoke she was fresh from the Nova Scotia music awards where her husband took home an award for best producer. She says that she benefitted from that community when she began as a young musician. “I was so welcomed by people who are still my best friends,” said Grant. (She’s friends with the likes of Tanya Davis and Rose Cousins.) “I’ve definitely benefited. It’s an emotional benefit.”
This latest record includes a cover of Eye of the Tiger, renamed Green Grows the Lilac. Grant sang the song originally at the request of Mike Clattenburg, a local Halifax filmmaker, and she seems to have fallen in love with its sound. She says the track let her “sing in a way that I wanted to sing.” It fits well with the album as a whole and her approach changes the feeling of Survivor’s song completely.
Ottawa is a special place for Grant. She’s no stranger to the national capital and has played the Blacksheep Inn many times—she even considered renting a place in Wakefield for a bit. “Ottawa has always been an excellent audience,” says Grant.
But that’s not her only connection. Grant’s Grandfather, Daniel J. MacDonald, was the Minister for Veterans Affairs in Pierre Trudeau’s cabinet and spent years in the capital. He makes a cameo in the video for The Fighter thanks to archival footage that Grant used to pull the video together. It was released on CBC Radio Three earlier this month. Grant’s mother also spent time here and she was quick to draw the personal connection to the city.
Grant is playing the NAC as part of their NAC Presents series. It’s a different kind of show for the NAC and according to Simone Deneau, NAC Presents Producer, they are “looking to bring a new audience to the NAC and to offer the 30-45 age group a different atmosphere from what they are used to in bars to see a great variety of Canadian artists that they love.”
Honestly, I hope that people in this age group will still go to bars to see live music, but I can also appreciate the goal of putting artists on great stages and offering a level of production quality that will allow an artist like Jenn Grant to shine—she’ll also sound mighty-fine at the Blacksheep Inn.
Don’t take my word for it. Thanks to our friends at the NAC, we’ve got two tickets to the show this weekend. Just send an email to apartment613@gmail.com or send a tweet to @apartment613 by 3pm today mentioning Jenn Grant and you’ll be entered in the draw.
Jenn Grant plays the NAC XX Stage today and Saturday. Shows start at 7:30pm. For those of you who don’t win, you can find tickets online here: http://nac-cna.ca/en/presents/event/3262
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