The Nova Scotia-based Mary Jane Lamond has opened the East Coast
Music Awards, showcased at the East Coast Music Weekend and appeared around
the country, touring regularly as Ashley MacIsaac's featured guest and appearing
with him at special showcases in California.
At the East Coast Music Awards in 1996, Mary Jane was nominated for Female
Artist of the Year and Roots/Traditional Artist of the Year for her release
Bho Thir Nan Craobh. In 1997, she received a nomination for Song of the Year
for perfomring Sleepy Maggie with Ashley MacIsaac. And for the 1998 awards,
Mary Jane was given the nod again, this time for Female Artist, Best Video.
The Calgary Herald Rebecca Eckler Aug. 20, 1997
Lilith Fair performer gets funky with bagpipers
Mary Jane Lamond has been called a Gaelic angel, the Celtic queen
and, as fiddler Ashley MacIsaac has introduced her in concerts, Cape Breton's
disco diva.
Friday night, when Lilith Fair comes to McMahon Stadium, Calgarians will have a chance to see the Gaelic songstress in action.
Her latest album, Suas e! (pronounced su-ess-ay), literally translated
means "lifted." But it is also a word of encouragement, sort of like "Go for
it!"
Like her first album, Bho Thir Nan Craobh (From the Land of the Trees,) Suas
e! is rooted in Gaelic tradition, but much more so.
Singing in Scottish Gaelic, Lamond intertwines pop and funk with percussion,
Highland bagpipes, Irish bodhran and the cello
.
Lamond became a commercial success with the help of Ashley MacIsaac's
debut album, Hi, How Are You Today?, and the song Sleepy Maggie, which features
Lamond singing hypnotic and haunting lyrics.
The song became a hit and resulted in Lamond touring with MacIsaac
and The Kitchen Devils, along with Melissa Etheridge, The Chieftains and the
Crash Test Dummies.
Touring for Lamond is important especially since the ancient words
that make up her songs are hard to communicate to audiences who don't understand
and, most likely, have never heard them before.
"A lot of people are curious about my music," says Lamond on the
phone from Toronto. "But they think it's too 'out there.' I don't think it is,
but it's more acceptable in Scotland or Ireland."
Lamond is on a tour bus headed to Milwaukee ("Ya know, Laverne
and Shirley") for her first Lilith Fair performance. It's a performance that
Lamond eagerly and anxiously awaits.
"It will be such a cool show. Women together have a certain vibe that's hard
to explain," she says.
The Lilith Fair is also an opportunity, says Lamond, for different musical styles
to be featured in a large scale performance.
"Women just perform a different type of music. There are not that many women
that make rock music."
Although Lamond doesn't believe that women are purposely excluded
from other summer festival lineups, including Edgefest and Lollapalooza, she
has been in situations where she found herself the only female performer.
"I did Edgefest with Ashley MacIsaac and I was the only woman on
stage the whole day and I only sang one song," says Lamond. "And when I did
Another Roadside Attraction it was only me and Sheryl Crow the whole time."
Lamond's early years were spent moving between Quebec and Ontario,
but she soaked up the Gaelic heritage over summers visiting her grandparents
in Cape Breton, where she now lives.
Her almost instant love for the Gaelic culture became so intense
that Lamond started spending time at festivals, introducing herself to other
Gaelic speakers and musicians, and convincing them to teach her the ancient
songs.
She is also a graduate of the Celtic studies program at St. Francis Xavier University
Although it was the beautiful melodies that first attracted Lamond, she is also
drawn to the the lyrics she calls "simple and powerful."
The Gaelic repertoire of songs numbers in the thousands and is the main reason
that Lamond is in no hurry to try her art in English.
Lamond has worked hard not to become known as a Gaelic dancing
queen after the success of Sleeping Maggie and to keep true to the roots and
tradition of Gaelic music.
"I still perform in Gaelic choral groups and support the tradition at a grassroot
level.
"It's something I'm passionate about," she adds. "You have to really love what
you do or else it's too hard. If I didn't love it, it wouldn't be worth it."
Òrain Ghàidhlig (Gaelic Songs Of Cape Breton)
Enhanced CD with Video
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While the album's concerns include such vexing matters as mortality and loneliness, Jet makes it hard not to smile, because raging passion illuminates every note. Though the spooky "Ole, Conquistador" scoffs at the "patriarchal order," and the soaring "Leonor" celebrates a real-life free spirit of the Surrealist era, Keineg's flair for the dramatic is usually its own message, an inspirational display of exuberant will.
That's just as well, since her headlong delivery and the dynamic waves of sound can make it impossible to figure out exactly what's going on. Better simply to savor the breezy cool of "Veni, Vidi, Vici" or surrender to the vortex of "Marietta", highlighted by Keineg's exotic Yoko-like effects. Wailing, singing, sighing, and generally wringing every drop of emotion from the colorful melodies, she often seems on the verge of babbling in tongues, consumed by rapture and loving every second of it.
Keineg makes lousy background music, because she can't be ignored.
Consider "Smile", a standout among many stellar tracks. Beginning as an insistent
whisper, it slowly builds to an electrifying, primal shriek chorus; meanwhile,
the dense, finely detailed production (by Keineg, Eric Drew Feldman, and John
Holbrook) reveals exciting facets with every listen. More than a well-crafted
piece of product, Jet will intoxicate anyone who still believes pop music can
transcend dreary reality.
- Jon Young
Jet
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O'Seasons O'Castles
Reviewed by Q magazine October of 1994
The unusual name and dramatic title herald the first album from a Brittany-born,
Welsh-raised singer who's already made a name for herself in Ireland and America.
To call her a folk singer would be a gross understatement. True, there are acoustic
guitars and accordians, but there are also vibes and string quartets. There
are jazz and blues influences too, along with a vocal approach that ranges from
gentle to raw and passionate - somewhere between the Melanie of Born to Be and
the Joni Mitchell of The Hissing of Summer Lawns.
That there is to be no tidy pigeonhole for Keineg is underlined
by her material - broad, colourful, emotive dramas full of unusual lyrical angles
and startling (sometimes unpleasant) images of love and life, with a spoken
piece and a traditional Welsh hymn to boot. The first half is melodic and full
of good songs; the second is more meandering and less arresting. Either way,
a striking and highly individual free spirit who most certainly merits your
attention.
O'Seasons O'Castles
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