Instead of heading to a glitzy studio for her third solo album, Darlingford, Canadian folk heroine Cara Luft set up camp in a rotation of remote locations, such as the United Church in Darlingford, Manitoba.
The sound she captures is the sound of travel, of long drives, crashing at friends’ houses, crossing borders, and touching hearts one performance at a time.
As a Juno Award winner and co-founder of popular Canadian roots band the Wailin’ Jennys, Luft’s folk credentials are beyond question.
Nevertheless, she brings something fresh and new to her third solo album, after 2007’s The Light Fantastic and 2010’s One Take Only. In it she mixes together many influences and inspirations: original songs, old ballads and contemporary covers. Songs such as “Bye Bye Love”, “Idaho” and “Off My Mind” are intensely personal songs about love, friendship and heartache.
Simon Holland of Folk Radio UK says of the album, “This is a real life laid bare in all of its richness and complexity.”
Cara choose to record in old churches and other unique spaces in the small prairie townsof Rosebud, Cochrane and Darlingford, from which the album gets its name.
Darlingford draws on collaboration with many artists. Cara co-wrote many of the songs with her friend Lewis Melville, and she tells about that experience in the video below.
She also brought in many musicians from around the world using the power of the Internet. Musicians such as England's Scott Poley and American folk legend Tim O'Brien sent files back to Canada to be engineered. The result was a truly international collaboration.
Cara's music is rooted in tradition, but it doesn't stop there. With “The Ploughboy and the Cockney” and “He Moved through the Fair” old songs have new life breathed into them. Cara also draws on modern music in the folk tradition, choosing such haunting songs as Derroll Adams' "Portland Town" and Mike Scott's "Bring 'Em All In".
A gem of a song on this innovative album is “Dallaire”, written in the voice of Canadian General Roméo Dallaire, who commanded the UN peacekeeping mission during the Rwandan genocide. Though backed by a string quartet, the lyrics tap into the power of the folk ballads of the past.
Foreign kings in foreign lands / They took the power out of my hands / To withdraw was their command…
I went to see the devil’s own / To talk of peace and hope for all / But his smile just froze my soul
Darlingford is a rich, sweeping musical journey, building a bridge between the ancient and the modern—an album of dusty roads, broken hearts, outstretched arms and eyes lifted to heaven.
Find out more at www.caraluft.com.
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