Music: {allcanada} Smith releases Xmas album, tour dates

Monday, November 28, 2011

{allcanada} Smith releases Xmas album, tour dates

Meaghan Smith, the winner of 2011's best new artist Juno, could have done practically anything to follow up her 2009 debut folk-jazz album, The Cricket's Orchestra, which was seen as a quirkier version of the smooth stylings of Norah Jones, k.d. lang and Michael Buble.

And while the London, Ont.-born, Halifax-based singer-songwriter is in the middle of writing her next CD, she decided to record a Christmas collection -- It Snowed, featuring traditional covers and three originals -- in the meantime.

"I love Christmas, I start thinking about Christmas in January," said Smith in Toronto recently with her husBAND (as she calls him) Jason Mingo, who plays guitar on her cross-Canada tour which launches Tuesday night (Nov. 29) in Vancouver.

With three sisters and 11 nieces and nephews, Smith has plenty of family to celebrate the holidays with. And while her parents are coming to Halifax this year and she's already planned outings to the Nutcracker ballet, Christmas caroling, and ice skating, she'll be on the road with Mingo until then.

Her goal with It Snowed was to make a Christmas album that didn't suck.

"I really wanted to make a holiday (album) that wasn't annoying, and wasn't going to drive people crazy," she said. "Because Christmas music if you're making it for the soul purpose of making a quick buck, and just selling it, I find that really annoying. I wanted to make it artistic, interesting, thought-provoking, but still a fun-loving holiday album. So not too fluffy but not too heavy. And so I tried to choose original songs that I could re-interpret in a really unique way."

To that end, the traditional Baby, It's Cold Outside, features Smith opposite raspy-voiced Halifax rapper Buck 65 over hip-hop samples.

"I was like, 'OK we gotta switch the roles here. His voice doing that part after my voice was like, 'OK, he's not only going to rape me, but then he's going to eat me for breakfast.' So he's the 'I really can't stay' and I'm the, 'But baby it's cold outside.' So I took that really overdone song, I feel like everybody's done it -- like f---ing Jessica Simpson has done it -- and I turn it on its head and want it to make it interesting and give the song a new twist."

Smith garnered initial attention for her T Bone Burnett-produced cover of The Pixies' Here Comes Your Man in the movie, (500) Days of Summer and has also had her songs featured on Grey's Anatomy and One Tree Hill.

She says writing for her next studio record has been really hard with the added pressure of people now knowing who she is on her sophomore record, which she hopes to record with Burnett collaborator Keefus Ciancia (Benji Hughes) as producer, among others, and release in the fall.

"When I made the last record, I didn't have a manager, I didn't have any one at all,' she said. "I just wanted to make a really great record for myself, to say that I had in my life and I had no cares about who was going to listen to it. I didn't think about radio play. I could care less about who was going to buy it. I just made it for fun. And to now be aware about all these other things but try not to think about them when I'm writing. I haven't quite figured out how to turn off those people in my head who are like, 'Make a really good record for us!' "

Needless to say, the best new artist Juno win earlier this year was a genuine surprise.

"Do you see me at the Junos when I did not have my shoes on and Buffy Sainte-Marie called my name?" she said with a laugh. " 'Cause I was like, "These shoes are killing me. They're not going to call my name.'"

Meaghan Smith Canadian Tour Dates:

November 29 -- Vancouver -- The Media Club

November 30 -- Canmore -- Communitea Cafe

December 2 -- Edmonton -- The Royal Alberta Museum Theatre

December 4 -- Winnipeg -- West End Cultural Centre

December 5 -- Calgary -- Ironwood Stage and Grill

December 6 -- Hamilton -- The Peart Company

December 7 -- Toronto -- The Rivoli

December 8 -- Wakefield -- The Black Sheep Inn

December 9 -- Montreal -- Club Lambi

December 16 -- Halifax -- St. Matthew's United Church

December 19 -- Fredericton -- Charlotte Street Arts Centre