Catherine MacLellan - Coyote

  by Malcolm Carter

published: 17 / 3 / 2020

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Review

With so much talent and great music about currently, it’s not too difficult to temporarily forget just how good certain artists are. By my reckoning it’s been six long years since Juno Award winner Catherine MacLellan released ‘The Raven’s Sun’, her last album of original material. One of the reasons it’s been so long since we’ve had new songs from Catherine is because she has spent some time working on music that her father created. Gene MacLellan will be known to most music fans for songs such as ‘Snowbird’ and ‘Put Your Hand in the Hand’ which, depending on where you reside, will be familiar from different versions (I’ll go for the Anne Murray versions of both titles, the same for the Elvis Presley covers). In 2017, Catherine released an album of her father’s songs, ‘If It’s Alright With You - The Songs Of Gene MacLellan’, which was also a show based on Gene’s life and music. Finally, at the end of 2019, the UK saw the release of ‘Coyote’, fourteen new, original songs from this talented Canadian. And it’s good to have Catherine back; taking that break to keep her father’s music alive has maybe produced some unexpected results. In returning to her own songwriting, Catherine has created what may just be her strongest set of songs during her career. Or maybe we had forgotten for a short while just what an accomplished singer-songwriter Catherine is. There’s heartbreak and loss scattered throughout these new songs while other songs focus on what is still to come and generate hope. It’s an honest set of songs; the listener feels that Catherine is opening up lyrically maybe slightly more than she has on previous outings. But it’s that voice! How could we, however temporarily, forget just what a remarkable and expressive vocalist Catherine MacLellan is? Recorded in Catherine’s home studio on Prince Edward Island and self-produced, there are songs on ‘Coyote’ that will melt the hardest of hearts, ‘Come Back In’ is but one example of how Catherine’s crystalline vocals, coupled with instrumentation which perfectly accentuates her touching lyrics, cut through whatever is going on, so the listener is compelled to listen intently and let the world pass by. The production adds a lovely warm glow to the songs, even those about loss and longing while the instruments, at times used sparingly, add to the atmosphere of the song perfectly. It’s the little touches, the unexpected fleeting sounds that add to the attraction of the songs. ‘Coyote’ is an album that flows so perfectly it’s almost impossible to pick a highlight; it’s one of those albums that demands to be listened to in one sitting and then more than once. It must be fifteen or so years since Catherine first made her mark on the music scene. and she still fascinates with her story-songs which will resonate with so many. It’s time to go back and rediscover Catherine’s earlier work and not make the mistake of grouping her in with many of her contemporaries as just another good singer-songwriter; it’s time, on this showing, to place her where she truly belongs, up there with the great artists from the golden era of singer-songwriters. It’s her rightful place. If you’ve ever been moved by the work of any of the exceptional female singer-songwriters from Joni Mitchell to Michelle Lewis, then take a listen to album closer ‘Too Many Hearts’ and be prepared to have your heart broken.

Track Listing:-

1 Coyote
2 Roll With The Wind
3 The Road Is Divided
4 Out of Time
5 Breath of a Wind
6 The Tempest
7 Emmet's Song
8 Night Crossing
9 Sweet By and By
10 Out of Nowhere
11 Come Back In
12 All the Way In
13 Waiting On My Love
14 Too Many Hearts