Description

Since it’s release in the winter of 2009, “Hunter, Hunter” has become one of the most talked about and critically lauded folk albums in Canada. It has garnered a stack of awards and accolades including the 2010 Juno award for Best Folk Roots Recording, the 2011 Canadian Folk award for Best Solo Artist, multiple Music Newfoundland and Labrador and Music Nova Scotia awards and four East Coast Music Award nominations including FACTOR Recording of the Year and SOCAN Songwriter of the Year. It is a beautifully poignant, layered, intellectual and wonderfully melodic. It marks the first of Amelia’s records to be made in her hometown of St. John’s. Up until the summer of 2011, Amelia called Halifax her home. The album is, “rich in metaphor, language and instrumentation. It speaks to themes of unrequited longing, the notion of belonging and reflection of love both lost and found”. Amelia is a poet, a wordsmith in the purest sense of the word. She has a profound way of dissecting the human condition and reassembling the pieces in a thought-provoking, image-laden and carefully constructed way. She says, “Songwriting is not just about the words. Lyrics need a musical partner to fully convey meaning”. A suitable musical partner was certainly found in this case. Amelia enlisted the help of Engineer/producers Don Ellis and Mark Neary and a host of wonderful musicians including folk trio, The Once, legendary St. John’s guitarist, Sandy Morris, percussionist, George Morgan, Geoff Panting on accordion and bassist, Matthew Hender to flesh out the musical aspect of the record. It is at times stark and minimalist at others it is ripe with multi-instrumental layers giving the album a wonderful dynamic. Again, the music acts as a vehicle for the lyrics. It serves the narrative giving breath to certain moments and leaving others to carry the message carefully on their own. There is a thoughtful care taken toward every instant. Amelia is a confident acoustic guitar player and her performance is rounded out by bouzouki, mandolin, banjo, accordion and percussion giving the record a stripped down, natural feel that gels perfectly with the raw honesty of the lyrics. It is an elegant and cryptic self analysis. It is often self deprecating and at times even self loathing. It is an apology, an act of penance and cleansing. It is beautiful subdued and occasionally somber. It is completely beautiful. It is fragile and at once unshakeable. Amelia packs more meaning into a single phrase than most in an entire album worth of songs. She is, undoubtedly, one of the country’s finest songwriters.