When the nominees are announced for the East Coast Music Awards, they
always have to tally up which province has the most. Each performer has
to attach an allegiance to one hometown. That proved difficult for
Roots/Traditional solo artist nominee Patricia Murray. She was born in
Summerside, and lists P.E.I. as her province of record. But she now
lives in Halifax, and with the awards happening in Saint John, that's
really a homecoming for her.
New Brunswick has as much a claim on Murray as the other provinces.
Patricia grew up in Saint John and began her singing career in the
St.Columba Presbyterian Church and the District 19 Honour Choirs. Her
second disc, Primrose, was released in 2001, and she's becoming known as
one of the fine voices in the modern folk-Celtic scene, written up in
the folkies' bible Dirty Linen, and winning awards for her
Gaelic-language singing in Scotland.
The songs on Primrose are from all over the ages: modern originals,
20th century folk song writers such as Ewan MacColl, and historic Gaelic
tunes.
But the music is contemporary; Murray uses today's instruments and
studio sounds to add layers of mystery and atmosphere, never fearing to
make it sound like a song of today. Even Auld Lang Syne gets a
makeover, using the original , seldom heard melody and letting that
simmer with bass and electric guitars. Far from a piece stuck in an old
genre, this is a collection of living music, open to adaptation.
In the end though, it's all about the voice. Murray has one of those
instruments that takes you away to a beautiful other place as soon as
she starts singing. If she takes home an ECMA, the province should
claim at least a third of that trophy, too.
