Uptown Magazine Online - Winnipeg's Online Source for Arts, Entertainment & News

Uptown Magazine - Winnipeg's Online Source for Arts, Entertainment & News

November 20, 2008


	Get your copy! Find the Uptown Magazine pickup location nearest you.

2008-11-20

Small-town Prairie girl goes big

Alana Levandoski shakes things up on sophomore disc with a little help from across the pond - and gives local fans a sneak peek

Jen Zoratti

Alana Levandoski's sophomore record, Lions and Werewolves, doesn't hit the street for a few months, but the Kelwood, Man.-based folk/roots darling is anxious to share it - especially with her home province.

"(The record) is going to be released in February, but I knew that I had nothing going on in November," Levandoski says, over the phone from Kelwood. "And when someone gets busy somewhere else, the hometown CD release happens eight or nine months after the record's released. So, I thought, 'Why not launch a whole campaign and raise some money for Habitat for Humanity?'"

Thus, on Nov. 22, Levandoski will unveil Lions and Werewolves at a sneak-peek CD release at the Park Theatre. To make the evening extra-special, the singer/songwriter will also be holding an art/collectors auction which will feature rare art pieces donated by Canadian music luminaries such as Jann Arden, Loreena McKennitt and Tom Wilson - folks Levandoski has steadily earned support from over the course of her short but accomplished, career. (Half the proceeds from the evening will go to Habitat for Humanity, while the other will go to costs associated with the record.)

Levandoksi certainly has fans in high places but having a solid support system at home is particularly important to her.

"Here's a way for me to say 'I want you to support me and be behind me when I take this out,'" she says. "And everybody in Manitoba gets to hear it first, and that's really important to me."

That sentiment makes sense, considering Levandoski, 29, hasn't been home for a while. Her breakthrough debut, 2005's Unsettled Down, was released on roots heavyweight Rounder Records and went on to snag the young performer serious 'next-big-thing' and 'It-girl' accolades in the roots/Americana realm. She toured Unsettled Down in eight countries during the two years following its release, clocking almost 250 dates in the process.

Levandoski also shared stages with Blue Rodeo, Corb Lund, Tanya Tucker and Bruce Cockburn, and racked up co-writing credits with Sylvia Tyson, Simon Wilcox and Colin Linden, among others.

Certainly, it was a thrilling time for Levandoski - but instead of basking in the glow of Unsettled Down, she steadfastly chose to look ahead.

"Obviously, I was thinking about the next project during this time, and I was thinking, if I could have anyone produce my album, it was Ken Nelson."

Not a bad choice. Nelson, a notable U.K.-based producer and three-time Grammy Award winner, was the sound wizard behind Coldplay's first three records (2000's Parachutes, 2002's A Rush of Blood to the Head and 2005's X & Y).

"I wanted someone outside of the roots world and who is a fan of popular music," Levandoski explains. "That was my big dream. I had no idea how I was going to go about it, but it was my big dream."

Luckily, one of her writing partners had an in.

"I was co-writing a song with Simon Wilcox, and she knew him a little bit," Levandoski says. "He ended up hearing my songs and thought I was a good songwriter. I think he was intrigued by me."

Indeed, Nelson was intrigued enough to hop a plane across the pond to record with Levandoski in her tiny hometown - in the dead of winter, no less.

"He came to Canada, to Kelwood," she says, laughing. "Him, his son and his engineering assistant flew in and my dad picked them up at the airport in Winnipeg."

Lions and Werewolves was largely laid down at St. John Divine Anglican Church in Kelwood - "My brother-in-law made an sound isolation booth out of square bales," Levandoski says - and was finished at the famed Parr Street Studios in Liverpool.

"I'm really proud of how it turned out," she says of the album. "It's true. It's very true. No matter how someone listens to it, I know it's not a contrived piece of work."

She's right about that. Like its predecessor, Lions and Werewolves boasts straight-from-the-heart folk tunes that tell vivid, textured tales about what it's like to live on the Prairies - but while Unsettled Down was largely a coming-of-age record, there's something profoundly grown-up about Lions and Werewolves. It's still deeply rooted in where she's from but, as Levandoski herself says, "You don't need to be writing about mile roads to convey that." This record, then, is a less literal interpretation of what it means to be a Prairie girl.

"It's not literal in the sense it's not autobiographical anymore," she says. "I think there's something raw about being a Prairie girl. If you think about how open our surroundings are, we're always vulnerable and exposed."

It's that rawness and vulnerability that gives Levandoski's lyrics - and vocals - their weight.

"I think I've achieved an evolution from the first record," she says. "I'm proud of the first record, but I think there's a maturity to this one.

"I wanted to be careful, though, not to build walls. How do you remain soft without being naive?

"And," she adds, "I didn't want to make another Americana record."

To that end, Nelson was a definite asset. Lions and Werewolves - which will initially be released on Levandoski's own Sky Oyster Music label - features a more expansive sonic palette, one that seamlessly blends roots, Americana, country, folk and pop.

"I wanted somebody, like Ken, who could come from somewhere that, to me, was fresh," she says. "Unlike me, he didn't grow up listening to Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn.

"I remember the musicians who played on the record (bassist Milos Angelov, keyboardist David [Soul Fingaz] Williams, guitarist Murray Pulver and drummer Eric Paul) talking about how they felt naked when we were recording," she continues. "Ken is a very soft, subtle person, but he kind of goes through the room with a broom and cleans it up.

"Ken is a negative space kind of guy. He can take away what doesn't need to be there and because of that, (the album) couldn't help but be true."

Which is exactly the kind of record Levandoski had in mind.

"I kind of get shivers thinking about it," she says. "It was a birth. It was a hardcore birth."

ALANA LEVANDOSKI CD RELEASE & ART AUCTION
Nov. 22, 8:30 p.m., Park Theatre

Current Issue • Archive • What’s Up • Contact • Media Kit • Contests