Ottawa based Americana artist, Amanda Rheaume is an accomplished Métis singer-songwriter with a powerful, slightly gritty, and personal folk/roots sound with elements of country, pop, and soul. She has a total of three albums under her belt, Acoustic Christmas (2009), Light of Another Day (2011), and Keep a Fire (2013). Amanda will be recording her next album later this year, for release early in 2016. Among Rheaume’s accomplishments are winning a Canadian Folk Music Award for Aboriginal Songwriter of the Year (2014) and a Juno Award nomination for Aboriginal Album of the Year (2014), both for Keep a Fire.Performing over 160 shows a year, Amanda has delivered her unique and soulful blend of folk and country pop to audiences around the world. She has opened for several veteran artists, including Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams, and Ani DiFranco. Rheaume has played numerous festivals including JUNOFest, NXNE, SXSE, CMW, WORLD Pride, National Aboriginal Day, Live from the Rock, Summerfolk, Ottawa Bluesfest, Ottawa Folk Fest, Majors Hill Canada Day, and North American Indigenous Games.
Rheaume, whose family has always talked enthusiastically about its history, and whose great aunt wrote a book about it, felt inspired to start setting the family stories to song. She collected tales from her surviving relatives, teamed up with writing partner John MacDonald and producer Ross Murray to create Keep A Fire. The result is a beautiful, personal record rich with stories. Keep The Fire opens with “Strongest Heart”, a soft pop track carrying the message that “the strongest heart is a tender heart”. “Ancient Rime”, “Write You A Letter”, “Passed Down The Line”, and “So Much To Gain” are all wonderful tracks in their own right, all spinning tales of customs and hardships that Rheaume’s family ancestors dealt with.
The standouts on this album, for me, are “Not This Time” and “Keep A Fire In The Rain”. “Not This Time” is a masterpiece of a song, full of energy and passion, telling an interesting story. The track has a driving production that creates a stormy, foreboding feel that matches the mood of the lyrical story perfectly.
“Not This Time” opens with Rheaume setting the stormy scene with, “Dark clouds are riding/ Looks like she’s at it again/ Can’t see the horizon/ Batten down the hatches me friend.” She continues with, “Steam boat is groaning/ Twelve barges in tow/ fifty tons of cargo/ And seven human souls,” spinning a tale of people riding a raging storm on the open sea. The chorus continues the story with, “I’ve got an angel on my shoulder/ I see the devil in the sky/ The waves are breaking over/ It’s a hell-in-a-hand basket- ride/ Not this time.” The chorus is one of the most creative and image- provoking choruses I’ve heard.
The song describes the harrowing voyage across Great Slave Lake taken by Rheaume’s paternal great grandparents, who were on route from Nelson House, MB to a Hudson Bay posting in Fort Norman, NWT. Her great grandmother and her six children travelled on a barge attached to a paddle wheeler, while her great grandfather helped shovel coal on the boat. When a storm hit, the barge and the family were set adrift in the elements for two days until, miraculously, they were reunited with the boat and Rheaume’s great grandfather. Rheaume’s great grandmother had a history of marine tragedies in her family, her own father died on a lake in a storm, so the song title is a toast to the fact that she escaped that fate. This is a powerful song, made more powerful by the production, with its driving, and sometimes wailing, fiddle.
“Keep A Fire In The Rain” takes the listener to God’s Lake, Manitoba in 1934. The narrator spins the tale of a 16 year old Native girl who marries an older white man. She became a wife and a mother, and kept a fire in the rain. She was a midwife and a teacher. The song is actually about Rheaume’s grandfather and Ojibway great grandmother, who lived exactly halfway between the reserve and the mine site in Manitoba because the mixed-race couple wasn’t welcome in either community. The production features a folk sound infused with a pop/Celtic sound, driving the Native theme home. It’s by far the strongest, most interesting track on the album.
The record concludes with the folk mixed with rockabilly sounding “Home On The Road”. It’s a tune you’ll be bopping to, with its infectious rhythm. Overall, Keep A Fire is a well-rounded, wonderful collection of story songs. These songs will grab your attention and hold it for the remainder of the record. If you’re interested in good folk/Americana music or even just excellent story songs, check this album out!
Originally posted here.
