PRESS ::

Singer/songwriter/acoustic guitarist Christa Couture will be a new name to most, but could be the next Canuck to enjoy the success of Sarah Harmer or Kathleen Edwards. Christa's material creates a consistent, bewitching mood with the closely-mic'ed, whispery delivery of Jewel and the lyrical meter of Tori Amos. She's also compared to Ani Difranco because she sings about relationships and kissing girls (and that's hot in a toasty warm acoustic kind of way). The production of this debut full-length release oozes Canadiana (read the atmospherics of a Daniel Lanois job) and will surely connect with fans of such intimate acoustic/post-folk music.

- Chris Twomey, Tandem Toronto

Sprites, girl-liking-girls, and those who wear DiFranco and Tori Amos T-shirts - this is the audience of Vancouver's Christa Couture, a candour-bent singer-songwriter and acoustic guitarist who enjoys summers, but with one eye on the fall. The record, her debut long player, is intimate enough that whiffs of Couture's organic soap are caught. Youth slips away on opening track "Jennifer Grey", where a whispery and occasionally skittish voice lets listeners in on dreams. There is the tender, cello'd "Habitual", where a lover awakes and exits, trying not to trip on all those "no strings". The escalating "Sundries Like Mondays", has Couture hiding and covering her ears, but she's no shrinker. As a girl she lost a leg to cancer, and e hear about it on "The Next Bed". A woman's choices are considered on "For Miette (Circuitry)". Thoughtful and graceful stuff comes from Couture. Oz's loss is our gain.

- Brad Wheeler, Globe & Mail

Fans of Ani DiFranco and Jill Barber will dig Vancouver-based Christa Couture's gentle, yet powerfully enunciated, spare folk strummings. The tracks are underpinned by muted strains of piano, strings and brushed drums, providing variations that keep the album from sounding repetitive (a problem with many poet-with-a-guitar albums). Lyrically, Couture veers between self-conscious diary entries, such as "Jennifer Grey," and striking storytelling, like on the slightly jarring "The Next Bed," which is based on her experiences as an adolescent cancer survivor. The deft guitar work and crystalline production values mark Couture as an emerging force who won't be buried under other performers of her ilk.

- Shannon Whibbs, Chartattack

A Lot of People Compare Christa Couture to Jewel. Hmm.

When I think of Jewel, I think of that song "You Were Meant For Me" wherein the lovely Alaskan chanteuse claims to "break the eggs to make a smiley face" while cooking her lover breakfast.  The first time I heard those lyrics I lost my breakfast.  I don't even think Tom Waits could make out such lyrics sound cool.

That said, I couldn't help but worry when I realized the first cut on Christa Couture's debut LP, "Fell Out Of Oz" references Jennifer Grey, Patrick Swayze, and Dirty Dancing.  Do you know how cool you have to be to deliver those kinds of lyrics?  A hell of a lot cooler than Jewel, that's for sure.

Luckily, Couture is a hell of a lot cooler than Jewel. In fact, she is a hell of a lot cooler than most singer/songwriters out there.  With her soft voice and smooth guitar playing, Couture delivers her masterful songs with an honesty and elegance that make me think of an edgy, oringinal artist who won't have to spin tales about sleeping in her car in order to get recognition.  They make me think of no one but Christa Couture.  And that's a good thing.

- Vancouver 24 Hours

Now normally I wouldn't like this sort of "Vancouver hippie lady" record very much, but something about the sustained daintiness of Christa Couture's singing moves me close.

 

Compared inaccurately and unfairly to angst-amplifier Tori Amos and the tribally tiresome Ani DiFranco, Couture's writing is entirely personal - given. But rather than approach the poetic restructuring of her experiences into song with heavy gorilla arms swinging onto the heads of perceived enemies, Couture walks mostly calmly through her departure from Edmonton, her kissing of girls and her fears with a wide-eyed and inviting tenderness.

But what I don't like about DiFranco and sometimes Amos is the same thing that brought Metallica down so low, that uncomfortable feeling of sitting in on someone's therapy. That kind of creepy voyeurism that makes The Shining scary straight off - you're watching from a closet, and if you don't happen to jive immediately with whatever issues these singers have and they're screaming like baboons at you, it's time to change the radio station.

Couture certainly has issues - her heart's been broken by a girl, she lost a leg to cancer and she has a trail of dead relationships that litter the lyrics. But just her and her guitar makes an almost holy sound, especially as she tries to rationalize life-threatening disease within In the Next Bed.

"Yes, he woke up alone, went to reach for the phone, but he couldn't 'cause his arm's not here and she closes her eyes to the sound as he dies." Pretty heavy, but even more real.

More than anything, I've enjoyed getting to know Couture here. I like her a lot, especially when she riffs off Leonard Cohen and - this is weird - Patrick Swayze.

- 4 out of 5 stars, Fish Griwkowsky, Edmonton Sun

"Christa Couture’s set was a lesson in rapt attentiveness"

- Chris Whibbs, Exclaim!

”Full of subdued folk-pop arrangements and a mix that puts the Edmonton-raised (now Vancouver-based) singer’s clipped, Ani Difranco–ish vocals to the fore, the ‘Fell Out of Oz’ is a grower. More importantly, the songs ‘I Will’, with its lovely, lively acoustic guitar work, and the lilting title track announce Couture as a songwriter to watch.”

- Georgia Straight

“Although she sings with a hushed breathlessness that will remind people of Ani Difranco crossed with Alannis Morissette's dramatic pauses or Tori Amos' art imperative, there is individuality in Couture's songs. She sings with an intimacy that feels like you are being let in on a secret.”

-Tom Harrison, The Province, BC

”after seeing her live once, you'll want to see her again.”

- Chartattack

“Her voice, to us men, is like what catnip is to cats.”

-The Bob & AJ show