The time is nigh! In three weeks we head into the studio to start recording The Living Record.

I’ve been rolling out details of the recording on Facebook  - so far that Niko Friesen will be joining me again on drums (he played on both Fell Out of Oz and The Wedding Singer and The Undertaker) and Rob Becker will be playing bass, electric and upright for those wondering. Also that after starting with a list of 20 songs, and recording demos of 14, Steve (that would be Steve Dawson who’s producing the album) and I narrowed it down to 12 that we’ll take into the studio.

Phewf.

Steve and I have started hashing out some ideas – here he is at his studio kindly tuning my guitar for me:

(Confession: I find changing the tuning on my guitar like playing Jack in the Box – a tense game of anticipation! It’s not often a string breaks, but the times it does it always manages to startle the bejeezus out of me).

Meanwhile, I’m practicing more often then I usually do (I can be terrible at such things) and because it was a cold winter day, lit a candle to warm my music room up a bit:

Isn’t it amazing how much heat can come off one little flame?

Upon lighting the candle, seated at my piano, intending to practice one of the 3 (of the 12) songs that are piano based, I instead began to sing something new. Always one to jump on distraction and procrastination, I followed that tune to its conclusion and then put it to tape – er iPhone – to share.

So here I am with that passing moment, that candlelit song – Come Here Little Shadow:

Lyrics:

Come here fire
Here candle light
Help me to stave off the cold
I’ve been singing for hours now
Trying for these songs to take hold
The good part I guess is that playing makes sense of these fears

Come here secret
Comer here little shadow
It’s time to pack up and go
I’ve been waiting
They’ll all be waiting
For us to put on a show
Ready, get set, practice makes perfect
And the best part still is that we get to make sense of our fears.

Well we try to.

Now back to work…

An unexpected thing occurred during my artist residency at the ISLAND Hill House (and a funny thing on the way to the forum) - I made my first video blog. Artists do it all the time, I watch them all the time, and I carry my little flip video camera every where I go. But I’d never been compelled to use it in that way.

Something about being alone in the woods, something about finding a way to still connect with the world, something about having lots of time to think – and once I got started, I really liked it.

Which is to say I think I may be a budding video blogger. I may also be a budding nudist. Here are the nine video diaries in a row:

(more…)

It’s official: I’m making a new album called The Living Record.

Since I made my last album, the concept of “pre-sales” as funding has reached a whole new level of awesomeness, for all concerned, as “crowd-funding” has taken off with the likes of Kickstarter, FundBreak and IndieGoGo.

Thus, it is also official: I’ve launched a campaign to support the making of The Living Record. (more…)

Tomorrow my two new EPs will be available. Arguably, LOVED, isn’t new. It is three songs from my album FELL OUT OF OZ, and two from THE WEDDING SINGER AND THE UNDERTAKER. If you’re reading this blog, you may well already be familiar with my work. If you’re already familiar with my work, you’ve likely heard those songs.

LOVED is for the newcomers, the hmm, who’s this? folk who may like a taste of my work. For them, LOVED is a good place to start.

(Out of context, I like that sentence: Loved is a good place to start). (more…)

I shouldn’t be surprised – I seem to be forgetting a lot these days – but after getting an “approve comment” request from blogger I was reminded: I had a blog before this one. (more…)

I’ve wanted to tell you something. At least to make some kind of record of this shift, these seismic waves.

As a songwriter, I’m pretty much an open book. The songs I record and perform are almost entirely autobiographical, literal and, I hope, conversational. I often joke that I’m not very imaginative and half-joke that I’m too self-involved to write any other way – but I like it that way. It gives me somewhere to put all these internal thoughts, step back and learn from them; to ask you a great big “know what I mean, bean?” and, thankfully, hear your reply. (more…)

(as sent to Christa Couture mailing list May 10 2010)

Comrades! It’s been a long time and I’ve missed you too. Let’s catch up. First off:

I need your help! With your vote I could perform at Lilith Fair in Vancouver!

…12 years ago I was a teenager in the audience at Lilith Fair Vancouver. I loved it. I hadn’t even started to play guitar yet then and was far from sharing my music with the public. I was so inspired by seeing many of my favorite artists live. Being part of it now would be AMAZING but I need your help! The Fair is choosing ONE local artist from each city they stop in via a voting process online. At first I found the process kind of confusing so I will detail the steps here. Let me know if they don’t make sense. You are, as ever, the best.

1. Login with your Facebook account or create a new login at OurStage – http://www.ourstage.com
2. Go to my artist page  and click “make this my favourite artist” on the right. This will help my song come up sooner in the voting/listening.
3. At the top, click on “Judge” tab, then on the right “Lilith Fair Channels” then select “Lilith Local Talent Search: Vancouver”
4. Four artists come up for you to rate – listen to at least 15 seconds of each song (there’s some crap, and then there’s some gems you just might love)
5. Drag the photos to the right in your order of preference and click “Lock in Vote”. You’ll get another four artists.
6. You may go through a few rounds of voting on other artists before you get to a batch of four with me and my song “I Will” in it, so please keep voting until you do!
7. Once you DO see me, place me at #1 and then “Lock in Vote”
8. Know that your support means a lot to me. Thank you!

You can do this once a day if you want, but once in total is appreciated too. Please do so by May 24th when the top 20 will go onto the next round!

In other news… where have I been for the past year? I had a baby! Last May. And so it’s been a year of laying low musically – save for the many lullabies. Here on YouTube is a video of me performing at 8 months pregnant last spring, just before going into hiding with my wee new family. Now that spring has unfolded again, I’m starting to bring this YOU + ME part of my life back into focus. I have missed you guys and sharing my music with your ears in person.

I’m glad to be back at it and though I sometimes forget to send out these newsletters – Twitter gets the bulk of my attention (okay I’m maybe addicted), there’s the less often but occasional Facebook updates, and of course my sorely out of date blog -Â but I aim to send this newsletter out as often as there are performances/recordings/causes – the meatiest news – to share with you. I’ve a general rule of no more than one per month, but hopefully there will be enough going on that it’s not another year before we speak!

Until next time,
bisous
Christa

…written by Nat Jay about the “writers in the sky” at this years Vancouver Folk Fest – which was Christa Couture, Nat Jay, Cameron Latimer and Cory Woodward.

read it here