I’m back! As promised to those humble few that actually read this blog (hey mum & dad) I will be highlighting a few of the songs off the new album “Tree of Life” over the next few weeks. I’ve mentioned that a new element to this record is a couple of cowritten songs, but another new thing I decided to include was a cover! As a singer/songwriter/performer there is one question that I get asked a lot (as I’m sure all other artists do) – “What are your influences/What other artists inspire you?” or for those who haven’t heard my music yet, and the fact that I make music comes up in conversation ask “Who do you sound like?”
I usually have a handful of answers to this type of question and surprisingly a lot of my influences are male singer/songwriters – Martin Sexton, Ben Howard, Ryan Adams, Ray Lamontagne, Gavin DeGraw, Amos Lee… and of course this list changes depending on who I’m really into and listening to at the moment. However there is one consistent lovely lady that always continues to influence and inspire me, and who I’ve been told on a number of occasions (much to my delight) I have a similarity to. That lovely lady is Jann Arden!
A wonderful coincidence is that we are both Canadian, furthermore that we are both prairie girls born and raised in Alberta. I’m certain this has something to do with our similarity of sounds as I find artists from the prairies have something very distinctly in common in their musical style. Maybe it’s all those years braving the insane Albertan winters (as I write this it’s currently a pleasant -39 with the windchill in Edmonton).
Although I’ve always been a fan of Jann Arden, I’ve never really entertained the idea of meeting her or sending her my music because, well, she’s a busy lady doing her own musical thing and I’m sure there are plenty of people vying for her attention. However a couple years ago during my “contest junkie” days I randomly (or maybe not so randomly) got a phone call from Dose.ca saying I had entered and WON a contest to fly to Toronto, meet Jann Arden and get front row tickets to her show. I took my girlfriend Laura for an overnight trip to Toronto and needless to say we had an amazing time. Meeting Jann Arden was brief but lovely, and I even mustered up the balls to give her my last record “Prairie Belle”. She was sweet to entertain me and I even got a tweet the next day saying they were listening to my songs backstage at Massey Hall.
My band and I have always had a couple of Jann Arden covers in rotation for our live shows, and when it came to choosing songs for this record I thought… why not? Here’s a chance to do a little tribute to someone I really admire musically. So here is our version of one of my favourite Jann Arden songs “Could I Be Your Girl”. I sincerely hope you like what we did with it, and on the very rare chance Jann actually hears it herself – I hope she feels the warm fuzzies I’m throwing her way!
Until next time!
LNG xo
PS – Just another gentle, friendly reminder – if you like what you hear you CAN purchase “Tree of Life ” here, and tickets to my cd release show on January 19th are available here. Cheers!