Paradise with Jenn Grant launch at the Black Gate

Groove Tube with Jimi McDonnell – tribunegroove@live.ie

With a superb new album to promote, the Canadian songwriter Jenn Grant comes to The Black Gate, on Galway City’s Francis Street, on Thursday next, May 25. The singer’s sixth studio album Paradise was written and recorded in Lake Echo, Nova Scotia, and is a layered and nuanced offering.

“I wrote it over the course of a year, maybe, and then we made it,” Jenn says of the album’s background. “It’s weird, I can’t really remember how long it took. All records take time; you’re in a studio for a couple of months, and it was sort of done in chunks. Because of touring and schedules and all that sort of stuff.

“That’s not a very good answer!” she laughs, before she goes on to talk about I Am a River and Sorry Doesn’t Know, two of the stand-out tracks from Paradise.

“I mean, you always go back and forth, I think that’s part of recording,” she says. “But the basic structure for those songs was there when they were written. I am a River I wrote on the piano, and Sorry Doesn’t Know was collaboration between my husband, Daniel, who also produced the album, and me.”

He has been a great support during the process.

“On all the songs, he’d be playing keys and I’d say ‘I like that, keep playing that’ and I’d sing over it. We worked together on a few songs towards the end of the writing of this record, because I wanted some more energy.”

Daniel will also be joining Jenn for her European tour, along with her guitarist, Mike.

“They’re really supporting me and allowing me to be free with the performance,” Jenn feels. “On most of the songs, I’m just singing. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, and it’s the most fun. Whether it’s the four- or the three-piece band, the guys have done so much to emulate the record.”

In the publicity material for her new album Jenn says ‘I don’t feel like I heard my own voice until recently.’ What does she mean by that?

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.