Songwriter blooms after 60

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This article was published 03/06/2023 (1200 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One fateful day in 2008 let Karen Hammarstrand know it was time to hang up her lab coat and pick up her guitar.

The moment that has guided the Winnipegger’s venture into songwriting and performing feels as if it happened just yesterday.

“One day — I mean, it’s so weird — but I woke up and I had this song in my head. It had lyrics and music and I thought, ‘Wow, I should do something about that,’” says the former scientist, who specialized in zoology and anthropology before taking what she had sung into a tape recorder to the Manitoba Independent Songwriters Circle, a monthly hang held in the Exchange District at the time.

“It was just so exciting and that was it. There was no turning back.”

Her musical experiment continued onward, leading to her 2015 solo album Late Blooming, and her new record, Still Life, which comes out June 8 with an album launch at Blue Note Park.

Hammarstrand, who is 67 and a mother of three adult children, wasn’t a complete newbie — she’s always loved music and played piano growing up — and her sweet-sounding vocals on Still Life’s tracks show she’s no babe in the musical woods.

However, she did have some reservations, which she was able to overcome with help from new friends in the songwriters circle, some of whom were around her age but had far more experience in the music world.

“I wasn’t drawn to playing an instrument, even though I could always noodle around on one,” she says. “I thought, ‘There’s just no way to even consider doing something like that.’ I assumed if you were part of a band, you have to at least tell them what you have in mind (musically).

“I guess this was the time it was supposed to happen, as unusual as it is. It seems to be working for me.”

Still Life, which is produced by city music veterans Rusty Robot and Lloyd Peterson, is a collection of folky-jazz songs that’s a nice primer for those getting ready for the Winnipeg International Jazz Festival, which begins June 14, less than a week after Hammarstrand’s show, and the Winnipeg Folk Festival, which kicks off July 6.

The album’s opener, Clear Blue Horizon, is a pleasant folk number, but she touches on many jazz genres, such as Out of Body Style’s summer bossa nova beat, and Fool’s Heart, which has a klezmer vibe, aided by Ken Gold running wild on a clarinet solo.

”Fool’s Heart, I started that one out as a country tune, kind of Patsy Cline-ish but in a major chord, but it just wasn’t interesting enough,” Hammarstrand says. “(I thought), ‘This could be way more interesting if I just put it into a minor chord,’ so I did, and turned it into this klezmer tune. It’s funny how songs evolve.”

Open-mic nights and small restaurant gigs have taken the edge off any worries Hammarstrand’s had about performing, which she says is essential for any songwriter.

“It was scary, I have to say. I didn’t go into it because I’m a performer,” she says. “It’s like any art; you can paint a hundred pictures and what are you going to do with them? I have to do something with all these songs.”

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Three Manitoba artists were among the performers taking the stage at the International Indigenous Music Summit, which began Wednesday night and winds up Sunday in Toronto.

Winnipeg-based R&B artist Sebastian Gaskin, who hails from Tataskweyak Cree Nation in northern Manitoba, performed in Wednesday night’s opening gala, while two Winnipeg-based singer-songwriters, Métis performer Andrina Turenne and Anishinaabe singer Ila Barker, were part of Thursday night’s set.

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Two Winnipeg artists who rose to prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic are gearing up to follow up on the success they had during the shutdown.

Boy Golden, whose 2001 album Church of Better Daze and the single KD and Lunch Meat earned critical acclaim, released a new single, Mountain Road, on May 30, and announced a new EP, For Jimmy, will drop July 21.

Mountain Road starts with a cool guitar hook and is a decidedly country turn for Boy Golden, who goes by Liam Duncan away from the stage. Check out the video at: wfp.to/mountainroad.

Jocelyn Gould, the Juno Award-winning jazz guitarist and vocalist, announced earlier this week that a new album, Sonic Bouquet, will be out Oct. 13. Four snippets of songs from the record can be heard at her website, jocelyngould.com.

alan.small@winnipegfreepress.com

Twitter: @AlanDSmall