Performance poet has to find perfect home for his songs

By: Rob Williams Posted: 1:00 AM CST Thursday, Feb. 11, 2010

C.R. Avery has written the great Canadian novel in audio book form.

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C.R. Avery has written the great Canadian novel in audio book form.

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C.R. Avery has written the great Canadian novel in audio book form.

Actually, it’s not a book at all, but a CD he named the Great Canadian Novel. And it’s not a concept album either, even though each song represents a chapter to the Vancouver performer.

The title was inspired by the Lou Reed album New York. In interviews about the 1989 album, Reed said he wanted to compose an album version of the great American novel, since he would never actually write a book that would fall under the category.

C.R. Avery was a hit at the 2009 Winnipeg Folk Festival.

Avery tried to do the same thing with his album.

"I wasn’t trying to get on pop radio; I was trying to make my stance," he says. "Each chapter of that CD is all or nothing. It’s trying to say everything I wanted to say. I didn’t take it lightly."

The 10-track disc is something of a sampler of almost everything the prolific songwriter/poet has done up to now over the course of his 15 albums as a solo artist and a part of various groups, including Tons of Fun University and the Fugitives. There are rootsy rave-ups, hip-hop-based spoken-word beat-box numbers, Waitsian ballads and songs backed by the Legal Tender String Quartet, the same group he is touring the country with on his Dead of Winter tour, which stops at the West End Cultural Centre Monday with Scott Nolan. (Tickets are $12 at Ticketmaster, Music Trader and the WECC.)

"I’m a slave to the song in the sense that sometimes you write a song and it doesn’t mean anything: it doesn’t work, it’s boring on the piano, so I’ll try it with the rock SSRqn’ roll band and if that doesn’t work I’ll try it with the strings and find out that’s what it’s supposed to be," he says. "It’s a matter of writing these songs and finding a home for them. There’s some sleeping at the orphanage that haven’t found a home yet."

Over the course of his career, the 33-year-old has toured the world. He even got the chance to play two shows backing Tom Waits in Berlin, handling beat-box duties for the legend and playing harmonica.

Waits heard some of Avery’s albums after Avery sent them to Anti-, Waits’ label, and Avery was invited to sit in on a sound check when the two performers crossed paths in Europe. Avery was asked on stage to handle some parts and ended up playing two shows with the artist he is most often compared to.

"It felt like it was a moment. Sometimes these people are not your peers, they are bigger-than-life legends, but it’s little moments like that you feel like we’re all part of the Hank Williams legacy," he says. "It’s like these people are these fictional legends, but they are trying to kick the night, just like I am."

Avery was inspired to work with a string quartet after spending 18 months charting 11 of his songs for a 45-piece orchestra. The work hasn’t been recorded yet, but since the scores were ready to go, he decided to try some of the music out with a small group in the studio. The sessions went so well they decided to try it on a cross-country tour.

"Maybe I’ll do some radio-friendly dance music next to fund my weird habits," Avery says with a laugh.

Besides dabbling in classical music, the Vancouver resident has also started acting. He recently played a small part as a photographer in a no-budget New York film called Uncertain Terms and contributed a couple of songs to the soundtrack.

"I would love to try acting again, as long as I’m not playing a chain-smoking beat boxer. I’d like to play a transvestite mobster — that’s something I could sink my teeth into," he says. "Bruce MacDonald, give me a call."

rob.williams@freepress.mb.ca