Let it snow: Meaghan Smith is in a Christmas kind of mood

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This article was published 01/12/2011 (5036 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Meaghan Smith’s debut The Cricket’s Orchestra had listeners buzzing from coast to coast.

The London, Ont.-born, Halifax-based singer took home both the best pop recording at the 2011 East Coast Music Awards and the Juno for best new artist for the set of retro-tinged songs.

Most rising stars would sit back and let wins like that sink in for a bit before working on a followup. Smith decided to record a collection of holiday standards titled It Snowed instead.

Only months after finishing her last cross-country jaunt, she’s on the road again.

“I really love Christmas, it really is my favourite time of the year, but it can sometimes be quite annoying,” says Smith. “I wanted to make an album that summed up how I felt about the holidays; that they are fun and traditional, but not overly so. I’m newly married and my husband and I are starting a bunch of new traditions of our own and doing some things differently. I thought I could take some old classics and kind of reinvent them and have a lot of fun with them and get a good balance between cheery and sombre.”

It Snowed kicks off with the original Breakable. Driven along on one of those oh-so-trendy mandolin riffs, the track swings in the season with a message of cautious optimism about love. The closing tune is a reverential treatment of Silent Night. In between, there is the off-kilter brass loop on the title track, a funked-up Little Drummer Boy and sassy duet with Buck 65 on Baby It’s Cold Outside. Recorded on a hot summer’s day, it’s the only tune from the new disc that won’t be appearing in the live set on this tour.

“We’ll get a chance to do it together onstage on a CBC special at the Glenn Gould Theatre later this month (Dec. 15), but without him on tour it won’t work. It has to be him singing with me to feel right. Most of the other songs will be incorporated into the set played by me, a sampler, an omnichord and my husband, Jason Mingo, on guitar.”

It Snowed carries on the retro-big band vibe that she and guitarist Les Cooper conceived for The Cricket’s Orchestra. However, fans shouldn’t expect more of the same on the next album. While deeply influenced by Broadway musicals, Doris Day and the music of the 1920s and ’30s, Smith steadfastly refuses to repeat herself. It just feels right to keep challenging herself.

“For someone who is musically illiterate, like myself, I want to be sure to work with someone who understands me trying to explain myself with hand gestures and facial expressions like Les did. But I don’t want to find a comfort zone and stay with it. I’m thinking of Norwegian death metal now.”

OK, not really. Currently “writing my face off” crafting material “both stronger and bolder” than The Cricket’s Orchestra, she expects to meet and discuss ideas with many potential producers before settling on the right guy or gal.

 

— Postmedia News