Press Release: Eva Tree Releases New CD: Sail Away
Canadian singer-songwriter, Eva Tree (Ay-vah), has
just released her second full length CD, Sail Away. She has been compared to other pared down confessional singers like Mindy S mith, Natalie Merchant, and Kasey Chambers.
Sail Away is receiving tremendous reviews in the UK and abroad. Maverick music magazine gives it a 4 of 4 star rating and comments that Sail Away is "a rootsy Americana album from an exciting newcomer you need to seek out." In the review, editor Alan Cackett writes, "I honestly have not been moved by an unknown artist like this since I first heard Mindy Smith four or five years ago. A highly recommended rootsy Americana album to treasure." Italian DJ Massimo Ferro (Highway61), has also compared her to "a young Natalie Merchant", and writes that Sail Away is "one of the best debuts from a female North American singer-songwriter this year!"
The instrumentation of guitars, mandolin, dobro and accordion infuse the album with a sepia sun-drenched old-time mountain sound. Most of the recording took place in Nelson, BC at producer Jude Davison's small studio. Jude's sophisticated but low key sensibility was perfect to capture the country back porch simplicity and lack of pretension Eva was aiming for. Eva's singing is raw and unadorned and Jude's harmonies add a warmth of tone that creates a complexity and sweetness of sound which is right at the crossroads where heart-yearning melancholy meets joyful.
Eva Tree hearkens from the same deep mountain woods of British Columbia as The Be Good Tanyas. She often crossed musical paths with Sam Parton and Frazey Ford (of The BGT's) as she honed her music at tree planting camps, living roots and open mics throughout Canada. The song, That's Alright, called out for Frazey's breathy harmony, and so Eva and her ensemble drove the recording gear up to Vancouver and completed the recording there.
In a moment of inspiration, Eva also called on another of Vancouver's emerging groups, The No Sh*t Shirleys. In a wonderfully raucous familial flurry (one of The Shirleys is Eva's sister) some fantastic harmonies were recorded on the album's closing track, Heavy Load, giving it a blues-gospel feel. Eva's father, poet Blake Parker, is also featured on this hand-clapping, foot-stomping track.
One of the most exciting things about this album is that the songs were written to interweave with the radio/video script, The Princess and the Kid, a post-modern fairytale/myth written by her father, Blake Parker. Tree says that "by immersing myself into Blake's poetic and fantastical narrative, I found a voice for new and unique characters. The project was incredibly liberating and enabled me to really sing into the songs and make them my own in a way I had not before."
Eva had the rather unusual experience of growing up in a house with no bathroom or electricity as part of a raggle-taggle community of artistic hippie-gypsies. While working on this project, she says "Suddenly and all at once, my history and heritage opened up before my fascinated eyes, and I found a wealth of songwriting material. The songs continue to flow. With Sail Away I'm attempting to integrate the old with the new, have a slow dance with melody, and tell stories while I do it."
Sail Away is receiving airplay in the USA and Canada and from several stations in the UK, a station in Italy, and even one in Israel.
If you know of a station in your area that might want to play Sail Away, please let us know!
Extract from Review from Maverick, Issue 50
AAG Publishing Ltd.:Kent, UK,
pp. 67,70. http://www.maverick-country.com
(4 stars out of 4)
A rootsy Americana album from an exciting newcomer you need to seek out.
Very rarely do I hear a CD and just kinda say to myself, Why haven't I heard of this person? Canadian singer-songwriter Eva Tree's second album is an incredible piece of work. I honestly have not been moved by an unknown artist like this since I first heard Mindy Smith four or five years ago.
A highly recommended rootsy Americana album to treasure.
Alan Cackett -- Editor
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