DETAILS

Wendy McNeill & Chantal Vitalis
Ironwood Stage & Grill
Thursday, September 6 - Thursday, September 6

More in: Folk / Country

“Only the dreamer shall understand reality, though in truth, his dreaming must be not out of proportion to his waking.” Wendy McNeil quotes Margaret Fuller over transatlantic phone lines. The former Edmontonian singer-songwriter now makes her home in Stockholm, Sweden, where she recently recorded her best album to date, A Dreamer’s Guide to Hardcore Living.

“That came up because of my sincere belief that it is very important to dream,” McNeil says of the quote that inspired the album’s title. “The best solutions to some of the problems that are going on, not just for people as individuals but with the bigger challenges on the planet, will come through people’s ability to step out of linear thinking and just dream a little bit; but then, of course, you can’t just live in a dream world. No one likes a full-time dreamer. They’re high maintenance. You have to be prepared to walk through the world and apply all the stuff, so that’s where the hardcore comes in.”

The disc was produced by McNeil and recorded and mixed in one intense week at Grey Aerosol Machine, a studio named after the debut album by British prog-rockers Van der Graaf Generator. Engineer and studio owner Christoffer Ludquist brought an expansive musical knowledge to McNeil’s clear, minimalist vision. “He’s done a lot of work for huge things like Roxette, yet the scope of his musical taste is so huge,” says McNeil. “I wanted somebody I could really communicate with as an engineer, and we really jived.”

McNeil’s melodic dreamscapes are pulled into sharp focus and allowed to build to gorgeous organic crescendos, taking the listeners into her confidence before sweeping them up and carrying them to a thoroughly satisfying conclusion. Her accordion and voice stay front and centre, surrounded by delicate, percussive underpinnings and tasteful orchestral textures. For her fourth album, McNeil appears ever more adept at manifesting her dreams into hardcore reality.

From Edmonton to Stockholm, from club and festival stages spanning the globe, McNeil’s journey, both real and metaphorical, has always been an interesting one. Her capacity to bring the listener along on that journey and share her insights is what makes her unique. She was a guitar-playing singer-songwriter prior to discovering and falling in love with the accordion in 2001. (“I think it’s a gorgeous instrument and I love the physicality of playing it,” she says. “It pumps out emotion just like it pumps out tone.”) Prior to that, she was a dancer. With the zeal of a kite-flyer, she seizes the possibilities and runs with them. Despite the whirlwind world tours, the relentless exploring and regular self-reinvention, McNeil still considers herself to be an accidental adventurer. “I think I’m a reluctant risk taker,” she says. “I don’t necessarily get a thrill out of new challenges and new experiences, but I seem to continually find myself in those situations, so I must have some kind of subconscious kick going on with all of that”