NOTE:  I have a pair of tickets to her Saturday show & a CD to give away to the first to contact me. Email info@to-music.ca

This site tends to focus mostly on “world”, and especially African music, but I do periodically report on other music, notably some country/American artists.

This Saturday, Newfoundland singer Sherry Ryan performs at the Dakota Tavern as part of her CD Release of Sister of Mine. I wasn’t familiar with her music until now, but having listened to the CD, and some of her earlier music, I’ve been really impressed with her sound, her singing and writing.  She’s just been nominated for two MusicNL awards: Country Artist of the Year and Female Artist of the Year (an award she’s won twice previously).

I sometimes hear sounds of Gillian Welch (but not as much “down”!), Lucinda Williams, and sometimes Madeleine Peyroux. But her music and sound is her own. (Great backing on the CD, too!)

Her haunting song “The Narrows” , a personal account of a marriage, is rooted in Newfoundland:

One lonely thing on the ocean
Drifting away and lonesome
I dreamed we danced out of time
Thought you we’re no longer mine

Ship sailed away through the narrows
In love’s ocean of sorrows
I dreamed of dark clouds and rain
What if I never make it back

However, the title song is inspired by a feisty 90-year old she met while working in a Mississippi nursing home. Its southern roots (Highway 61) is far from home, but not the painful familiarity of the frustration and fear of those living in such a place.

You’re shit outta whiskey
I’m shit outta luck
And I got a crocodile on my lap
Think I’ll snap these pearly buttons
And gettyup
Outta here 

Gonna head on out the Sixty-one
Long lonesome you know the one
Call that sister of mine to come on down
Get me outta here

More about her (and some music) at sherryryan.com. Laura Repo opens

I plan to catch the show.

Dakota Tavern, 249 Ossington
Sat. Oct. 6, 7-9pm