If there’s such a thing as a timeless, classic Canadian-sounding roots album, ‘Canadian Girl’ is it. Ste-Croix’s mellifluous, honeyed vocals are layered over gorgeous harmony tracks and sweet, homespun acoustic roots instrumentation. The players include multiple Juno-winning fiddler MacMaster, WCMA-winning guitarist Joel Fafard, Juno-winning singer-songwriter-guitarist Fearing (on the Six String Nation guitar), and legendary Québec fiddler Claude Methé – along with his family band, Dentdelion and….(click on CD cover to read more about this album)
From the first words in ‘Echoes’ the listener is in for a treat, this raw lyrical image is threaded from word to word by vocals that capture the emotion completely, yet are as easy for the ear to absorb as they are hard for the heart to witness. She moves into a rhythmic R&B tune to a steamy jazz ballad to an introspective vocal dance to the rhythm of patterns of self-defeat into a light-hearted bluesy romp. She is a lyrical and genre wild-child who freely injects multiple influences with ease.
“Here I Am is easily one of the the best albums of 2007, Period…Her voice is very moving in the Sarah McLachlan sense, but that was a first impression. As one takes a more intense listen to her music, one gets a better impression of her as a singer, and perhaps as a person. When the album begins.
When things came to a screeching halt with the death of her father the devastated the singer was sent into a low unseen before; but with the encouragement of concerned friends who pooled their finances to contribute to studio time, Ste-Croix found herself recording an album.