12/08/2006

Miles hits road to perform

Folk singer to play area venues

By MARTA HEPLER DRAHOS

mdrahos@record-eagle.com

Lynn Miles performs three area concerts next week.

TRAVERSE CITY — Lynn Miles has long been considered one of Canada's best singer-songwriters. Now it's official.

Already winner of a 2003 Juno Award for best solo roots and traditional recording, Miles sealed her place in Canadian music history last December with two Canadian Folk Music Awards for best contemporary singer and best songwriter for the album "Love Sweet Love.”

Released in the U.S. in February on the Red House Records label, the album is — in Miles' typical introspective fashion — about love lost and gained.

"I like to compare it to a journey down a road,” said the soft-spoken songstress from her Ottawa home. "It's twisty, with hills and valleys. You start somewhere and end somewhere else. I wrote it when I was sort of questioning the force of love in the world and came to the conclusion that it's the most important force there is. Not romantic love; unconditional love.”

Though she won't discuss her personal life, Miles has plenty to say about romantic love, too. For starters, she thinks divorce should be redefined.

"Fifty percent of marriages end in divorce and many people remarry,” she said. "It's considered a failure, but because it happens more often than not, it should be considered a new part of life. Maybe it's an opportunity for growth or change.”

Miles will offer more of her insight when she comes to northern Michigan next week for three concerts around the region. Fresh off a performance at the 2006 Canadian Folk Music Awards Sunday in Edmonton, she'll appear at Rhonda's Wharfside Restaurant in Frankfort at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, at Insideout Gallery in Traverse City at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, and at Kejara's Bridge in Lake Leelanau at 8 p.m. Friday.

Compared to the likes of Shawn Colvin, Lucinda Williams and Joni Mitchell, Miles was born outside Montreal, Quebec and learned guitar, violin, flute and piano while still in elementary school. She began performing in public at around 16 and in her early 20s studied with an opera singer to strengthen her voice. As a student at Carleton University, she studied classical music history and theory and taught voice at the Ottawa Folklore Center to students including a then 14-year-old Alanis Morrisette. Her later career took her from Ottawa to Nashville to Los Angeles and back again.

Now recording on Canada's prestigious True North label, along with fellow artists Bruce Cockburn and Chris Smither, her albums include the 1996 breakthrough "Slightly Haunted,” a Billboard top 10 pick of the year, and 2001's "Unravel,” winner of the Juno Award.

A favorite on two continents, Miles begins a three-week tour of Europe in February and said she is on a campaign to make the most of every moment.

"Right now I'm really enjoying playing shows,” she said. "All the driving and flying, which can be tedious, is about getting to the stage. So I've been trying to make my time on the stage the best part of the day, trying to sing better and sound better.”

At the end of the day, however, she said she's happiest in her funky neighborhood in the center of Ottawa.

"I like to be in a place when I come home where I know people, I know the guys at the post office,” she said.

Tickets for her northern Michigan performances range from $12 in advance to $18 at the door. For more information, call 352-5300 (Frankfort), 929-3254 (Traverse City) and 256-7720 (Lake Leelanau).