CREDIT: GBP CREATIVE
Swedish native Sarah MacDougall released her third album, an ode to overcoming hard times.

I write about random things a lot. I write a lot about random things. Here, in the first generation of the 21st century, it can be hard to recall life before home computing and the Internet took off. But there are ripples of that culture evident today, if we’re paying attention, like sitcom series from the ‘90s on Netflix, where no one has so much as a cell phone.

Popular music is similar, of course, but I don’t mean on the surface. In decades past, communities and even countries turned to musicians as ambassadors and traveling storytellers to document life and culture elsewhere in the world. In the 1980’s, Bruce Cockburn traveled to Central America. His experiences tempered Stealing Fire, an album full of iconic Canadian songs, like “Lovers In A Dangerous Time” and “If I Had A Rocket Launcher,” which brought Third World issues to light and inspired an entire generation of songwriters. Cockburn was promoted to Officer of the Order of Canada in 2002, but Kanye West might argue that Beyoncé is better.

Hailing from Whitehorse, Swedish-born singer-songwriter Sarah MacDougall demonstrates on her new album Grand Canyon that she is a storyteller of a high caliber. Released February 24, the album is MacDougall’s third and possibly most captivating to date.

To celebrate the recent release, MacDougall is performing live at the Aylmer Performing Arts Council on March 21 in support of The Once, part of a tour that kicked off last week in Montreal and wraps up in the west at the end of the month. From there, she takes Grand Canyon to Europe, due to return in the summer.

“Overall, it’s a hopeful record about believing that things can be better and can get better,” she said. “Convincing myself that I can be stronger, that other people can be stronger, that kind of thing. Uncertainty has become a big part of my life. When you’re on the road all the time, you just have to live in the moment.”

“It took me some time to figure out what I was going to write about, because my life has been extremely busy for the last three to four years,” MacDougall said.

She says she found motivation within, her introspection tempered by experiences she had worked part-time with at-risk youth and perspective gained from her inspiring surroundings.

“It’s a lot about identity – getting into my 30’s and thinking, ‘Who do I want to be and what is important in my life?’ And a lot of the songs are influenced by the current situation in Europe and my past growing up in Sweden, my youth and my hometown. That’s a really big part of me, something that I needed to get out and wanted to share with people.”

Grand Canyon begins with the lead single, “I Want to See the Light (Lost from Our Eyes),” a song that touches on a sobering event in her hometown of Malmoe. Yet, it characterizes the undercurrent of optimism that prevails throughout the album despite its relatively short run-time.

The record’s one offering in MacDougall’s mother tongue, “Malmö i mitt hjärta,” radiates strength and calm, a love song for the city she grew up in, MacDougall’s resolution to love her hometown in spite of the inherent darkness it has for her. Grand Canyon flows beautifully and finishes strong – “Devil’s Gap” is arresting in its stark opening and powerful build. “2012” drives hope MacDougall’s message of hopefulness and acceptance as it closes with the refrain “I’m broken, too/I know you’re broken, too.”

In all, MacDougall has crafted an uplifting and satisfying listen, one painted with delightful contrasts to marry music and meaning like aural chiaroscuro.

“I think I just write that way in general. All my favourite songs have both light and darkness in them. It makes the darkness a little easier to swallow. And that’s how life is too, it’s not just black or white, it always has both elements,” MacDougall said. “It’s heavy subject matter, so I wanted [these songs] to have a lightness to them – I wanted there to be that celebration, like ‘Yeah, it’s really heavy, but we can dance anyway’ and look past hard times.”

“I don’t think I could sing a song over and over that was purely darkness,” she added, laughing.

For more on Sarah MacDougall, her stunning new album or upcoming gig in Aylmer, visit sarahmacdougall.com or follow on Twitter @sarahmacdougall. Here’s hoping you already have tickets to see her in concert with The Once on March 21, the show has already sold out. And for more of the latest music news, reviews and concert previews, follow this column on Twitter @fsu_bobbyisms. Support your local music scene. I’m out of words.