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About
Gwen Swick’s Love and Gold
Elora-based
singer/songwriter Gwen Swick has just released her third
solo recording, Love and Gold, which like
the promise of medieval alchemy, transforms the dross
of everyday life into musical gold. Known for her stunning
voice, poetic lyrics, sophisticated melodies and lush
harmonies, Gwen is one in an impressive group of Canadian
female songwriters who defy classification.
Gwen’s
latest offering was produced at Kitchener’s Cedartree
Studio by Richard Hutt (Tom Cochrane, Northern Lights,
Jamie Warren, Bev Mahood and Lace), who shared the engineering
and mixing with Corey Barnes and John Bailey. The release
follows Gwen’s critically acclaimed 1995 release
A Pebble of Mercy, also produced by Hutt,
and her 1993 self-titled debut release.
Gwen
either wrote or co-wrote all of the recording’s
13 tracks — a delicious baker’s dozen made
to order without a cookie cutter. She assembled a powerhouse
of musicians including Randall Coryell, George Koller,
Don Rooke, Ken Greer, Kevin Breit, Victor Bateman, Kurt
Schefter, Steve Hogg, Jeff Bird, John Sheard, Neil Clark,
Art Avalos, Russ Boswell, Gary Breit, Steve O’Connor
and Steve Adams.
And
her group of angelic backup vocalists includes Wendy
Davis, Lis Soderberg, Katalin Kiss, Divine Earth Essence,
Cherie Camp, Cindy Church, and daughter Anna Swick-Coryell.
Love
and Gold opens with “Amazed” (which
provides the recording with its title). Based on a newspaper
account, the song tells of a womn who leaves the convent
after 50 years to open a beauty salon. “I laughed
every time I thought about the article,” Gwen recalls.
“Then it made me cry.” Appealing to her wonderful
sense of the off-kilter, the song is meditation on the
meaning of faith and the yearning in all of us to transform
our lives into something meaningful.
In
“Emily” Swick employs the simplicity
of the fairytale to tell a story of friendship over
vast distance as seen through the eyes of a young girl
with an open heart and a rich imagination.
Romance
and spirituality merge on the recording in “All
Things Can Change,” a prayer of exquisite desperation
that ends with a heartaching question. “I find
this song sad,” Gwen concedes. "When you so
dearly need change, life appears to be at its most difficult
— something that always occurs in songs of hope.”
“Call
Me Juliette” (co-written with Hutt and RyLee
Madison) is a neo-country, lust-at-first-sight love
song, with Quartette colleague Cindy Church on harmony
vocals. Love is “a powerful emotion when you don’t
make it past the cocktails,” Gwen says.
With
lyrics worthy of Leonard Cohen, the theme of desire
continues with the guitar-driven and percussive “All
I Know is I Want You.” “This is one of
the songs I love the most because it puts me back into
that pure emotion so easily, even with all its longing,”
Gwen says.
The
heart of Love and Gold is “Faith That
I’d Find You,” an intensely soulful, gospel-flavored
anthem that charts that holy place where spirituality
and sexuality meet. Gwen wrote it as a wedding song
for friends, and says, “I feel hope when I listen
to the song — beauty in all the states of being.”
The heavenly lead and harmony vocals — featuring
Wendy, Divine, Katalin and Lis — are in themselves
things of beauty.
Simply
stated “Catsong” is a jazzy, lyric-smart
ode to Gwen’s cats, Benny and Ted. It also gives
her the chance to prowl with her favorite drummer, co-writer
Randall Coryell.
Gwen
makes no apologies on “Take a Little Nap”
for exposing the “silly” side of her personality.
“I love the juxtaposition of heavy, wild playing
and silliness,” she admits. By the way, do you
recognize the voice of Dustin Hoffman from Midnight
Cowboy?
With
“I Don’t Care to Try Love Again,”
Swick delivers a sad, slow, hurtin’ song that could
come from the lips of any 1940s lounge singer suffering
a broken heart. Here’s to you, sweetheart!
Co-written
with Charlie Sohmer when Gwen performed with Tamarack,
“Pamela” is a tender, touching, last
goodbye from a doomed miner. A haunting ballad that
speaks of love that transcends the grave. Too lovely
for words.
Co-written
with Randall Coryell, “In the Middle of a Hurricane”
is an angry call for social action in response to an
increasingly mean and hostile world. “I come from
a long line of socialists,”Gwen says, “I get
mad every day when I read the newspaper.”
Written
while overlooking St. John’s Harbor in Newfoundland,
“I Want a Tugboat” has a bluesy, 1940s
feel with lyrics of a naughty sexual nature.
Gwen co-wrote the closing track, “Call,”
with composer Neil Clark (who plays keyboards, guitar
and programming) for Terrance Odette’s award-winning
feature film Heater. An ode to friendship in
unusual places.
Designer
and illustrator Paul Morin created the artwork for the
CD, which features a portrait of Gwen by Mendelson Joe
as part of his Working Women series. Photos by
Sophie Hogan.
Love
and Gold is available through Spin Records/Page/EMI—SP20014CD.
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