Swedish born, Whitehorse based singer songwriter Sarah MacDougall is better known in Europe than in her home country, but she is taking a shot at touring Canada. MacDougall, plus lap steel guitarist Tim Tweedale and bassist MJ Dandenau will be making their Lethbridge debut at the Slice, Feb. 10.
“I have family in Sweden, so touring in Europe was a good way to go see them and have it paid for,” MacDougall laughed from Saskatoon, where she was en route to Regina.
“Plus the drives are a lot shorter over there and you get paid better. The drives are so long in Canada, but it’s my home, so I wanted to tour it,” she said.
She has been blessed with great weather for this Canadian tour, having clear roads all the way save for one rough patch between Banff and Jasper.
While she has released three albums, radio is just starting to take notice of her.
“ Plus radio has been so good to me here,” she said.
Her third CD, “The Greatest Ones Alive is getting a lot of airplay on CKUA ( it reached number six on their charts in 2011) as well as Galaxie, where it was the number two album of 2011. It is also getting play on CBC, particularly the first single “Sometimes You Lose, Sometimes You Win.”
“ It’s a 10 song album and it’s an album album. I like to write albums instead of just songs. So I spent a lot of time choosing the songs that best fit together. We deleted a lot that didn’t,” she continued.
She said the theme of the CD is growing up. She spent about two years writing it, though there are a few older songs.
“I wrote it around the time I was turning 30. So there is a lot of nostalgia for childhood and trying to decide what to do with the rest of your life,” she said.
“I met him at a festival a couple years ago and we ended up touring together for three months, 75 dates all over North America and Europe. He convinced me to move up to Whitehorse and I was living out of a storage locker in Vancouver before, touring for two straight years. Bob Hamilton (her producer) convinced me to finish the album up there,” she said.
She decided to hire a bassist for this tour.
“There is bass and steel guitar throughout the new album. And I’ve been playing with Tim since 2004. We decided we needed to hire a bass player,” she said.
She hasn’t played Lethbridge since 2008, when she was part of songwriters in the round show at the slice with Kate Reid and Joanna Chapman-Smith.
“I’m really looking forward to it. So many musicians come through Lethbridge and talk about the Slice,” she said.
After Lethbridge, she will finish up her Canadian tour and get ready for festival season and return to Europe later in the year.
The show begins at 9 p.m. Feb. 10.
There is a $10 cover.
— By Richard Amery, L.A Beat Editor
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