When most people think of Ottawa music, Alanis Morissette is the first name that usually comes to mind. Well there’s a second — Amanda Rheaume.
Rheaume, who had been writing poetry and diaries plus playing piano from an early age, had picked up guitar at age 12, but was blown away by Morissette’s “Jagged Little Pill,” at age 15.
“It was such raw music, it made me want to pick up a dictionary to learn all of those big words,” she said from Jasper, seven weeks into her tour. She will be winding down her tour by the time she reaches Lethbridge, Sept. 24 when she plays the Slice with Marc Charron.
She began to focus on songwriting and caught the music business bug after sharing a stage and singing “Closer To Fine” with Sarah McLachlan, the Indigo Girls and the Dixie Chicks at Lilith Fair the next year as her aunt was organizing it.
“I was back stage and it got around that I could sing and play guitar,” she said.
“I’m not going to lie, that was a pretty big deal for me, to be on stage with the top female performers of the day. There wasn’t a lot of pressure. It was just a bunch of women on stage singing. That was what they would do, they’d all get on stage and sing ‘Closer To Fine,’ (one of the Indigo Girls most popular songs). But it really opened up my eyes to what was possible. I was nervous, but being a little nervous isn’t a bad thing,” she said.
She will be coming to Lethbridge to play the Slice, Sept. 24 with Marc Charron, touring in support of her first full length CD “ Light of Another Day.”
“I’m touring as a duo with Marc. We’re two singer-songwriters from Ottawa who learned each others’ albums so we can help each other out on stage,” she said. they have diverse musical styles. While Rheaume is more in the folk-pop, singer songwriter vein, Charron is a one man band.
“He plays drums with his feet and plays guitar and sings. It’s pretty cool. It’s quite the thing to see on stage,” she enthused.
She is excited about the new CD, which was released in June.
“It’s got 11songs on it. It’s my first full length record. I’ve done EPs and touring of course, but nothing longer than six to eight songs. More of it is in the folk/ pop/ rock vein,” she described adding the songs were inspired over the past few years on tour by the numerous people and their stories which she has heard on tour including a few shows in Afghanistan in 2009.
“It’s a record that lets people know there is hope out there,” she said.
“The song ‘Push On,’ was inspired by meeting all of these amazing men and women over there,” she said.
It has been a few years since she played at a coffee shop in Lethbridge but she is looking forward to coming back.
She is concentrating her energies on touring the new CD, which will take her into next year.
“I’ve been concentrating on Canada. I’d played in the U.S. and overseas, but it just feel good to play in Canada,” she said.
“I’ve been looking forward to playing the Slice. I’ve heard so much about it,” she said.
“We‘re going to be playing some songs and just having some fun with the people who come out and hear us,” she said.
