By Jayne Trimble.
A self-confessed working-class Patsy Cline, but a bit more ethereal.
If you’re about to shelve Alissa Arnason amongst the other folk/country artists in your library, dust off that shelf and think again, for Arnason is in a league of her own. Conceived in the prairie town of Mozart, Saskatchewan, Canada ( ..yes that’s right), on Schubert St, (yes, right again..) it’s as if the stars had already decided music would be her path in life. By day, however, Arnason works as a cook for gold miners in bush camps.
These bush camps are so remote that we’ve never heard of them, and it’s this nomadic, brave existence along with the deep submergence into nature, that make this woman, and her music what they are. Songs about being tired from work, the relentless passing of time, memories, unconventional ways of living, along with love songs and lullabies to nature and the universe. Alissa has also studied the art of energy healing and cites that to her, there is no difference between the two worlds of healing and art - her art is her healing, and the two are her gift to the world. Her gorgeous forthcoming single Lighthouse, to be released on World Peach Records June 11th 2021, is the first recording Arnason has released in 7 years, and she feels that this is her wild entrance back into the music world.
A song she describes as “raw and honest, one that really gets to the guts of the complexity of love”. A tale of letting go and accepting what is instead of holding on, specifically to a lover, who she describes as a Lighthouse. She hopes that in hearing it the listener feels permission to be vulnerable and honest in their own forms of self-expression. But IMHO Alissa is the true Lighthouse here, a beacon of light for weary souls in desperate need of some truth and healing, her presence is like a sweet balm for the broken hearted. When she sings your heart will be putty in the palms of her hands, (just like when she makes brownies for the miners no doubt), and you will never want to leave.
Arnason will be releasing a further 7 songs this summer via World Peach Records. About Lighthouse: "I wrote it about my ex-boyfriend who is just the most beautiful person on the planet, who I really love so much, who has gone out of his way to make sure that although we are no longer in union, I still feel supported and loved by him. It’s really big meta stuff because it is the true essence of what love means to me! It doesn’t just go away, and you can’t just cancel the person that you shared so much beauty with. And there’s so much love in seeing someone you love be happy. He grew up on the water. He is really like a lighthouse for the people in his life- the symbolism of being someone that is just like a beacon of light and direction. It’s a love song about unconventional and unconditional forms of love."
Photograph by Mohammad Jarilwala
Website: www.alissaarnason.com
Record Label: www.worldpeachrecords.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/prairielizard
'Murder Ballad' recorded live at the old miner's hall in Rossland Britsh Columbia in 2012. Video by David Hartman/Hayfire Media