Meredith Luce Releases Debut Album
Friday September 21, 2007 @ 05:30 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff

Meredith Luce

OTTAWA — Some girls want to be pop stars when they grow up. When Ottawa singer/songwriter Meredith Luce was a pre-teen, she too had magazine cover aspirations — but not about what you might think.

"I was always very ambitious about my goals in music," Luce says. "When I was 12, I wanted to be one of the few women to make the cover of Guitar World."

Luce isn't too far from those adolescent thoughts. She's barely 20, but her voice and accomplished playing bespeak one of those old-soul types who sounds instantly comfortable and mature with whatever sound she tries.

In the past two years alone, Luce has secured a songwriting award from the Ottawa Folk Festival, played on national radio and television for CBC and CTV, graced festival stages across Ontario, and attracted attention from a National Public Radio station in New York. Now she finally has a full-length Dave Draves-produced album to celebrate.

"I had no idea where Dave was going to take [the songs] and I was immensely impressed with the final product," Luce says. "A couple of albums that inspired the record sonically were Joel Plaskett's La De Da, Andrew Bird's The Mysterious Production Of Eggs and Willy Mason's Where The Humans Eat. They all had an intimate and lo-fi feel that I was very drawn to as a listener."

Listeners to Luce's October, too, will note a warm, rich feel that's similar to her inspirations. Luce draws from moody blues on "October," old-time jazz on "Black Cats" and country ballads on "The Ballad Of Sally Rae" (written for her mother).

While used to playing alone, Luce has assembled a band called The Man Dates to help flesh out her songs.

"The band brings loads of excitement and energy to a show," Luce says. "I never know if my drummer [Tim Watson] is going to throw in a new beat or flourish, or if my lead guitar player [Dave Gaudet] is going to pull out a new riff on the guitar. They are all extremely talented and so much fun to work with."

Luce's songwriting chops earned her an opening slot on American musician Shawn Fogel's New England tour.

"Nothing has really sunk in at this point," she says. "I'd really like to make my living doing this, and anything above and beyond that will be a wonderful surprise."

Before Luce heads south, she'll play Saturday at Ottawa's Irene's Pub and Sunday at Toronto's Tranzac.

—Caitlin Crockard