Jenn Grant's Heartbreak Echoes On Album

Greek mythology has an Echo, and so does Jenn Grant.

But instead of losing herself and becoming an afterthought like the mountain nymph, the Halifax-based singer/songwriter has crafted her own lovelorn myth, a new Six Shooter Records album titled Echoes. Grant's rewrite portrays the narrator loud and clear.

"It comes from the echoes that I have heard in my heart and makes me think of singing between grand mountains all alone, singing up into the sky just for the sake of singing," says Grant over lunch at Halifax's Minato Sushi.

The 13-track album was recorded live off the floor on analogue equipment at Puck's Farm in Schomberg, Ont. It acts as a journey through the nooks and crannies of Grant's heart. Some caverns are murkier than others.

"It is like a thing inside of me and, if I don't get it out, I might die," says Grant. "Or I might turn into a sea monster, swim away and never come back.

Opening track "Heartbreaker" sets the moody atmospheric tone of the album as Grant stretches beyond the ventricles of the organ wedged within her chest and stares into her soul.

Grant doesn't hold back. Her emotions pour out of her in a similar fashion to her songs — pure, honest and in a stream-of-consciousness.

When Grant's happy, she's over the moon. Her 2007 Orchestra For The Moon full-length debut was layered with twinkling instrumentation and filled with a slew of guests and fairy-tale whimsy. Echoes is a vast departure.

The album is rich with imagery beyond the scenic mountains and northern lights skyline Grant painted for the cover. It's best heard in its entirety, as the narrative carries listeners through peaks and valleys of various states of vulnerability and travels deep within her vague poeticism.

"It comes from my own life," Grant says. "But I don't think about lyrics much when I'm writing them.

"It feels like I am getting the music from someplace beyond myself, and perhaps the lyrical matter is just coloured by if I am happy or sad, angry or wishful."

"I Was Your Woman" is Echoes' most diverse track. It's known as "the monster song" among Grant's bandmates — Kinley Dowling (violin, viola), Sean MacGillivary (bass, vocals) and David Christensen (bass clarinet, accordion, bass flute, vocals) — for its dark, bowel-shaking effects. It's a touch bizarre, dense and thick with theatrics. The apocalyptic bass notes perfectly score Grant's vocal play.

"Blue Mountains" has a dream-like quality almost reminiscent of Orchestra For The Moon single "Dreamer," which is now the theme song for CBC Television’s Heartland.

"(I've Got) The Two of You" is rich with colour, harmony, magic and perhaps even forgiveness, as Grant penned the song for her parents after crashing her mother's car while driving to visit her father in Prince Edward Island.

"Parachutes" was written for Hey Rosetta! frontman Tim Baker, as the twosome decided to create songs for one another. Baker's "We Made A Pact" can be found on Hey Rosetta!'s Into Your Lungs (And Around In Your Heart And On Through Your Blood), where Grant accompanies him on vocals and Dowling's violin soars.

"Fireflies" was inspired by a festival of night bugs spotted after an Ottawa Valley summer concert with Tanya Davis. Grant accompanies Davis on her interpretation of the evening on "Firebug" from her latest release, Gorgeous Morning.

"Hawaii," which recalls the scents and sentiments of newfound love, originally appeared on Grant's independently released Goodbye Twentieth Century in 2005.

Grant throws in a couple of covers for good measure. There's a nod to a bygone era with Noël Coward's "I'll See You Again" and a gussied-up version of her brother's favourite song, Neil Young's "Only Love Can Break Your Heart."

"The song by Neil Young was chosen because it's a song I love, too," Grant says. "And my heart was really broken.

"But it's getting really happy again. I feel heartbroken when I sing it, even. I thought I was heartbroken in my early twenties, but now I think I've really learned. I'm so much happier now that I think I've figured that out. It's a toughie. Holy cow."

You can see Grant here:

Feb. 21 Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England @ Studio in Live Theatre w/Kevin Hearn
Feb. 24 Dublin, Ireland @ The Ruby Sessions at Doyle's Pub w/Kevin Hearn
Feb. 25 London, England @ The Macbeth w/Kevin Hearn
Feb. 27 Brighton, England @ Engine Room w/Kevin Hearn
March 14 Toronto, ON @ The Reverb w/Melissa McClelland, Amelia Curran, Wendy McNeill and Moriarty (CMW)
March 19 Austin, TX @ The Velveeta Room w/Oh Susanna, Melissa McClelland, Elliott Brood, Luke Doucet and NQ Arbuckle (SXSW)