Carly Dow – MASTER OF NONE

Carly Dow playing at the Rackham Community Hall – Photo by Dandy Denial

***Original published in South Mountain Press, Oct 26, 2018***

Local Upcoming Star Plays in Rackham Community Hall

Life was breathed back into a forlorn, forgotten church hall in the tiny hamlet of Rackham Saturday night when a sellout crowd of at least 150 came out to enjoy the second stop on local singer/song writer Carly Dow’s latest tour. The musician was back home promoting the October 19 world wide release of her latest album ‘Comet’.

Although Carly is diminutive in stature and modest about her burgeoning success, there is nothing small or restrained about her strong, throaty lyrics or her signature style on her acoustic guitar and clawhammer banjo.

Carly’s brand of music easily appeals to a broad cross section of people. The twang of her banjo and solid downbeats thoroughly entertained an eclectic mix of fans that ranged from dancing children to toe tapping grandmothers. Farmer flannel intermingled with hipster skinny jeans. New Age lifestyle fused nicely with the homey atmosphere of a rural social that came complete with song, dance, wine, craft beer, veggies, and venison sausage. Her upbeat songs concerning Nature, lost relationships, and plain everyday life strike a common chord across all spectrums.

As Carly played through her repertoire of songs, she gave some insight on where she gets her inspiration for her music and video projects. She already had a strong link with the Manitoba backwoods from her summers spent up at the Park, majoring in Environmental Studies at the U of M, and subsequent employment with the Nature Conservancy of Canada. Her Lake Audy property, encounters with wildlife (or the occasional errant Canadian goose), and the wildness of rural Manitoba feature strongly in her lyrics and videos.

Also, unique to the new method of raising capital for projects like a song album, Carly sang ‘Prairie Mountain Sisters’. She wrote the song as a pledge reward for the Kickstarter campaign that made her sophomore project possible.

Glennis and Garth Dow, Carly’s parents, were in attendance and proud of their daughter’s success. According to her mother, Carly’s talent for music started to blossom when she first started playing guitar back in Grade 9.

‘Carly is her own creation’, was the response from Glennis when asked if their daughter took after someone else in the family. Garth was glad that his daughter’s hard work was gaining recognition and admired all of the effort that she has put forward to get to this point.

Carly made the permanent move to the Lake Audy area about four years ago. The appeal of the Park also convinced her parents to make the move away from the Big City at the same time. Mom and Dad had already been running the Chocolate Fox in Wasagaming since 2008 and it has worked out that the whole family is out this way.

Garth pointed out that this latest album was pretty much an all Manitoban production. Most of Carly’s published music videos are shot in and around the Lake Audy/Onanole area featuring the wild Manitoba landscape and locals volunteering their time. ‘Cut and Run’ from the new album features an older Sandy Lake couple and their VW ‘Peace’ van out enjoying life by Clear Lake and the Wishing well area. The video ends with Carly playing at a dance over at Poor Michael’s Emporium in Onanole. The musician expressed her humble gratitude for all of the support and appreciated the chance to ‘give back’ by performing a show for her home crowd.

Carly will continue promoting the new album with a month long Western Canada tour of 20 venues that will take her to Vancouver Island and back. If you want to follow her progress and sample some of her unique ‘wildcrafted folk music’, look her up at www.carlydowmusic.com or on her Facebook profile.

For tech savvy fans, her album is available for download via iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon, & Google Play. If you are an audiophile, ‘Comet’ is also available on vinyl featuring design work by Roberta Landreth and artwork by Gabrielle Funk.

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Blair is a personification of a ‘Jack of All Trades and Master of None’. He has held several careers and has all the T-shirts. Time to add the title Blogger to the list.

Talented Folk Artist at Home in Lake Audy

Recently while in between concert venues, I was able to catch up with the talented singer/song writer, Carly Dow. This poised, self-confident, young woman who uses her wooded Lake Audy property as her inspirational center point, is quickly making her mark on the Canadian Folk music scene.

Carly performs a self-described music genre called ‘wildcrafted folk’ using her haunting tones, potent lyrics, and the twang of a clawhammer banjo. She began her singing career in earnest back in 2013 by entertaining audiences literally coast to coast while riding the rails as an onboard Via Rail entertainer. Her career propelled forward in 2015 with her debut album Ingrained which received critical world-wide acclaim and placed on Top 10 Canadian charts in the folk/roots/blues category. Carly’s singing will undoubtedly continue its upward trajectory with the launching of her Kickstarter funded second album, Comet, with a debut concert at the Winnipeg West End Cultural Centre on October 19. This will kick off a promotion tour which will continue with a stop in Onanole then more shows out in BC.

The young artist candidly shared her story of being a young teenager dabbling in poetry writing who underwent a metamorphosis to develop her skills and natural singing talent into a burgeoning singing career. Although she is from ‘The City’ and majored in Environmental Studies at the University of Manitoba, she and her family frequented Wasagaming for the summers and the wildness of the region was always her true home. The landscape, natural beauty, and concentration of artists that populate the region became the inspiration of her songs, so four years ago, she bought a Lake Audy property to come home to.

According to Carly, her audience is comprised of an even split of the genders in the 25 to 55 year old age range. Her fans generally identify with her music due to their connection with the land and nature. She has really clicked with audiences in Alberta, BC and up north in the Yukon. She had a superb experience while on her 2017 European tour that included venues in the Netherlands, Germany, Britain, and Scotland. The connection in Europe was different because she was the crazy Canuck who hung out with the moose and bears and then sang folk songs.

Any messages in her artistry stem from her experiences in the untamed wilderness and the majestic imagery offered by backwoods Canada. Check out a few of Carly’s powerful music videos available on YouTube and you will see her deep connection to Nature and the world that she surrounds herself with. While attending a 2016 Canadian Wilderness Artists Residency in the Yukon, she recorded Something Lost while canoeing the Yukon River. The beginning of Constellations starts with shots of her home bric-à-brac featuring skulls, bits of crustaceans, and pebbles that she has probably randomly gathered during her adventures. Anyone familiar with the Park will recognize the atypical Manitoba parkland region featured in clips interspersed within So Long/Goodbye.

‘I don’t make any political statements. I just put things out into the world and people will either hear what is relevant to them or hear what they need to hear at the moment. Because of my background, I sing and write from a woman’s narrative, ecological sustainability and about personal stuff related to my life or that of the people I know. I sing so that people can connect with themselves from their own perspective. My audience will figure out what they want to take from my music for themselves.’

Taking advantage of technology, Carly’s newest album will be available first to her Kickstarter backers and then on iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon, and Google Play for the general public on October 19. Keep track of her upcoming tour dates at www.carlydowmusic.com.

Blair is a personification of a ‘Jack of All Trades and Master of None’. He has held several careers and has all the T-shirts. Time to add the title Blogger to the list.

Tag: Carly Dow

PRAIRIE SCRIBBLER – SOUTH MOUNTAIN PRESS, VOLUME 11, NUMBER 30

Local Upcoming Star Plays in Rackham Community Hall

PRAIRIE SCRIBBLER – SOUTH MOUNTAIN PRESS, VOLUME 11, NUMBER 23

Talented Folk Artist at Home in Lake Audy