***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.
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.