When they say everything’s bigger in the Lone Star state, it’s probably no surprise the saying can also refer to guitar-driven, belt it out blues.
Music lovers can find out that that’s just the case when, from Austin, Texas via Austria and Finland, Carolyn Wonderland takes to the Stan Rogers Stage as part of the Canmore Folk Music Festival, Sunday, July 31.
After a few gigs in Austria’s Alps, Wonderland is making a stop in the Rockies, along with Cole El-Saleh (keys, bass) and Rob Hooper (drums), en route to furthering an international tour in California.
Wonderland, who is seemingly an inexhaustible tour performer, was in Missouri a couple of weeks ago, having travelled 9,000 miles in 34 days.
“We’ve been in blizzards, rivers flooding, storms and heat,” she said. “Right now, we’re just playing festivals, which I love. You can put the music out there and people don’t have to be 21 to hear it like when you’re playing bars.”
Possibly Wonderland’s wanting youngsters to hear music is a throwback to her roots, when, at a time other girls were playing with dolls or having tea parties in her hometown of Houston, she was learning to play a 1930s vintage Martin guitar her mother found in the trash and her parents refurbished. Her mother had been a singer as well and clearly passed down her love of music.
Since working out her first songs on the Martin, Wonderland has also taken up a range of instruments (all named, by the way); guitar, lap steel, trumpet, mandolin, piano, accordion, etc., and the vocal art of whistling.
Among her diverse collection of instruments is Martin (obviously, her guitar) the guitar she uses for songwriting, Telly (Fender Telecaster), her main performance guitar, Leslie Pauline (a Gibson Les Paul), Patty (Gibson Blueshawk), Little Lappy Callie (a ‘40s lap steel), Little Mandy (mandolin), along with a coronet and trumpet.
Almost any combination of instruments can be found in Wonderland’s gig arsenal, except when she’s flying and hauling instruments means taking fewer CDs, clothes and personal items. Her present five-week tour includes just guitar and mandolin.
Wonderland’s music (don’t be surprised if her vocal stylings remind you of another great Texas blues singer) reaches into the depths of the Texas blues tradition. All of her instruments are simply different means of putting her music out there.
“I learned to play guitar as a kid,” she said. “Then I started playing and writing songs and I’ve been doing this since I was 14.
“Different songs call for different voices and if it feels like home, you’ve gotta play it.”
Her albums range from 2008’s Miss Understood back to Bloodless Revolution and Alcohol & Salvation (2003). She’s gone from being a young phenom teen in Houston to sleeping in her van while garnering critical praise for her album releases. Currently, she’s working toward a new offering which will feature originals and songs written by friends -– including Ruthie Foster, who graced the Canmore festival stage a couple of years ago.
As to her style, Wonderland said she’s been influenced by everyone she’s played with and when it comes to songwriting: “every song is different, but my favourites pretty much write themselves.
“When something’s bugging you, you have to write it down, but I just do what I do and the music is what it is.”
And, while she has produced three albums now, playing live is what she thrives on. “I can’t imagine doing anything else. Exchanging molecules with other human beings is important.”
And while she’s been influenced and played with greats like Foster, Ray Benson and Bob Dylan, who likened her album Bloodless Revolution to a ‘mystery movie theme’, Los Lobos, Buddy Guy, Johnnie Winter and Ray Wylie Hubbard, she admits to being a little scared of taking part in the Canmore festival’s workshops. “But I’ll do the best I can.”
Her music, which features vocals ranging from low and smoky to belt it out at the top of lungs and guitar licks from melodious to blistering promises a high-energy tour through Texas blues.
