Many Canadians are well aware of Stratford, Ontario’s reputation as the Canadian home for Shakespeare in this nation.
Many have also heard of the Trent-Severn Waterway National Historic Site, it’s locks and canals.
Fewer, though, have likely heard of Trent Severn – but that’s all about to change, in Canmore, at least.
Folk trio Trent Severn – Dayna Manning, Emm Gryner and Laura C. Bates – play Good Earth Café, Friday (March 14).
The three singer-songwriter musicians all hail from Stratford originally, formed Trent Severn and released a debut album just over a year ago.
These days, the trio lives in three separate communities, but will descend on Canmore from Toronto (Bates), Calgary (Manning) and St. Marys, Ont. (Gryner) as part of a mini tour to get their sound out in Western Canada.
“We’re kind of weekend warriors,” said Manning. “We’re kind of in a writing mode right now, and hoping to have a new album out in September. But we still get out on weekends to play.”
While currently living in separate communities, the three musicians have been inextricably linked. In fact, Manning was babysitting Bates when she wrote “A Walk on the Moon,” which ended up landing her a record deal with EMI eight years ago.
“And Emm and I had solo careers, but shared a stage 50 times or more,” said Manning. “Emm and I were playing a show together and talked how it could be more fun and how to put a girls’ band together.
“So we came up with a manifesto, agreed on no personal love songs and decided on Ontario folklore with a Canadiana theme. And we all had to fit in a van.”
While touring has been somewhat limited for Trent Severn, being that Gryner is a mom and as a trio they decided they needed to have lives beyond being on the road, they’ve been fitting in about 30 gigs a year. That hasn’t stopped them, though, from appearing with astronaut Chris Hadfield, meeting the Snowbirds, meeting on Parliament Hill for a harmonious rendition of “O Canada” and receiving a couple of nods at the Canadian Folk Music Awards.
“Most of our gigs have been concentrated in Ontario, where they’re only about 45 minutes away, but we want to get out west,” said Manning. “We’re in no rush to have a hit, we all wanted something that brings us joy and wouldn’t take over our lives. We wanted families, we wanted time to ourselves.
“We write our own songs, and work collaboratively, and share our royalties.”
The band’s sound features blissful harmonies, catchy Canadiana lyrics and minimalist, yet precise, instrumentation.
For inspiration, Trent Severn looks to history, stories from the road and other input.
“Our song ‘Snowy Soul’ was written after overhearing a man in a bookstore tell about living in the north for 30 years. I wrote ‘Truscott’ after I read the Steven Truscott story. It’s the band’s first song.”
Manning said plenty of research goes into songs like “Mulroney Times,” but on a quirky note, a song Bates wrote was the result of the return of a postcard included with each CD. The postcards are addressed to the band and purchasers are invited to fill them out and return them.
“We wanted to be community-based and looked at the Stratford festival, which is all local and we looked at doing something like that,” said Manning. “We’re completely indie and we share web management and design, accounting, everything. We have three people working and sharing the effort.
“We want to keep our foot in the door and travel around our country for a long time. We just want to make great art.”
