From small town to big city, from east to west, from midnight sun to Rocky Mountains, Trish Robb’s career path has been twisting and varied.
That hasn’t changed this summer, as Robb and her band have been touring Western Canada, packed in a van, travelling east to west from bar to bar and from the 49th to above the 60th parallel for the second time in her career.
Robb plays the Elk and Oarsman, Wednesday (Sept. 11), along with Chris Culgin (mandolin, banjo, guitar), Dan Liscio (bass) and drummer Matt Greco.
Having made the long, long haul from Toronto, through Thunder Bay and across the Prairies and north to Dawson City in the Yukon via Jasper, Robb and her crew were kicking back slightly in the northern city.
“We’ve been on the road for a couple of weeks, so it’s nice to have four gigs here,” she said from Dawson, Sunday (Sept. 1). “We’re in a little cabin here, so we’ve hiking and sightseeing, staying up late to play and party, then starting over again.
“They have a big ball tournament up here every year, so we’re playing the Midnight Sun Hotel for four nights before heading south.
“It’s nice to stay in one place for a bit. We’ve been crammed into a van, which is not super fun; we’ve had good shows and good crowds and bad shows and bad turnouts.”
After releasing a self-titled debut album in 2010, Robb is working on a new work to be released later this year.
“After this tour, I’m going to finish some songs, hunker down and get recording,” she said.
While her original album was a folk/alt country blend, her new work, she said, will be folk, but with some pop flavouring.
The reason Robb plans to hunker down to finish a new album after her current tour is that she has discovered she cannot write on the road. “I never write on a road trip,” she said. “I don’t even want to. There’s no time, as strange as that sounds, with hours and hour on the road.
“I’m always tired, we don’t play just one set and call it a night, and there are a lot of details to take care of when you’re on the road.
“And I’ve found songs come to me when they do; it needs to be organic, it happens when it happens. I go to Costa Rica every year with some musicians I know and I do some writing there. I do most of my writing when I’m home in Toronto.”
Robb’s move to Toronto followed being born in small town New Brunswick, being raised in small town Ontario and attending school in Montreal for a degree in fine arts (filmmaking).
“I moved to Toronto, because . . . why not? It’s something you have to try in the music business. I’m not a city girl, but that’s how it’s gone. I won’t stay here forever. Living in the city is why I’m poor, I think; it’s a struggle to make ends meet because Toronto is super expensive.”
Still, if a struggle makes you stronger . . .
Robb was born into a family that embraced music; her dad played guitar, her mom was a churchgoer and so singing came naturally. “There was always a guitar around the house and when I was in high school, I realized that playing guitar made you cool.
“I teach music and find that kids who go to church are way ahead with musical abilities.
Robb has opened for Ron Sexsmith, Peter Elkas, The Cowboy Junkies and Stephen Fearing, with tracks from her debut album played on CBC Radio.
As a songwriter, Robb has a solid sense of melody, a familiarity with musical structure and a gift with words.
“My newer songs are kind of morphing into a Beatles’ approach of storytelling. I find I don’t need to be so personal. My first album was very personal, but I’m thinking more outside the box this time. The first album was of the folk country genre, but some songs on the new album will push it toward folk pop.”
While writing, performing, teaching music and touring – along with living in Toronto – are challenging, Robb said she’s got an ideal life at this point.
“I think I always wanted to be doing this,” she said, “it just took me a while to admit it. It is hard sometimes, when you see your friends buying cars and travelling the world, but I have the best life of anybody I know right now.
“Everyone in the band has side projects to pay the bills – you’d be very, very lucky to have bandmates who don’t need to play with other people.”
