The Story of Sail Away

Canadian singer-songwriter, Eva Tree (Ay-vah), has just released her second full length CD, Sail Away. Her introspective and hauntingly beautiful songs liken her to other pared down confessional singers like Beth Orton, Fiest, and Australian crossover-country singer, Kasey Chambers.

The instrumentation of guitars, mandolin, dobro and accordion infuse the album with a sepia sun-drenched old-time mountain sound. Most of the recording took place in Nelson, BC at producer Jude Davison’s small studio and Jude’s sophisticated but low key sensibility was perfect to capture the country back porch simplicity and complete lack of pretension Eva was aiming for.

Eva’s singing is raw and unadorned and Jude’s harmonies add a warmth of tone that creates a complexity and sweetness of sound which is right at the crossroads where heart-yearning melancholy meets joyful.

Eva Tree hearkens from the same deep mountain woods of British Columbia as The Be Good Tanyas. She often crossed musical paths with Sam Parton and Frazey Ford (of The BGT’s) as she honed her music at tree planting camps, living rooms and open mics throughout Canada. The song, That’s Alright, called out for Frazey’s breathy harmony, and so Eva and her ensemble drove the recording gear up to Vancouver and completed the recording there.

Frazey Ford of The Be Good Taynas		Yael Blum, Keona Hammond, and Karla Mundy of The No Sh*t Shirleys recording backing vocals for Heavy Load

In a moment of inspiration, Eva also called on another of Vancouver’s emerging groups, The No Sh*t Shirleys. In a wonderfully raucous familial flurry (one of The Shirleys is Eva’s sister, Yael) some fantastic harmonies were recorded on the album’s closing track, Heavy Load, giving it a blues-gospel feel. Eva’s father, poet Blake Parker, is also featured on this hand-clapping, foot-stomping track.

On Sail Away, Eva is also joined by Bill Dickerson (her partner and long-time musical collaborator) on multiple tracks, who adds his inventive and subtle guitar touches to many of the songs. While recording in Seattle, she was also joined by musical friends: Joel Tepp (slide guitar, dobro, clarinet), Jamie Sieber (cello), Zak Borden (mandolin), Kathryn Mostow (harmonies), and Mark Filler (percussion).

One of the most exciting things about this album is that the songs were written to interweave with the radio/video script, The Princess and the Kid, a post-modern fairytale/myth written by her father, Blake Parker. Tree says that “by immersing myself into Blake’s poetic and fantastical narrative, I found a voice for new and unique characters. The project was incredibly liberating and enabled me to really sing into the songs and make them my own in a way I had not before.” Eva had the rather unusual experience of growing up in a house with no bathroom or electricity as part of a raggle-taggle community of artistic hippie-gypsies. While working on this project, she says “Suddenly and all at once, my history and heritage opened up before my fascinated eyes, and I found a wealth of songwriting material. The songs continue to flow. With Sail Away, I’m attempting to integrate the old with the new, have a slow dance with melody, and tell stories while I do it.“
		Blake Parker, poet, & Eva's father
		The view from the back porch in the Kootenays

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