April's Blog Suggestions

I have met a lot of creative individuals in my lifetime, and vowed to stay informed and updated on/in their lives, then Life happened and it fell through.

But there are two of these people - who you may not have heard of, though you definitely should have - who have kept hacking at their dream and their voice while living normal lives and raising families and going through hardships, hard times, hard shit - and that I have moderately stayed in contact with.

In no particular order, here they are, both back in the blogging game.

First, Charlotte Martin. She is a terrific songwriter, an exceptional singer, and an even better human being. Married to Ken Andrews (formerly of Failure and Replicants, now a music producer and engineer) for roughly a decade, they have two children and live in California (though she is originally from Chicago). They take turns touring so that one can stay behind with the kids, and her fanbase and circle of friends often intertwines in an odd way that never would have been possible before the internet age. Because of that, she was able to survive and thrive even after ending her relationship with major label RCA.

You should also follow Enid-Raye Adams. She will likely write a lot less often than Charlotte, but every post will turn your life upside down. She hails from Western Canada and at some point decided it would mean a better life for her to return there, but in between she was probably on the verge of finding regular work in Hollywood; you may have seen her in Final Destination 2, The L Word, Dead Like Me, Babylon 5 and Slap Shot 2, but she has since played in a lot of TV series that were filmed in Canada, such as Fringe, The Haunting Hour and Arctic Air. She's an extremely smart person who isn't just a terrific performer but also has a couple of really good screenplays in her. She is also trying to juggle a family life with the added reality of hard economic troubles and a constant questioning of her place in the world, and her level of happiness.

They are both very open about their lives, especially their pain - though Enid-Raye perhaps more so than Charlotte, because she has this feeling that no one's reading her stuff and treats it like a diary that perhaps even her husband doesn't know about (if he does, I hope he doesn't find out about her state of mind through it at times), whereas CharMar feels like each of her readers is a close friend that she doesn't want to have worrying about her.

They are both extremely compelling and thought-provoking. And people you can't help feeling for.

Video Of The Week: Charlotte Martin

Man, did it ever rain today. I think I hadn't seen that much water fall from the sky and into the streets since the flood of July 14th, 1987 (yes, an actual flash flood in a city/island like Montréal). In honour of that, a friend of mine invited everyone to reply to his Facebook status with a song about rain.

Among the common ones were The Cure (''Prayers For Rain''), Milli Vanilli (''Blame It On The Rain''), Mario Pelchat (''Pleurs Dans La Pluie'') and Guns N' Roses (''November Rain''), but I came up with Charlotte Martin's ''Every Time It Rains''.

Charlotte is an independent singer/songwriter originally from Illinois who now lives in California. She is a former model (and Miss Teen USA contestant, after having been Miss Teen Illinois) who has a university degree in vocal performance. She mainly plays the piano and, thus, is often compared to Tori Amos, except instead of singing about teddy bears and candy (and sex and rape), she sings about real life (and finding true love). Like a happier and (mentally) healthier Amos.

I met her in 2003 or 2004, when she came here before her On Your Shore record was released (she hasn't come to Montréal since). I put up posters of her around the venue and we hung out for most of the afternoon, then I watched her show. We've been in some form of contact ever since.

She is the nicest person I've ever met, and probably among the hottest, too, not that it matters, but it begs to question why she isn't more universally known considering she has everything the mass media would/should want, i.e. an exterior you can sell and a set of pipes stronger than just about anyone not called Whitney, Céline or Mariah.

She has covered Joy Division, The Cure, Depeche Mode, Interpol, the Stones and Pearl Jam, she has co-written songs and performed with Tiesto, Ben Lee and The Crystal Method and been on many movie and video game soundtracks, but this song here is all her, from her major label debut (she has since gone back to being indie). She definitely deserves to be heard more.