ALBUM:
Patchwork
TAYLOR USED:
355
414ce
314ce
SONG CLIPS:
All That You're Missing
28K | 56K | MP3
Taking Me Away
28K | 56K | MP3
CONTACT INFO:
P.O. Box 584
Lucan, Ontario
Canada
E-mail:
ali@ ali matthews. com
Web:
www. ali matthews .com
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"Stylistically and thematically, these songs represent the diverse, colourful patches of discovery that have been stitched together in my own life," writes Ali Matthews of her debut CD, Patchwork. The Canadian singer-songwriter draws deeply from the meaningful experiences of her life, in the process gracefully highlighting the universal pleasure and pain that define life. "It is often in the darkest times that we really learn what it means to be alive," Matthews says in her liner notes for the song "Wide Awake", inspired by the dignity with which her father faced a terminal illness. Living wide awake is a unifying theme of Patchwork, on which Matthews' softly soaring voice illuminates each melody with lucid maturity and sensitivity. Her vocals are both vulnerable and knowing, finely attuned to the life's struggles and hopes.
Matthews has been a performing artist for over 15 years. On stage she has blended covers of Bob Dylan, Sheryl Crow, Shawn Colvin, fellow Canadian Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, and Nanci Griffith with original material. In a wonderful collaboration with musician, co-producer and performing partner Rick Francis, Patchwork roams a wide stretch of contemporary acoustic terrain, yielding the shimmering folk beauty of "Soundtrack to My History" (about the enduring power of friendship); a pair of gorgeous piano ballads, "Brave Enough" and the desolate beauty of "Winter"; the trumpet-pumped, funked-out groove of "Nobody's Fool"; and the silky jazz and wispy sensuality of "Taking Me Away" (love's transcendent connection), which was inspired by Francis' purchase of his 314ce.
"The day Rick bought it," says Matthews, "he stayed up all night playing it and ended up writing the guitar part, then he played it for me and I added the melody and lyrics...so it is truly a ‘Taylor’ song and certainly one of our favorites on the CD."
Francis brings both top-flight musicianship and deft production sensibilities to the mix throughout, blending, spacious ambiance, layers of texture, and rich acoustic/electric tone, while allowing enough room for Matthews' radiant voice to evoke her lyrical sentiments. "All That You're Missing" gleams with a melodic pop polish as Matthews stirs up the small possibilities that appear within our daily routines -- faded dreams that linger yet, tugging at our hopes. She resolves that she'll never know what might have been on the naked, antique-y "Time Will Never Tell", recorded on an upright piano in her dining room and warmed with cello. The song took first place in Toronto's regional finals of the Canadian National Songwriting Contest.
Matthews says she hopes her music will connect her patchwork of experiences with those of listeners.
Of her 355 and 414ce, Matthews says: "My Taylors have a 'voice' I have heard in no other guitar. They sing!"
"I was charmed by it…the vocals are exquisite."
— Jim Vallance, internationally acclaimed songwriter
"[Matthews'] debut is remarkably poised and confident, delivered with an assurance that comes only with maturity. Her voice is expressive, distinctive and clear, filtering her lyrics through a personality that's both likable and sincere..."
— Ken Mavor, Stratford Beacon Herald
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