Melissa McClelland

What strikes me about this album is that its inspiration seems to lies
in an old-fashion dixieland-style music, as if all the music
instruments and technology are from this alternate 1950s era. This is
kind of interesting because a few years ago, her song “Rooftop”, from Stranded in Suburbia, was included on the soundtrack for television teendrama series, Degrassi: The Next Generation… which doesn’t exactly scream blues/americana music to me.

Victoria Day was produced by McClelland’s husband, Luke Doucet,
who also co-wrote “A Girl Can Dream”. The music sounds very organic,
with traditional piano & acoustic guitars, plus horns (sax,
trombones) and strings (violins, cellos).

The track that people will likely be drawn to on Victoria Day
will probably be “Seasoned Lovers”. This is because the male vocals on
this song is by none other than Ron Sexsmith. While the presence of
Sexsmith doesn’t hurt the song, I just felt the gentle love song was
too forgettable to spotlight.

The title track and name of the album, “Victoria Day” is worth
listening to. The song comes in two parts: April and May Showers. The
song is also cut into two distinct section, as the song shifts to a
different tone on May Showers… but I felt the song needed to be
consumed as one full song.

It looks like McClelland’s next few appearance are at the Dawson City Music Festival and most interestingly on a Cayamo Cruise Ship
through South America. Although prices are expensive, starting at $799,
it will be a nice six-day vacation with sleep quarters (includes meal?) and the chance
to catch some of your favorite artists (Lyle Lovettt, Emmylou Harris,
John Hiatt, Steve Earle, Brandi Carlile, Rachael Yamagata) on a very
intimate setting.

You can buy Victoria Day today through
Six Shooter Records – who’s motto is “life is too short to listen to shitty music”