Folk singer Shawna Caspi returns to her roots

Advertisement / Publicité

Over the last two decades, Shawna Caspi has grown from a local performer to an internationally touring folk musician with five albums and two award nominations. Now, the Ottawa-born singer-songwriter is coming home.

She’s performing an acoustic version of her latest album, 2021’s Hurricane Coming, at Westboro Masonic Hall in Ottawa on Mar. 19. She’s accompanied by harmony singer and backup guitarist Sarah Hiltz, with an opening act from Renfrew County’s Khloe B.

Hurricane Coming is Shawna Caspi’s fifth album, and her first nominated for an award (Provided by Shawna Caspi)

Caspi’s journey began in early 2000s Ottawa at renowned folk music venue Rasputin’s Folk Cafe. A dedicated singer and guitarist since her high school years, Caspi found a home for her music at the coffee shop’s open mic nights. She finally booked her first paid, on-stage performance in 2005.

“I didn’t know this place existed, and when I found it, I went: ‘Wow, this is so nice,’” Caspi said. “It was intimate, friendly, and all-ages, which was big for me at the time because I was a teenager in high school. Most of the venues in Ottawa, I couldn’t go to because they were 19 plus.”

She then spent three years writing music for her first album: Paint by Numbers. It was scary new territory for her; nerve-wracking, given the years of lead up and accumulation of song ideas over those years. She said it was her first attempt to capture a moment of time in a recording, and it was satisfying to finally see her efforts come to fruition.

Rasputin’s was more than willing to host the album’s February 2008 premiere. But this would be one of the venue’s last shows before burning down half a year later in August, much to the dismay of Caspi and Ottawa’s music scene.

The folk community never forgot about Rasputin’s. Passionate audience members founded the Spirit of Rasputin’s Arts Society with the goal of continuing to promote local folk artists and celebrate the genre’s history. They also never forgot about Caspi, inviting her back on-stage after more than a decade of touring.

The main focus of the show will be Caspi’s fifth album, Hurricane Coming. Where a lot of her previous albums were written on the road and tested at live concerts, Hurricane Coming was mostly written at her studio in Toronto. She said this gave her time to reconnect with her everyday life, away from the distractions of touring.

Caspi added that she’s proud of the album because it highlights her desire to dig deeper into her emotions – pain, reflection, acceptance – and to share her honest self with listeners.

“When I was a younger artist that was scary, and I was putting more walls between me and the audience. I’m constantly in the process of taking down those walls, and I think this record comes closer and closer to that,” she said. “I think this is the most introspective album I’ve ever made.”

It’s also an album about telling uncomfortable truths: Caspi said she uses her music to amplify voices that haven’t been heard. She said the folk genre helps her achieve this goal because folk musicians are generally inclusive and strive for equality.

Shawna Caspi performing on-stage in 2019 (Photo by Eric Thom Hughs)

“A lot of my music can be dark, but I’m always trying to tell the truth, and I’m always trying to find some kind of vein of hope,” she said.

Each song on the album is also accompanied by a painting produced by Caspi. She learned to paint in 2006 while studying at York University but put away the brush until 2013, when she became inspired by the beautiful Canadian landscapes she saw during her travels.

The paintings in Songs on canvas shaped by craft are abstract, a departure from her usual style that contributed to the uniqueness of the album.

Caspi said the paintings emulate distinct visual mediums to represent the emotions of their associated songs. Running Start’s painting, for example, is based on the Japanese art of Kintsugi, which involves mending a broken object with gold lacquer.

The painting for Running Start was inspired by the Japanese art of Kintsugi (Provided by Shawna Caspi)

“After a long time feeling broken, hesitant, nervous, and prone to quitting when things get hard, a person can feel like they don’t measure up and are not worthy of love,” she said in the painting’s abstract on her website. “(It’s about) treating breakage and repair as part of our history, rather than a flaw to disguise.”

Since its release, Hurricane Coming has been nominated for two awards: the 2022 Ontario Folk Music Award for Album of the Year, and the 2023 Canadian Folk Music Award for Contemporary Album of the Year.

“I’m really honoured and surprised,” Caspi said. “I’ve never had an album be nominated for anything before, so it’s very exciting.”

The original studio version was recorded with a 5-piece band. Caspi said touring with four other musicians is difficult, especially during the pandemic, so her Mar. 19 show is a duo with Sarah Hiltz.

Sarah Hiltz (Photo by Nick Wong)

Though the two musicians first met in passing at a Folk Music Ontario event in the late 2010s, they only got to know each other in 2019 while in residence at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. They kept in touch, calling on Zoom and meeting up regularly in person throughout pandemic-induced lockdowns to work on Hurricane Coming.

Hiltz said Caspi’s music is rewarding on multiple listens since the lyrics tell a deep story. She added that singing harmony for Caspi on tour is exciting, and that playing backup guitar for the singer-songwriter is a new and challenging experience.

“It has been so delightful to see her on tour … in her element, so lively and bright in a way that I haven’t seen her through the pandemic,” Hiltz said.

After her brief return to Ottawa, Caspi will be touring Vancouver Island in April. She will then travel to the United States for her first international tour since the start of the pandemic.

But no matter where she goes, she said the capital’s folk music scene will always hold a special place in her heart.

“I’ve been gone for so long that I can’t say for sure what’s up in the Ottawa music scene these days, but when I was in it as a teenager, it was a really vibrant, supportive scene,” she said. “To come (back) to my hometown is a really special thing.”