Painting pictures of thrilling adventures, long journeys, love, and life’s hardships, singer-songwriter Camie brings it all to the table in her newest EP, troubadour, which dropped last week.
The Canadian alternative-folk singer and multi-award winning storyteller has released music with lyrics filled with sincerity and conviction since 2017. After years of performing at venues all across Ontario and across the pond in the United Kingdom, this past year was a time for her to sit down and create something unapologetically herself, which happened to be troubadour.
The 24-year-old singer says that the album is an exciting and unique addition to the contemporary North American folk canon. With particular textures and sounds, it tells the story of a young queer woman in control of her life and where her future is going. With each song moving in time throughout her life, it gives a great deal of self-awareness, and invites you in on the journey with her. She says, “It tells the story of its ethereal narrator running away from home, moving through vast physical and emotional landscapes, and returning at the end of her long journey.”
Having the majority of the EP written during the pandemic, she wrote all of the songs with inspiration from her travels in Europe and other unique experiences before 2020, creating an atmosphere of freedom and an open-mindset.
The opening and closing tracks, “odysseus” and “the rover,” add vulnerable emotions and rich imagery showcasing her personal experiences. With gentle acoustic string patterns and poetic lyrics like, “I lay in my bed as the sun flooded over me for weeks” and “I left my best love right on Cavendish Road in the morning,” you feel as if you’re there in the cinematic picture with her.
The second song of the EP, “parasite,” is more or less an empowerment anthem about old lovers bringing you down- but she isn’t standing for it. Mentioning lines of her traveling and life experiences, she has seemed to endure lots of heartbreak that has changed the way she goes about her future. Contrasting themes in the next song, “claudia,” deals with reminiscing on a past love where they chose another person over you. As the instruments pick up more throughout the song, you dive deeper into the story and more unfolds, unlike most typical song patterns.
The following track, “men who run,” keeps the album at a steady pace with similar acoustic sounds making the songs flow smoothly into the next song. However, towards the middle of the song, instruments pick up and Camie’s vocals shine in a different way than the other tracks, making it a turning point in the EP.
The penultimate track, “a river in winter/mnemosyne,” again bring about beautiful sounds and images to your mind while listening. With lyrics such as “it’s dark in the land I remember, I left it behind…the last time I sang prayers at the geese, they hissed at me…remember me,” she knows how to tell a detailed story in her writing, which is hard to come by both instrumentally and lyrically.
Currently working towards a PhD in Information with collaborative specializations in Sexual Diversity Studies and Knowledge Media Design, she is on a trajectory of making change in multiple avenues. Her songs encompass delicate queer-feminist croonings, rich vocal tones, and lush poetic imagination that may leave you with tears, but gives you inspiration and motivation to carry on with you after listening.
With a great amount of passion, dedication, and fearless representation, Camie sets the bar high for lyric writing.
