As she was dropping off her application, plus her $50, to be considered for a Juno nomination, (who knew?) Lori Cullen had a kind of premonition.
“I am not one to have a lot of confidence,” said Cullen this morning in an interview from her Toronto home, “but when I dropped the CD off I was thinking, ‘Hey, I might have a chance here.’ ”
Of course, when you’ve made a record with the intense, unique style and emotional wallop of Calling For Rain, your chances of getting recognized are a lot, lot better.
Sure enough, Cullen, the native of Mississauga who attended St. Gerard Elementary School, St. Martin Secondary School and Sheridan College, finds herself one of five nominees in the category of Vocal Jazz Album of the Year at the 2007 Junos, to be held in Saskatoon April 1.
“One of my friends looked at the list and said Diana Krall is up against you,” laughs the 33-year-old. “I thought that was a different way to put it.”
Well, Cullen may not be used to the fast company of Krall and Molly Johnson, but she knows that her work belongs on the same page. “I’m totally optimistic about what it’s going to be,” she says of the Juno experience. “I’m going out there to enjoy it. It really is an honour just to be nominated.”
First of all, of course, Lori has to get used to the concept of being a jazz artist.
“I’m not really a student of jazz,” says Cullen, “but I guess I’d better be now,” she jokes. “I just consider myself a singer.”
Her kind of jazzy-pop-folk defies categorization. She sings a lot of what would normally be called “folk” material on Calling For Rain, including tunes by Gordon Lightfoot, Bruce Cockburn, Joni Mitchell, Randy Newman and Harry Nilsson, but they don’t sound folky. When Cullen gets finished with them, they sound like she wrote them all. Such is her ability to insinuate herself into the lyric with a voice that sounds small on first impression, but gains staying power with each listen.
The most amazing transformation on the CD is Gilbert O’Sullivan’s Alone Again Naturally, which always seemed like a piece of pop pap. The song’s dark lyrics take on a whole different dimension in Lori’s interpretation.
Now that she is Juno-nominated, is there a temptation to repeat the formula of the last CD and hope for a major record deal?
Well, yes, there is that temptation says Cullen. But it has already been beaten back. She enjoys the independence and control of producing her own records, not to mention the fact that when she sells them at a show, the money stays in her own pocket. Unless there is a big offer to go international, or provide big market support, she would resist a mainstream label.
Cullen is already in pre-production for her next album which is going to be something completely different.
Like Calling For Rain, which was rehearsed with her band for three nights at the Montreal Bistro and then recorded in one 14-hour session (except for her vocal overdubs), this one will be live-off-the-floor.
She is collaborating with singer and producer Chris Dedrick, leader of the New-York based The Free Design (www.thefreedesign.com) in the late 60s and early 70s on a CD that will be mostly original material.
“It’s a brass quintet,” and recalls the sound layering of the Beach Boys, says Cullen. Dedrick and one of his sisters who was also in The Free Design will do back-up vocals. “I just like the sound, the buttery sound,” says Cullen.
It’s a project Lori has had in mind for some time. Not even a Juno nomination is going to distract her from her long-time plan to make this record.
She didn’t get her nomination by following any other Muse than her own, so why stop now?
Her fans can see a preview of the new CD at a Mother’s Day show at the Enwave Theatre (formerly Harbourfront Centre Theatre) at 231 Queen’s Quay May 13. Cullen will be in the studio shortly thereafter.