You might think that receiving a Juno nomination out of the blue might make you just a little bit conservative about the next big thing to do in your musical career.
Not Lori Cullen, who must be getting sick and tired of being a "critic's darling" and a "songwriter's songwriter."
If you were lucky enough to be listening to Canada Now on CBC Radio Two last night when they replayed Lori's Mother's Day concert from May at Harbourfront , then you got an idea what all the fuss is about.
Cullen, who grew up in Erindale Woodlands and lived in Mississauga for 24 years before moving downtown to launch her musical career, is a special writer who marries inventive melodies and subliminal lyrics that have a habit of folding back the layers of human artifice to provide a peak at the heart of matters.
Unfortunately for her, the 33-year old is also a superb interpreter of other people's great tunes. The first time I ever heard her, she was doing her remarkable version of Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh's The Best is Yet To Come from her So Much album.
It sounded absolutely fresh and perfect. Someone who can take a song so closely associated with Frank Sinatra and put her own distinctive stamp on it, has a special talent.
So Much was a tune of covers (Janis Ian's At Seventeen and a surpassing version of the jazz standard Folks on the Hill were highlights) and Cullen returned to that format with Calling For Rain last year. It was as close to a perfect mood album as you could find.
From its grey and stormy cover, through the dark and dank musings of some of Canada's best writers, Cullen took us on a late-night journey through the back alleys of our own psyche.
The temptation must have been great to emulate that success, but the thought never really crossed Cullen's mind.
She had been thinking for awhile about recording with a small brass section to create the layered "buttery" small band sound she loved in so much music, including the music of Chris Dedrick and The Free Design.
"I didn't think he'd be interested in working with me," says Lori but when he showed up at the release of Calling For Rain, Dedrick agreed to co-produce the new CD. It came to be called Buttercup Bugle, in reference to that smooth sound Cullen was seeking.
The just-released CD, which Cullen and a dozen of her friends will be launching Friday and Saturday at 8:30 p.m. at Hugh's Room in Toronto, couldn't be more different than Calling From Rain, which was nominated for the Best Jazz Vocal Juno.
In fact one song, Clearer Weather, is written in direct response to it.
"I took the chance in not making another Calling For Rain. I wanted to make this record. You never know what you're going to end up with when you try something new but I'm really proud of it," she says.
It's no coincidence that it's filled with happy-sounding songs. This is the "Lori in Love" pop album, a result of her off-the-bandstand relationship with Kurt Swinghammer, who plays guitars, ominchord, autoharp and synthesizer on the record.
One song on the album, probably the singer's favourite, is especially brilliant at capturing the first blush of love. Cullen describes Grass on the T-Shirt as a "Joni Mitchelly kind of song."
It was written after she and Kurt visited a Thai food restaurant after they'd been together for a month. They watched another couple in the restaurant who had obviously been together for some time and were no longer talking or connecting. "It's about the period at the beginning of love, about stretching it out and revisiting it," she says.
One of the memorable lines refers to the "lay-around sounds of Sunday noon when the day sits so young." The singer asks: "Can't we just save it and seal it and stay?" knowing full well the answer.
After blowing the budget on Buttercup Bugle (which is available at iTunes or in stores or from www.maplemusic.com/artists/lcu/default.asp, ) the ever-adventurous indie artist says the next album will be a walk on the minimalist side.
"It's going to be a harp record: just voice and autoharp and synthesizer."
The last number on this CD is called Waiting. It's about how people sit back and wait for the world to come to them instead of going out and grabbing it by the bugle.
We can rest assured that Cullen the artist will not be biding her time. Cullen's music and her muse will undoubtedly take us in another delightful direction next time out.
Until the rest of the world tunes in to her talent, we still have the delicious pleasure of being part of the Lori Cullen Under-The-Radar Fan Club.