(Moncton-based singer-songwriter Melanie Keith will release her debut album this week. Photo contributed.)
Moncton singer-songwriter Melanie Keith promised me just over a year ago that her debut solo effort would be released in June.
She didn’t lie, but I was expecting she meant June of last year and not June of 2009.
Another year has passed, but finally – officially – Melanie Keith & The Strombachs will release its seven-song debut this week with a show at Moncton’s Empress Theatre on Thursday.
The release has been marred by delays and disasters.
After recording with Moncton songwriter and producer Robin Anne Ettles in 2004 for the Imitating Hercules project, Keith started her solo project, The Strombachs.
Fast forward to 2007 and Keith recorded her debut album, which soon had to be scrapped due to a serious production error. The album was tracked and ready to be mixed, but there were problems with what the studio delivered for tracks to the mixer. The studio refused to fix the problem, and Keith was left with tracks that were unusable.
She ended up getting a grant to help fund the album, but it wound up only covering the cost of the initial, unusable recording.
When she was finally able to re-record the album, with Ettles producing and playing every instrument but drums (Al Bourgeois), Keith had no money left to have the CDs manufactured.
“It’s killed me to make all of these decisions all the way along,” she said in an interview this week. “It really has. It’s embarrassing. You do an interview or you say something’s coming out and it doesn’t happen … but by the same token, it was a really good decision because things that have led up and have happened since then have kind of made it more useful to be releasing it now.
“I think things kind of got fast-tracked really fast for me in 2005. We entered this battle of the bands thing, and we won it and there was pressure to get an album out, and I didn’t even have time to sit and think of where I wanted to go or develop myself as an artist.”
Since that time, Keith says her sound has drifted a bit from pop-rock to an Americana sound in the vein of Lucinda Williams and Sheryl Crow.
She’s also started her own record label, MerleSong Records, and she has national distribution through Fontana North/Universal Music and online through MapleMusic.
A lot has happened, and Keith admits she’s both nervous and excited for Thursday’s CD release show. For it, Keith is arranging to have the hour-long show broadcast on her website. She will also Twitter throughout the day so fans can keep track of the CD release chaos.
“I’m nervous more about all that technical stuff because I’ve never done it before,” she says. “So I just hope that it all works.”
She’ll also be shooting a video over the next few days for one of the tunes from the new album.
In addition to playing all the shows she can around the east coast, Keith is preparing a cross-Canada and potential U.S. tour for the fall. She’s even in early discussions to possibly tour the U.K.
The Strombachs were also chosen to be one of about 45 bands showcasing at the Contact East convention Oct. 1-4 in Moncton, which could land her more gigs.
In the meantime, she has an album to release.
“I just hope it’s worth waiting for,” she says with a laugh.
Watch Keith’s CD release show online here Thursday at 6 p.m. If you’re in Moncton, the show is free to attend.
Here are Melanie Keith & The Strombach’s upcoming tour dates:
Thursday, June 11 – The Empress – Moncton, N.B.
Friday, June 12 – Relay For Life in Moncton, N.B.
Saturday, June 13 – Ruthie’s Pub & Eatery – Victoria, P.E.I.
Friday, June 19 – Sessions Café – Rothesay, N.B.
Friday, June 26 – Bridge Street Café – Sackville, N.B.
Tuesday, June 30 – The Capital – Fredericton, N.B.
Saturday, July 25 – O’Brien’s – Riverview, N.B.
Saturday, Aug. 22 – GreenFest – Clairville, N.B.
