Spiderlodge Studio Presents ‘Canadiana’

A New Album For A New Year Produced by Lori Paul and Rick Genge.

Buy the album ‘Canadiana’ on Bandcamp!

Rick and I have been busy in 2024, writing and recording these songs we hope you’ll enjoy, available on all streaming platforms. Canadiana tells stories of life experience in the first person, and through voices of other narrators, some decidedly unreliable, but also those more earnest, compelled to explain themselves and their response to unreasonable demands or an unpredictable predicament they find themselves caught up in.

For these reasons (or perhaps due to my people-pleasing passive aggressive tendencies 🙂 our opening track ‘Letter To Louise’ and it’s follow-up ‘Thirty Aught Six’, introduce you to two lethal ladies defiantly unapologetic in the aftermath of their deadly actions. 

Am I gleefully taking their side against the too-often unchecked, malicious misogyny of modern man? Oh yes. It’s what I offer in response to the reprehensible regression of women’s basic human rights around the globe. It’s my poetic way of railing against the dark night our collective souls currently face.

In moving from personally cathartic songs like ‘Laundry Breeze’ and ‘Dark I Feel’, wherein I attempt to exorcise my own demons, I’m called to tell stories from the perspective of more marginalized souls among us. In writing from viewpoints I can only imagine, I walk in other people’s shoes and they take me places I’d otherwise be unlikely to go. 

Forays into other mindsets, as in ‘All He Wrote’ where widowhood is bitterly summed up, and ‘Coralee’, which illustrates a mystical journey some might misjudge as mental illness, are presented to expand our compassion for characters we may find unsympathetic without proper context. All this again, found in the ways society dismisses the spiritual evolution of mature older women.

But wait! It’s not all disgruntled feminism and hysterical ranting 🙂

‘Dark Sky Preserve’ celebrates the healing gifts to be found in our natural world, those miraculous night creatures and the subtle energy of all living things, some hidden in moonlight shadows, under the illuminating canopy of a starry night sky.

‘Sunday Driving’ takes you with us on a daytime joy ride with our dogs along for the fun . Here’s where we escape the city and happily follow their wagging butts up muddy forest trails. You’ll then be expected to tolerate them crawling all over you and licking your face as you attempt to enjoy the view from our backseat as we head home. This is our idea of a good time!

‘Canadiana’ reflects a curious combination of our life experiences and the insights we’ve acquired having met so many memorable characters along the way. We’ve mapped out highways and backroads for exploration of our Canadian landscape, places that reflect the myriad human voices we hear wherever in the world we may travel. May our new music unlock a door, or at least crack open a window to places in your heart where the innumerable joys and inevitable pain of being human will allow the light to flood in.

About the Songs

Letter To Louise (4:06)

The music of Son House, OG of the blues, thrills me to the bone. His Death Letter Blues, the shadow track that plays post script for this, our album opener, inspired the storyline for Letter To Louise. A woman on death row implores her lover to explain to his mother Louise, also her friend, that the murder was committed in self-defence.

Thirty Aught Six (3:22)

The river running through this song hides evidence of (yet another 🙂 murder taking place in response to imminent threat. A preventative act, rather than retaliation, muddies the waters of justice in a way that, in this scenario, justifies the actions of a lone, young woman who dares to rise up in righteous rebellion against the depraved blackmail of a lewd and lascivious lawman.

Coralee (4:01)

Fairytales often tell stories of familiars inhabiting the form of a bird or animal who communicates with a human in supernatural ways that defy mortal expectation. Archetypal symbols appear in nature, connecting us to a mysterious realm that transcends science and leaves us with only the language of poets to illustrate these mystical, otherworldly happenings.

Darling Don’t Ask (4:18)

Singers are often asked to perform for special occasions, to mark important events with a song that allows those gathered to share emotions conjured by words and melody, enhanced by a fine human voice. But there’s a challenge vocalists encounter when feelings overcome us in these intense moments, and this lyric attempts to explain heartbreaking reasons why.

Ahead Of My Time (4:45)

I returned to Chilliwack in 2004, after twenty years in Vancouver where I sacrificed all in pursuit of a dream, coming away with precious little to show for it. I wrote this song to express my ambivalence, feeling my ill-fated destiny contradicted the faith I still had in my potential as a performer. I then doubled down by producing my DVD Songs From Spiderlodge, and a life with Rick was my earthly reward 🙂 

Dark Sky Preserve (3:41)

When Joni Mitchell implored us to get back to the garden in her classic ‘Woodstock’, she wrote the definitive prayer for humanity’s only hope; to save our planet so we might save ourselves. Our connection to nature, severed by biblical stories and western philosophers alike, compels me to praise the beauty of the night forest as our ultimate sacred space.

Pat’s Song (2:30)

Losing loved ones to anything other than old age is something we never get used to, nor ever make peace with, but when the grief of loss is upon us, we’re wise to bear the beams of love by holding up family and friends of our dear one, who’s gone too soon. Pat’s Song is for a kindred spirit, her partner Patrick, her children, and also for us, her many bereft friends.

3rd House (5:18)

When Rick and I first met, we wrote this song for him to sing and play for Songs From Spiderlodge, the concert we filmed for a live audience at the University of the Fraser Valley April 1st, 2006. Rick wrote the first line and I then decided he’d tell a story of love interrupted by criminal incarceration from the point of view of a man just released, longing for (carnal?) reunion.

Sunday Driving (2:57)

Living in Chilliwack makes a highway drive through the magnificent Fraser Valley a joyride, especially when we include our dogs, who appreciate the adventure even more than we do, especially when it leads to a walk somewhere wild and wonderful. This song celebrates our good fortune in being partners, together for twenty years now.

Betty Ford Brochure (3:39)

I try to avoid despairing in heartrending times, when leaders equate consumerism with a healthier economy in spite of how our dangerous resource exploitation is an ever-growing threat to future generations. Seems to me our disastrous disconnect from Mother Earth is at the heart of our society’s mental health and addiction crisis.

Wish For You (3:32)

The abject horror of the AIDs epidemic in the 1990’s devastated arts communities everywhere. A generation of our most creative souls were ripped from our arms, succumbing to the deplorable denial of our society, and the callous indifference of politicians around the globe. This is for Alan Brohman, my beloved friend, lost in ’95.

All He Wrote (3:23)

I like to think I’m wise enough to avoid the bitterness that stems from oppression, but I must admit, it felt great to write a lyric that addressed the injustice of misogyny every woman’s experienced in her lifetime. A little revenge is in order! And how better to get the last word in, if only edge-wise, than via a disparagingly wicked obituary?

The Place You Are Bound (4:51)

I wrote this ballad for Songs From Spiderlodge, having only just learned to play four chords and tune my crappy Yamaha acoustic guitar. In the summer of 2005, I lived alone at the original Spider Lodge, a friend’s rustic cabin on Elk Mountain. With no running water or electricity, it had a lovely wood-burning stove that kept me warm on cold nights under a magnificent dark velvet sky lit with all the stars of the milky way.

Mighty Fine Time (3:01)

My oldest friend Clay Thornton was the drummer in my very first band, Special Guest, formed in 1978, and also first choice for my new band upon my return to Chilliwack in 2005. I wrote this song for him, as a tribute to his fine musicianship as well as his invaluable friendship. We became family through our many years of playing together.

Laundry Breeze (3:45)

Before the phrase ‘triggered’ made it’s way into our lexicon, I struggled to cope with complex trauma and the dissociation I frequently experienced throughout my life, which was chalked up to my being high strung, instead of attributed, more accurately and potentially helpfully, to my troubled childhood. This lyric attempts to describe the feeling of coming undone, when words would fail me and music held me together.

Dark I Feel (2:15)

Explaining depression to anyone who hasn’t suffered it firsthand feels shameful and self-indulgent, especially in light of my middle class, privileged upbringing, which only serves to add feelings of guilt to misery. The ineffable reasons for the inner fight so many of us are faced with makes reaching out for help seem next to impossible. Making art has been my saving grace, and for that. I’m profoundly grateful.

Join Us April 11th, 2025 for our ‘Canadiana’ Album Release Party!

Rick and I will be performing for our album release party at The Vineyard in Chilliwack on Friday, April 11th. Get Directions.

Tickets will go on sale in the new year and include a free download of Canadiana so mark your calendars and join us for an evening of new live music!

Wishing you all the very best of this season of peace and good health, happiness and prosperity in 2025.

Buy the album ‘Canadiana’ on Bandcamp!