Lindsay Chung
Observer Contributor
Toronto-based singer-songwriter Shawna Caspi believes in poetry and the power of one person and one instrument, accompanying herself with a lyrical finger-picking guitar style.
That power and poetry can both be found in her latest album, Forest Fire, which was released in September 2017. It’s a collection of songs about burning things down and building them up again, according to her website, and Caspi will be celebrating the release of the album with local performances Mar. 24 and Mar. 25.
“There’s a lot of darkness in the new album,” Caspi says in an email interview.
“Some of it came out of how I was feeling, some of it was watching people around me in tough places or a more global struggle going on around all of us. But I kept looking for the light, for something positive to hang on to. So there is a vein of hope that runs through the album. I called it Forest Fire because the title seemed to evoke that theme – a big fiery disaster and where it fits in the grand cycle of things.”
Caspi has been singing since she was a child, and her roots are classical. Caspi sang in children’s choirs when she was young and studied classical voice in high school. She started playing classical guitar as a teenager, and says it wasn’t long after she picked up a guitar that she started getting interested in the folk music scene in Ottawa, where she grew up.
“I went to a lot of live shows,” she says.
“A lot of the artists I was drawn to were singer-songwriters – people who wrote their own stuff and performed live, accompanying themselves with just one instrument. I was fascinated by the power and intimacy of that format, and it inspired me to start writing my own songs and play them live.”
After studying classical voice at an arts high school in Ottawa, Caspi went on to study music at York University in Toronto.
“When I started writing and playing my own music, it took me a long time to find my own natural ‘folk’ singing voice.
“It’s very different from my classical singing voice. There are definitely useful technical skills that come from classical singing, but ultimately, the sound and feel is very different. My voice has evolved a lot since I’ve been doing folk music, and I think it’s a lot softer and more relaxed now. I feel like it’s still a work in progress.”
Caspi says her classical guitar training has been a big influence on the finger-picking guitar style she uses to accompany herself.
“I try to make the guitar accompaniment as full as possible, incorporating melodic and rhythmic elements into my guitar playing,” she says.
“It’s a gentle, lyrical finger-picking style that’s inspired by classical guitar.”
As a touring musician, Caspi has a chance to see a lot of different landscapes, and she has started painting them as a way to share what she sees. She sells her miniature paintings at her shows, and her paintings are featured on the front and back covers of Forest Fire, as well as throughout the album artwork.
Caspi remembers that she started painting after returning from her first tour in northern Ontario, which was more or less the start of her touring career.
“I drove from Toronto to Thunder Bay and back, and I saw these stunning landscapes that I never knew were there,” she says.
“It was overwhelming. I took tons of photos, and when got home, I felt compelled to share what I’d seen. I wanted to do more than just post the photos, so on a whim, I decided to try painting some of the scenes in those photos – just to see if I still knew how to do it, years after taking a painting class in university. To my great surprise, people really liked the paintings and wanted to buy them. So I kept traveling and I kept painting, and I’ve been selling the paintings with my merch at shows. I’ve made about 150 at this point.”
Later this month, Caspi will be touring northern British Columbia for the first time as she celebrates the release of Forest Fire.
Caspi will perform an all-ages show Mar. 24 at Pen-Y-Bryn Farm at 2911 Kersley Dale Landing Road at 8 p.m. Doors open at 7:30 p.m, and advance tickets are available at Circle ‘S’ Western Wear, online at penybrynfarm.ca or by contacting Lindsay at 250 510 5508. Baked goods and non-alcoholic refreshments will be available by donation to the Wounded Warriors Battlefield Bike Ride 2018 (https://woundedwarriors.ca/bbr18/).
Caspi then travels to Wells, and she will perform Mar. 25 at the Sunset Theatre at 2357 Pooley Street at 7:30 p.m. Bob Campbell will be the opening act for this all-ages show.
To learn more about Caspi or these shows, visit shawnacaspi.com.