UNSETTLED DOWN

Released: 7/26/2005
Label: Rounder

Red Headed Girl download
I've Seen Your Face
Bring Me On Home
Moonshine download
Prairie Sun
Jezebel's Ringin'
I Ain't No Saint
Don't You Remember
Sold Your Wings
Misty Sea

The spiritual awakening that resulted in Alana Levandoski's debut album "Unsettled Down" began during a wintry night in 2002 when she came to the realization that she wanted to pursue a music career after performing at rodeos, agricultural fairs and festivals in western Canada since her teens

"I stood in front of my bathroom mirror, and I took a pair of scissors to my long dread-locked hair," recalls the 26-year-old Manitoba singer/songwriter. "I had $4,000 saved up from working up to eighty-hour weeks. It was toss-up between making a demo of my songs or going to India. I put much of my savings in recording a demo. I was so happy with it that I began working on an album."

"Unsettled Down," co-produced with Winnipeg-based producer/engineer Norm Dugas, was completed in late 2004. It was released July, 2005 in Canada on Rounder Records, distributed by Universal Music Canada.

Among the players featured are: Sean Garrity (bass), Christian Dugas (drums), Richard Moody (viola), Randy Hiebert (electric slide), and Ron Halldorson (pedal steel). As well, there are Tania Elizabeth (violin) and Len Podolak (banjo) from the Duhks; bassist "Spider" Sinneave (Loverboy), and guitarist Murray Pulver (Doc Walker).

Sparkling with instrumental and production dexterity, the album reflects the musical heritage of country, gospel and folk that Alana has been familiar with from a very early age. The tracks never seem cluttered. Each seems spare, put together with hands that knew when and where to leave things out. There's also the magnificence of Alana's voice with its crystal clarity.

After hearing "Red Headed Girl," Toronto critic John Sakamoto wrote in his "Anti-Hit List" column that: "Blessed with a short-story writer's eye for the telling detail, this Winnipeg singer/songwriter recalls Nanci Griffith circa 'Once in a Very Blue Moon': clear-eyed, wary of sentimentality and sounding like she'd be perfectly comfortable hanging out with Emmylou Harris"

"Norm and I tapped into some magic at his little studio on the river in St.Boniface," says Alana. "I've got a lot of country influence on the record, all kinds of different roots styling crossing over into a modern feel. I wanted the album to sound bigger than what people expected. I wanted it to be thought provoking. I also wanted it to relate to everyday people. And I wanted it to tap peoples' toes too."

"'Unsettled Down' largely embodies my childhood, and coming of age," she says. "Writing and recording--the innocence and trauma of making a first album--grew me up. I've never done anything so intense, so unraveling before. Many sides of myself were revealed [during writing] that I had locked up or had forgotten about or had never known."

Like a minimalist, Alana can evoke compelling characters with a few delicate brushstrokes. But when she sings "Red Headed Girl," "Prairie Sun," "I Ain't No Saint," "Jezebel's Ringing" and "Bring Me On Home," there is no gap between narrator and storyteller. These songs are her soul.

"I don't think about the way I write because I write how I write," she says quietly. "These songs come from a real place."

While the album displays a naïve exuberance at times, pointedly with "Prairie Sun," there are also deep emotional undercurrents, as in "Sold Your Wings" or a unexpected darkened maturity as in "Bring Me On Home" and "Moonshine."

As well, in songs like "Misty Sea," "Jezebel's Ringin'," "Don't You Remember" and "I've Seen Your Eyes" Alana conjures up a vision of romance impossible to grasp but endlessly beguiling. Her romance is racked by the elusive concept of freedom.

"Relationships are great for songwriting," she says. "They get you all stirred up. But I've never been motivated to write a sappy love song. I'm a natural cynic."

She is most certainly cynical in "Bring Me One Home," coolly telling a soon-to-be ex-lover, "And if sorry don't cut it with you. I'm sorry." Explains Alana, "While I'm dealing with a relationship for the most part in that song, I'm also speaking to people judging me. There's a spiritual side to the song. In the second verse I say, 'Let me sing 'hallelujah without crossing my fingers. Without always havin' to come clean. And if sorry don't cut it with you. I'm sorry.'"

The deal with Rounder developed after Alana arranged a showcase in
Cambridge, Massachusetts for Rounder executives. "My sister and I drove to Cambridge not knowing what to expect," says Alana. "I'm delighted to be with a company with such a wonderful background in roots music."