Being an all-female vocal trio from Winnipeg is staking a bold claim. The city has a history in that department as wide as the prairies and as deep as the Red River in a spring hot flash. You have to be sweet and you have to have a pretty good alibi to enter the same arena as The Wyrd Sisters and The Wailin' Jennys.
So why not just be Sweet Alibi?
The threesome is made up of Amber Rose (acoustic guitar, ukelele), Michelle Anderson (electric guitar, banjo) and Jessica Rae Ayre (acoustic guitar, harmonica) and they bring in several other musicians as needed to fill out the sound. Sweet Alibi can be as basic bluegrassy or as urban poppy as the moment dictates. Not only is each of them a quality singer committed to a harmonious blend, they also have a high intelligence for interpreting music. That makes Sweet Alibi into a traditional folk group when they are out by the campfire but they can also funk up the cosmopolitan radio playlist.
It was the former style they were going for on Thursday night at an under-the-radar concert they performed in Prince George. And being under the radar is a tough hurdle to jump these days. They are winners of the 2015 trophy for best roots group at the Western Canadian Music Awards, they picked up a Vocal Group Of The Year nomination at the 2014 Canadian Folk Music Awards, they cracked the Top 5 in CBC-Radio2's national charts, and their latest single scored video airplay on channels as disparate as MTV Canada and CMT. They have also taken a spot on more than 360 stages, including 30-plus festival appearances in their mere seven years of life so far.
They are out on a big Western Canadian tour right now to introduce their latest album Walking In The Dark and contrary to their popularity momentum right now, a large number of those gigs are house concerts, including the one last night in Prince George.
"We really like the intimacy of the house concert shows," said Ayre. "We've found it's been a good way to engage and connect more with the audience. We may not get the same chance to at theatre shows. We still like doing those theatre shows, but when we are out doing this many dates it is nice to mix it up and do some of both. You can feel the excitement (in house concert settings)."
This is the group's third album. The previous two were produced by Mitch Dorge of the Crash Test Dummies (2011's self-titled album) and Rusty Matyas of Imaginary Cities (2013's We've Got To).
Murray Pulver was at the production helm this time (former member of Doc Walker, now a go-to studio captain in the Canadian music scene).
With three songwriters, three singers, plus all the influences of the collaborative musicians and whomever the producer is, it makes for a thick Sweet Alibi stew. They have managed to strike a balance between having a signature sound as an act but maintaining an independent life for each song.
"Our harmonies are a big part of our sound, so with that being prevalent in all the songs, it helps tie it all together," said Ayre. "And if we have similar instrumentation, that helps pulls things together, too, but that's where the producer is helpful at having that cohesiveness with every song. And when you're staying true to a song, you're not changing it to fit a mould that it doesn't want to fit. And that's what people love about us - that we can have that eclectic mix. I think it makes the live show more interesting as well."
It helps in the presentation of a unified front that all three of them put effort into each song, even if someone else in the trio was the main writer. They each commit to each song as if it were their own.
Ayre said the three of them get caught up in the shows and in the writing sessions just as if they were audience members themselves. She said the composition process can still bring them to roadblocks, where the formation of a new song will stall at least for a little while, but she gets a giddy feeling when they catch a creative wind in the studio or on the stage.
A house concert appearance gives the fans in the room a unique, special and deeply intimate experience with the act they are viewing, but it is also limited in who can be there. The homeowner typically sells out the small space only to those in their own social circle, and addresses are rarely advertised. That was the case for this Sweet Alibi experience. Ayre said an expanding Prince George audience (this is their second house concert here in the past three years) may require a more public venue next time, or perhaps getting onto a festival bill like the Cold Snap, ArtsWells, Robson Valley or MOM events in the nearby area.
