3rd solo album. A blend of roots, melodic folk and alt country to create his unique sound of Cape Breton infused Americana.

13 MP3 Songs
COUNTRY: Alt-Country, COUNTRY: Americana

Details:
Jimmy Rankin / Edge Of Day


Like any painter worth his salt, Jimmy Rankin knows how to make a lasting impression.

Except that, as a man who has won four SOCAN-sponsored ECMA-and-Juno (Canadian Grammy) Songwriter Of The Year Awards for the chart-topping "Fare Thee Well Love," "You Feel The Same Way Too," "Followed Her Around" and "Midnight Angel," his canvas isn't restricted to an easel and a few tubes of paint.

It's framed by experience -- and depending on how the Cape Breton native channels his idea -- a masterstroke of an alt. country, adult-contemporary or rock-flavoured arrangement depicting his life, emotions and observations with resonating finesse.

Just hand him a guitar -- preferably an acoustic Gibson; give him a little think-time and watch Jimmy -- no, hear him -- weave some aural magic.

"To me, writing a song is almost like creating a painting," notes Jimmy, who offers 13 picture-perfect portraits of sonic splendour on his new album Edge Of Day.

"You build it and colour it until all of the images blend together as one complete portrait that tells some kind of story."

Whether it's the potent roots-scented shuffle of "Stranded;" the guilt-tinged poignancy of the album's first single, "Slipping Away;" the urgent fiddle-driven desperation of "Got To Leave Louisiana;" the romantic resignation of "Hopeless" or the euphoric optimism of "When I Rise," the musical tales woven on Colin Linden-produced Edge of Day are borne from the days he's spent living, traveling and soaking in the planet since the release of 2003's Handmade.

"Over the past three years I've taken a lot of my inspiration from the world I see around me," says Jimmy, who recorded the album in Nashville at the Rendering Plant and at Pinhead Recorders in Toronto during a busy year that also included a World Vision trip to Nicaragua and a recording reunion of The Rankins.

"Some of my songs are autobiographical. While others, although written in the first person, are about a story or something I heard. I do a lot of touring, traveling and reading and I think my songs reflect that. I'm always on the lookout for a good story and definitely tune into other peoples' experience in the world."


And for the first time, Jimmy is also enlisting a generous portion of observation from outside his own perspective: half the songs on Edge Of Day involve an impressive list of collaborators ranging from Gordie Sampson and Tom Wilson to Jon Randall and Craig Northey.

"Essentially I wanted to work with other people," Jimmy explains, noting that his first two albums, 2001's song dog and Handmade, were predominantly solitary songwriting efforts.

"I've done some co-writing in my career, but never to the extent that I have for this album. It's nice to be able to bounce ideas around, pick someone else's brain and see what sticks. When you work with other writers, you learn tricks of the trade."

Edge Of Day is a contrast from its predecessors in other ways as well.

"It's less harmony-driven," explains Jimmy. "There's mostly two-part on this record, which is just a different style for me. It's also a lot looser and a lot rougher than my other records."

The loss of some of that varnish can be attributed to producer Linden's approach of live studio takes; employing crackerjack musicians such as keyboardist Richard Bell, percussionist Sam Bacco and Willie Nelson harmonica player Mickey Raphael -- as well as the noted guitarist producer himself -- and anchoring them around two solid rhythm sections: Toronto drummer Gary Craig and John Prine bassist David Jacques, and Mississippi -based Buddy Miller stick-handler Bryan Owings and Bruce Springsteen bassist Garry Tallent.

"I like Colin's approach to recording," says Jimmy. "This album feels more comfortable and natural to me in the way that it's very much a live recording and band vibe. I've tried to capture that essence on the other records, but this one's the most organic."

Jimmy says playing with such a stellar group of musicians raised his own lofty standards of performance.

"I play an acoustic guitar and I kind of drive the band and set the tempo and the energy of the song," he explains. "Playing with great players just ups the performance ante and enhances everything sonically. I like the idea of collaborating with musicians and really letting them shine."

Most important, perhaps, within the pensively reflective strains of "501 Queen;" the reassuring romanticism of' "Shot In The Dark," and the restless realization behind "Drifting Too Far From Shore," is the notion of just how far Jimmy has progressed as a songwriter.

While adult contemporary and country radio stations all over Canada have readily embraced such memorable hits as "Followed Her Around," "Butterfly," "California Dreamer" and "Morning Bound Train," the truth is that Jimmy Rankin didn't choose songwriting as an eventual career path -- it chose him.

"Initially I had no intention of becoming a guy making records," he laughs. "I finished art school and I thought that I would form some kind of small pick-up band and play little legions and fire halls to support my art habit.

"But as it turns out, it was the other way around."

Although he eventually became the songwriting lynchpin of The Rankin Family -- helping them win 15 ECMAs, six Juno Awards, three Canadian Country Music Awards and propelling sales of over two million albums through songs he placed on the albums The Rankin Family, Fare Thee Well Love, North Country, Endless Seasons and Uprooted-- Jimmy was a late bloomer.

"It wasn't until later on in my teens that I started playing guitar and writing songs," reveals Jimmy, who grew up in the village of Mabou, Cape Breton.

"It wasn't until I was 19 that I had a breakthrough. I was bumming around Europe and sporadically writing,...but nothing effective enough for me to call a good song.

"After that, I enrolled at the Nova Scotia College Of Art and Design and ironically bought my first guitar at that time. Only then did I really focus on learning to write.

"It wasn't like I hung out with other writers: I was basically holed up in my bedroom working on songs."

Jimmy's songs made their debut in a 1988 musical production featuring the music of Rankin Family, with his material reflecting Celtic and traditional roots influences.

"Back in the day when we were kids playing dances around Inverness County in Cape Breton, I was writing a lot of stuff inspired by traditional music because that's where we were at the time," notes Jimmy. "But I was also influenced by the pop music of the day."

When "Fare Thee Well Love" topped AC, pop and country formats in 1992 and won a Single Of The Year Juno, it was a watershed moment in Jimmy's career.

"That was a milestone to me because I was recognized as a writer," he notes.

"Since those days, I've branched out. As a solo artist, there really are no holds barred for me, although I've tried to give each record a distinctive, yet cohesive sound."

Edge Of Day is cohesive by the sheer nature of the author's astute craftsmanship as someone who mulls incessantly over a song before committing it to public scrutiny.

"I don't like to put filler on records," admits. Jimmy, whose solo career has included tours with country hit-maker Keith Urban and folk legend John Prine.

"I'll leave it for awhile and then I'll come back to it. If it still catches me, I'll know it's right. Whether it's the melody or the feeling or the groove, it's got to be something that grabs you right off when you first hear it."

Nowhere is that more apparent than on the album's haunting first single, "Slipping Away." It's a melancholy number that personifies the chasm of distance between fading lovers, and the hopelessness that one feels in having no choice in destiny taking its fateful course.

Visually, the sentiment is made all that more poignant by the song's accompanying video, shot in a stark, industrial oil-refinery district of Edmonton by the world-renown David Hogan (Shania Twain, Rod Stewart, Elton John, Sheryl Crow, Dave Matthews Band.)

"The video is very far removed from where the song was written," says Jimmy. "I wrote that up in a hotel room in an old mining town in Northern Ontario. It was as cold as hell that night and I was looking out the window and kids were playing hockey under the streetlights. It was a typical Canadian winter night."

However, he's thrilled about Hogan's interpretation of his "cinematic poetry" and the images he employed.

"I'm a visual thinker," say Jimmy. "And the video is almost introspective in its nature. I like the idea of going in another direction with it and having two perspectives on it - one from the lyrical and another from the visual."

Ultimately, leaving his music open to personal interpretation is how Jimmy Rankin prefers it.

"I'm not crazy talking about exactly what a song is about, because I personally like it when people draw their own conclusions as to what I'm singing about," he reveals.

"There are a lot of topics on this record. I think each song has a story to it, and I'd like people to listen to my record and enjoy each song as an entity in and of itself...to take a story from it and whatever they need."

Edge Of Day -- a masterpiece of music that will speak to you, move you and touch you in unexpected and profound ways.

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