MALLORY CHIPMAN shares uplifting live performance video of “Big Sky Country” from Songs To A Wild God LP
Having released her latest solo album Songs To A Wild God a little over a month ago, Canadian singer/songwriter Mallory Chipman is sharing a video for the live-off-the-floor recording of the powerful closing track “Big Sky Country.”
Featuring a 13-member chorus, the song pays tribute to Mallory’s Alberta home, a place she’s been increasingly missing due to her busy touring schedule, both on her own and as the co-leader of the alt-country group The Goddamsels.
“I wrote ‘Big Sky Country’ while I was out playing in Toronto earlier this year for the second time in two weeks,” Mallory explains. “Don’t get me wrong, I love visiting Toronto, but while holed up in my basement accommodations, I was really feeling the concrete jungle energy of the big city, which is something I’m not used to being from the prairies. I missed home, I missed the vastness of Alberta, the golden fields, the mountains I grew up in, and most of all, the big sky. If you’ve spent much time on the plains, you know there’s nothing like a prairie sunset. So this one came to me — an ode to home and its majesty.”
Powered by her multi-octave voice, the sound of Songs To A Wild God ranges from cinematic folk-rock to intimate spoken word observations. Aiding Mallory in her role as producer is her long-time engineer at Edmonton’s Riverdale Records, Scott Franchuk, along with multi-instrumentalists Brett Hansen and Nico Humby, drummer Jon Guenter, bassist Connor Walsh, saxophonist Mark DeJong, and vocalist Esther Forseth.
While Mallory has often leaned on her formal musical education on previous releases, she says that this time she wanted to rely solely on her gut and intuition. The results speak for themselves, as Songs To A Wild God hearkens back to when artists such as Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, and Sarah McLachlan built their reputations through a musical connection to nature.
But at the core of Songs To A Wild God is the work of Tom Hirons, whose poem “Sometimes A Wild God” has become a touchstone for many other artists seeking to reconnect with the natural world. If such a piece of writing could have a soundtrack, Mallory Chipman’s new album would easily be the perfect complement.
“I used to try to fit myself into a box,” Mallory says. “I would constantly ask myself, what would be most marketable? Will the audience be confused or rejected if I hop from genre to genre? Will people roll their eyes if I sing over and over about what I believe in? In the making of this album, I learned that I am a product of my influences—and that’s not something to escape, but rather embrace. I have felt myself become liberated from industry expectation and free to journey wherever the art takes me. That’s why I believe this album to be my best work yet.”