Teresa Ennis, one-third of Newfoundland trio, releases debut CD Space
Some of the best music simply occurs in the moment.
Whether it’s a late-night jazz club jam session or a few friends sitting around a Mabou kitchen table, there’s nothing like a relaxed setting and a few favourite tunes to create a memorable musical moment.
On the other hand, there’s very little that’s relaxed about the music business, and making music for a living can introduce a lot of pressures into an activity that used to be something you’d do for fun.
Teresa Ennis has seen both sides of making music as one third of Newfoundland’s successful vocal trio the Ennis Sisters, from singing Christmas and folk tunes in the family home in St. John’s to becoming a busy recording and touring act with Juno and East Coast Music Awards on the mantle.
While sisters Karen and Maureen take some time off from the trio to pursue some new musical avenues, Teresa has followed a very different formula of music making for her solo debut Space, which lands in stores on Tuesday.
It’s a kind of roundabout record made with musician-producer Joel Hunt, a longtime friend of her partner and manager Andre Bourgeois who recently moved to Beaver Bank from Guelph.
Largely acoustic, with imaginative reworkings of an eclectic assortment of pop and folk songs, Space gave Ennis a sense of freedom she hadn’t encountered in the studio before.
""This didn’t come about like your traditional record,"" she says over a tea on a sunny Argyle Street patio.
""We were just sitting around listening to tunes that we liked, and we decided to record a few. When we got to around six, we started to entertain the idea of releasing something.
""When we got to 12 songs, we became more serious about putting them on a disc, but recording was something we’d do after we’d been outdoors doing sea kayaking or whatever. We’d be listening to music, and I’d hear something that would make me think, "Oh yeah, I can sing that,’ and off we’d go. It happened gradually, over a year and a half.""
Ennis and Hunt picked songs they liked that people might find familiar, but not overly familiar, like the mid-’70s Who song Blue, Red and Grey.
""It’s not your typical Pete Townshend tune, it’s a little lighter. It’s like a folk tune.""
Or the gentle Annie, by the late Small Faces member Ronnie Lane.
There’s also an easygoing version of Bruce Cockburn’s Going to the Country, and even an uptempo bluegrass reworking of Electric Light Orchestra’s Can’t Get It Out of My Head that’s been catching listeners off guard while they try to figure out where they’ve heard it before.
For new material, Hunt contributed the title track, which closes the record with an ode to love and leisure, and Ennis’s own Under the Moon, which she co-wrote with Bourgeois.
""I wrote that one two years ago, when I was just getting to know Joel and before I had any thought of doing my own project,"" she says.
""It was the middle of the winter, freezing cold, and I was thinking about watching the stars in the summertime. My family is all huge star-watchers, and my dad calls us a bunch of astronauts.
""I know a few of the constellations, and I’m trying to learn some more. I went out at 2:30 a.m. to watch the meteor showers recently. Maybe a song will come out of that some day. I’m gonna work on it.""
Performing as a solo artist is a whole new learning curve for Ennis, after years as part of a trio.
Working on Space also gave her more confidence when it comes to making her own music, helping her to open up the creative tap for songwriting.
""I’ve written a couple of songs that will probably go on the next one, but it doesn’t come to me as easily as it does to my sister Maureen, for example,"" she says.
""She’s really good when it comes to finding melodies and words to go with them. I’m working on it, I find with practice and time it’s getting easier.""
Although her sisters are concentrating on their own lives for the time being, with Maureen working on a publishing deal in Nashville, Ennis says it’s likely the three of them will sing together again somewhere down the road.
For now, she’s going to follow her own star and see what happens.
There are songs from the Space sessions, and new ones recorded since then, that may surface in the coming months, and the job of getting out there and making sure people get to hear the new CD.
""I want to do as much promotional stuff as I can, and next summer we’ll focus on some live shows, and just see where it goes. I want it to be really easygoing; I don’t want any pressure around it,"" says Ennis, who chats about Space with Bill Hart on CHFX 101.9 FM today at 6 p.m.
""There’s always going to be some, but I don’t want it to be about industry, I want it to be more about how it was recorded.
""We were watching hockey games, and recording parts during Coaches’ Corner. The vibe of it was so homey, and just relaxed, and I don’t want to feel pressure to ruin that experience. It should always be really fun and about the joy of making music.""
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Stephen Cooke
Entertainment Reporter
The Chronicle-Herald
P.O. Box 610
Halifax, NS
B3J 2T2
