BeatRoute Magazine AB Edition September 2019

MUSiC CONCERT PREVIEWS
C A LG ARY
Lissie
Soulful singer-songwriter channels country-living and her inner
Stevie Nicks for stripped down new album By YASMINE SHEMESH
$3.50 GUINNESS SLEEVES
AND $5.00 PINTS
PLUS TAX
JOIN US AT 1637 37 ST SW, CALGARY
WWW.DUBLINCALLING.COM/CALGARY
@DUBLINCALLINGCALGARY
Commonwealth Bar & Stage
(Calgary)
Tix: $13.50, eventbrite.ca
Tix: $22.50, westwardfest.com
E
lisabeth Maurus was in
LISSIE
high school, growing
Friday, Sept. 13
up in Rock City, Illinois,
the first time she heard
“Cowboy Take Me Away”
by the Dixie Chicks. Maurus,
Friday, Sept. 14
best known as singer-songwriter
Lissie, came across a 10-sec-
(Vancouver)
Rickshaw Theatre
ond clip of the country ballad on
the internet. She thought it was
beautiful and listened to the little
preview over and over again, until, finally,
she went out and bought the CD.
“It just really represented this ideal love, of
being able to be strong and certain of what
you want, and finding a partner that’s your
equal — someone you could build this beautiful,
authentic life with,” Maurus says speaking
with BeatRoute. “It stirred something up
in me and this sense of longing for that.”
Maurus’s own rendition of “Cowboy Take
Me Away” appears on her latest album,
When I’m Alone: The Piano Retrospective,
which features stripped-down re-imaginings
of her catalog, as well as a cover of Fleetwood
Mac’s “Dreams.” With the
record recalling where things
all began for Maurus in her
career — her striking voice — it
felt right to pay homage to two
of her favourite vocalists, Stevie
Nicks (Fleetwood Mac) and
Natalie Maines (Dixie Chicks).
And now, as an adult, living on a
sprawling 47-acre farm in rural
Iowa where she harvests hay,
“Cowboy” holds even deeper significance
for the artist.
“I mean, I couldn’t really warm more to
that idea of, ‘I want to touch the earth, I
want to break it in my hands, I want to grow
something wild and unruly,’” Maurus adds,
referencing the song’s lyrics. “It’s wanting to
live this sort of pastoral, nature-based life.
The place that I feel most happy is when
I’m out in nature. So, that song just took on
even more meaning for me. And, you know, I
do have a partner and he’s actually a farmer
and I always joke with him, ‘This song, ‘Cowboy
Take Me Away,’ this song is for you.’”
22 BEATROUTE SEPTEMBER 2019