When it came to creating her cozy, intimate Songwriters Circle events, Mallory Chipman had a few inspirations.
One was to provide a gentle respite from “Jingle Bells” and its brethren. “I wanted to bring artists together around the holidays to perform original music,” she says.
Musicians are often very busy in December. And it can mean a lot of classic Christmas songs.
“And I love that but so many of my favourite holiday tunes started out as contemporary, original songs. It can be nice to have a break from the other Christmas music that’s sort of following us around this time of year,” she laughs.
She invited beloved Alberta folk singer-songwriter John Wort Hannam and talented R&B fusion artist Riwo Egor to join her.
“We’re using this as an opportunity to celebrate some of our own songs this time of year but also play some music together and come together in that spirit of collaboration and community that feels extra good and warm at this time of year.”
Each musician will play a set and at the end, they’ll all come together to, yes, get a little festive.
Chipman also wanted to bring together musicians with distinctly different sounds.
She toured Japan in early 2024 and discovered something fascinating. In Canada, shows featuring multiple musicians often stick to one genre. In Japan, it was not the case. Wildly disparate sounds would be brought together and audiences listened respectfully.
“I was leaving every show thinking, ‘oh my gosh, I just shared the bill with an ambient electronic act and a skate punk act and everybody stayed through all of these acts, appreciated all of these acts!’” she says. “It really inspired me to do more of that here as well.”
Another inspiration was to support CKUA. Audience members can buy standard tickets to the show or tickets that include a VIP reception and donation to CKUA.
“Hearing how dire things were in terms of fundraising earlier in the year I think so many of us musicians and listeners alike kind of got scared,” she says. “It was like imagining a world without CKUA. We can’t let that happen.”
Chipman says she relies on CKUA, both for the radio she loves, and for the support she receives as an artist.
Though several fundraising goals have been met, “that doesn’t mean the journey is stopping there,” she says. “We as a community need to support them in an ongoing way. The give us, in an ongoing capacity, I’m biased, but the best radio in the world.”
Chipman also loves the CKUA Performance Space. Fun fact: she even got married there. She’s looking forward to playing music in it, she says.
“This is a show that we get to do on the solstice together in such a beautiful space, I think it’ll be not only musically really magical and intimate but I think it’ll just be a wonderful opportunity to get community together.”
Songwriters Solstice takes place December 21 at the CKUA Performance Space in Edmonton. Details here. A Calgary version is taking place December 19 in support of the National Music Centre. Details here.
“Different This Christmas” by Mallory Chipman:
