PROUDLY SERVING THE GREATER HALIFAX COMMUNITIES	THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2005

Soundtrack for snow Season
Dave Carmichael's latest CD rewards the attentive listener

DAVE CARMICHAEL
Spirit Dance (indie)

By Sandy MacDonald

    The East Coast is accustomed to watching her sons depart for better futures, waiting patiently until they return - sometimes better, sometimes beaten down. Always with a story and happy to be back on familiar turf.

    Singer-songwriter Dave Carmichael uprooted from his adopted Halifax home in the summer of 2003, first to Montreal to spend time with his family. Then down the highway to Ottawa, singing and playing guitar with other artists in the local club scene.

   
    "When I left Halifax, I just needed a break," says Carmichael. "I felt I was spinning my wheels and needed to get away and gain some perspective. I needed to come to terms with what I do."

    When the urge to record some of his new songs grabbed him though, there was only one place to make a new album - back to Halifax. "I had managed to scrimp and save a few dollars... it was easier and cheaper for me to make a CD here."

    Carmichael returned in January, partly to work on his new CD and also to prepare the arrangements for a Theatre Antigonish stage production called Joni Mitchell: River, where he'd been hired as musical director.

    "I picked away at the album all summer as the Joni thing was up and running."

    A supple singer who slips into different styles as easily as slipping on a new coat, Carmichael moves his music around on this CD.

    The opening track, Smile, is a gentle waltz-time pop tune, with a simple but lush arrangement. Carmichael and co-producer Jamie Robinson went for a rootsy sound, pushing the vocals up front. Robinson played in Carmichael's live band for years, and the pair worked well together on this project.

    "I set out to make an acoustic record, although there are electric instruments all over it. But I've mellowed out as I got older."

    Why Me? taps into a funky blues vibe, putting the cold brakes on an obsessive admirer. "If you can't live without me, why aren't you dead yet," snarls the rebuffer. That's cold.

    He pulls out an earthy earthy version of bluegrass standard Bury Me Beneath The Willow, with a lovely harmony from Melissa Trottier and some chunky mandolin from Jamie Robinson.

    "I feel this album is the closest I've ever come to what I am. I'm more relaxed about the process. not pushing so hard."

    Carmichael recorded the bed tracks in three days at Common Ground studio. Bassist Tom Easley and drummer Geoff Arsenault laid down the rhythm parts behind Carmichael and Robinson. Kim Dunn adds some fluid keyboard parts.

    Like other top East Coast artists like Bruce Guthro, Gordie Sampson and Lennie gallant, Carmichael's music is built on a foundation of folk, earthy pop rock and country. It's smart songwriting framed in inventive arrangements.

    Spirit Dance is a listener's album, a soundtrack for a snowy afternoon or a drive down a quiet country road.