Mary Barry launches Chansons Irisées
St. John’s
 Funded Under: Professional Project Grants Program
Amount Funded: $3,500
Chansons d’Amour – a concert featuring music from her new CD Chansons Irisées:
Date: February 13, 2010
Time: 8 p.m.
Venue: D. F. Cook Recital Hall, St. John’s
Admission: $20
Tickets: Fred’s Records, O’Brien’s Music, Travel Bug, or at the door
Artist Contact: Mary Barry
Phone: 722-0474
E-mail: info@marybarry.ca
Website: www.marybarry.ca
Chansons Irisées is currently available for purchase in St. John's and will be available online soon.
Listen to “La vie en rose” from Chansons Irisées
Click here to read Mary’s descriptions of each song from Chansons Irisées.
Mary Barry releases her first full-length recording in French
 Fulfilling a lifelong dream, St. John’s singer/songwriter Mary Barry is about to launch her first full-length album of French ‘chansons’ or songs at her Chansons d’Amour Concert at the D. F. Cook Recital Hall on February 13, 2010.
Entitled, Chansons Irisées, (pronounced eer-ee-zay) or songs of iridescence, the album is a charismatic compilation of Barry’s own French compositions as well as her interpretations of songs by Québecois poet Christine Bernard and the icon of French Chanson, Édith Piaf.
A mélange of sweet melodies, sophisticated jazz, rollicking cabaret and exotic worldbeat, this album is a sensuous and soothing journey through the ever-changing fortunes of the human heart.
Recorded in Studio Sismique in Québec City, under the direction of Bruno Fecteau, the musical director and arranger for Gilles Vigneault, Barry’s Chansons Irisées is a tour de force of exquisite musicianship, each soundtrack a stunningly complex and beautiful soundscape that both mesmerizes and moves.
Chansons Irisées is the fourth album for Barry, a multi-award winning singer/songwriter who was named Newfoundland and Labrador Female Artist of the Year in both 2007 and 2004, as well as Jazz/Blues Artist of the year in 2007. She is also a two-time ECMA nominee. In addition, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador has just selected Mary Barry to represent the province at the Olympics.
Barry will be celebrating Valentine’s Day by launching Chansons Irisées at her Chansons d’Amour concert on Saturday, February 13 at the D. F. Cook Recital Hall on the campus of Memorial University in St. John's. Barry will be accompanied by Brian Way on piano, Charlie Barfoot on guitar, Susan Evoy on sax and clarinet, Kate Bevan-Baker on violin, Jack Daw on acoustic bass, and Rob Lee on percussion.
An Interview with Mary Barry...
NLAC: Where does your interest in French language and French music come from?
MB: I grew up in St. John’s at a time when French teachers didn’t necessarily speak French; they wrote it on the board, mostly. But, from the moment I started in Grade 4, I was really enthusiastic about learning the language. When my brother and I had the chance to go to EXPO in Montreal, I was over the moon. We spent the entire summer there with our cousins who lived on the south shore and went to the Expo site every single day, attending a myriad of cultural events. My interest in French grew by the hour and by the time I got back to school in September, when everyone was writing the “How I Spent My Summer” essay, I announced to the class that I was going to learn to speak French fluently and one day be bilingual.
NLAC: And is that what you did - are you a fluent French speaker now?
MB: Yes, I am now fluent in French. I studied it for many years and even did my first year of university at the University of Ottawa, where all my courses were taught in French. But it was really only after I lived in Quebec for ten years, where I had French roommates and worked almost entirely in French bands that I became fluent. I always said that the day I could say the French word for facecloth, that that’s the day that I became officially bilingual.
NLAC: What is it like writing lyrics and expressing yourself in French? Do you think in English and then translate into French, or do you compose in French from the get go?
MB: I hardly ever think in English and then translate into French. Some things just lend themselves to the French language, especially poetry.
NLAC: Your accent sounds great – did that come naturally? Did you have to build up your confidence to perform and write in a second language?
MB: Thank you very much. I can’t really say that it comes naturally, being an Irish Newfoundlander, but I had wonderful teachers that encouraged me and I did study the language in depth. I certainly had to build up my confidence to perform and write in French because I was quite shy in the beginning. Performing in French actually helped me feel more confident because it’s been said that it’s sometimes easier to sing in another language than it is to speak it. I also found French to be so dramatic that I could pretend I was another character almost, if you know what I mean. French is very theatrical and that helped me forget my shyness.
NLAC: In addition to your own compositions, the CD includes interpretations of songs by icon Edith Piaf...was it hard to put your own stamp on these songs?
MB: Yes, indeed. A song like Piaf’s “La Vie En Rose” has been performed and recorded by so many great artists that of course it was challenging to find a fresh approach yet remain true to the piece. I initially thought we would have the upright bass, guitar and piano, with maybe some violin. However, when we went into the studio, the producer Bruno Fecteau decided to record just voice with the grand piano playing a very sparse Debussey/Satie type piano accompaniment. I have to say that I felt very vulnerable and alone in the booth when I realized it was just me and the piano. But, it forced me to go deep inside emotionally and it was very profound. The same thing happened with the Jacque Brel piece, in which I actually cried for a second in the third verse. You can hear it in my voice. In the end, they are two of my favourite songs on the disc.
Listen to “La vie en rose” from Chansons Irisées
NLAC: Tell me a bit about Christine Bernard - who is she and why did you want to record her music?
MB: Back when I went to Quebec City for three days and stayed seven years, one of the first people I met was a poet named Christine Bernard. We met in a café called the Hobbit and hit it off right away and started working together. Christine and me, along with a dozen other Quebecois artists (including Marie-Lili who wrote “La Fille de la Mer”) used to play at this Boite a Chanson called Les Nuits du Nord which was a veritable coffee house that had an old upright piano and tables with checkered cloths and lots of Gitane cigarette smoke. It was a ‘salon’ where artists displayed their works, musicians played non-stop and poets read. Christine was known for her texts. Whenever she would read or sing, you could see people’s jaw drop because of the beauty and rawness of her words, not to mention her sublime melodies. For years I said that I would one day record her songs and that finally came true. I recorded six Christine Bernard songs on the CD and am truly humbled to be interpreting such a brilliant writer.
NLAC: Anything else you'd like to add?
MB: Well, I am delighted to say that I am singing at the Vancouver Olympics. Not only is it an honour to be a part of the artistic roster representing the province, but it’s symbolic for me that it’s in the place where I began my studies in music so long ago. It feels like the circle is complete and for that, I am very grateful.
Chansons Irisées - Song Descriptions
By Mary Barry
 La Fille de la Mer... written by a dear friend of mine, Marie- Lili Cauchon, this song freed the ‘inner pirate’ in me, and with the rhythm and the colours of the clarinet and violin, it is a true valse terre neuvienne à la française.
Je t’aime tant... easily one of the most beautiful love songs I have ever heard, and a total joy to sing, this song contains one truly wonderful lyric that sums up the power of love ‘I can make smoke rings and just as easily take them away because “l’amour me donne du talent” – ‘love gives me talent’.
La Lune Autour ...my first French poem set to music, written under a harvest moon and an October sky, on a chance trip through Drummondville, love would drop into my arms, like moonbeams from the sky.
La Vie en Rose ...having been performed in a dozen ways by a ton of artists, how could we come near recording a song of such fame and still bring something fresh to the interpretation? Bruno believed that piano accompaniment alone would create an impressionistic background for the words to sit, but little did I know that the sparseness of the piece would demand that I go deep inside of me to that vulnerable place that only being swept away by love can feel like.
Pourquoi C’est Comme Ca ....strange as it may sound, I have the same birthday as Kierkegaarde, the founder of existentialism and this song came from a place of wondering why something is a certain way, while something else is not. Set to a tango, the dance highlights the tension of these two conflicting notions that resolves only in infinity.
J’Aurai Sa Peau...another of Christine’s pieces but this one I was sure I would never have the guts to sing. The lyric is raw and very suggestive in places (J’aurai sa peau’ – ‘I’ll have his skin!’) Even the title made me think that Sister Mary Catherine might roll over in her grave. But I know that feeling of love being so close that it’s in your skin, so I decided to take the chance and go for it. It was totally liberating!
Peine d’Amour ...continuing with the Christine Bernard suite, a true classic with a haunting arrangement that for me captured the isolation and bittersweet pain of heartbreak and ultimately the acceptance that must come in order to heal the wounds from love lost. This is my mom’s favourite song. When she heard it she said ’I really like the words in this song’. Funny, but my mother doesn’t speak French, but she still understands the feeling behind the words.
Les Engoulevents...imagine a deserted field with a toppled over house that is inviting and scarey at the same time. In this house lives a wizard who calls in spirits at night. The sound of the dudük brings us into la Sorcière’s world of talismans and magic potions as the spell is cast like a spider web around the narrator of the story. Les engoulevents are whippoorwills and it is their call after midnight that she will recall.
Syracuse....though I didn’t know this piece before, Christine and Bruno convinced me that it was a ballad that would win my heart. Basically, ‘before my youth is over and my springs have all gone, I would like to see Syracuse, Easter Island, Mount Fujiyama, Verona, relishing the souvenirs while listening to the wind sing.’
Quand La Ville Dort...a very quirky song with indescribable lyrics that tell a story of what goes go in the city when the city is asleep and all kinds of unusual characters are on the move. The unusual time signature of 5/4 keeps you on your toes while the wailing of the sax reflects the shrill sound of the sirens at night.
La Gare.....the last of Christine’s songs that is set in a train station, where time and place meet up with a sad woman who holds on to her heart and her dream. This song is my first country song and I am in love with it, especially the chorus and the dobro riding underneath. It’s also Mme. Isabelle Fecteau’s favourite song so it goes out to her.
Ne Me Quitte pas...Jacques Brel’s classic that many “wouldn’t go near with a ten foot pole”, this is a song of profound despair and a very challenging song to tackle lyrically. But, it is a piece that has always moved me and I have wanted to record it since the first time I heard it. With Bruno’s arrangement and the strings that are nothing short of sublime, I am particularly attached to this version of the song.
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