Serena Ryder may know a thing or two about singing the blues, but the first thing that strikes you is her infectious laugh-it bubbles forth freely and easily between bouts of engaging chatter.
The 21-year-old singer/songwriter has every reason to be upbeat-she’s just released the well-received Unlikely Emergency on like-minded pal Hawksley Workman’s Isadora Records imprint, spent the summer touring the folk-festival circuit and has just found the perfect place to live: the town she grew up in.
In fact, she’s just spent the last little while in Peterborough and is blissfully unaware of Toronto’s recent hostage-taking drama as she meets up with friends for dinner at Tortilla Flats on Queen West. But it isn’t crime on the streets or pesky reporters interrupting her down-time that has Ryder fleeing the environs of the big city-she’s on the road so much as it is that she’s just looking for a quiet place to lay her head on the rare occasion that she is home.
“It wasn’t about Toronto-I love Toronto,” she says. “[Peterborough]’s just a place that when I go home, I’ll actually feel like I’m coming home and resting. I sleep really well in Peterborough-there’s just something about the smells and the sounds and the people there around me. I feel really comfortable and warm there.”
Warm and familiar-much like Ryder’s husky voice and intimate songs. Often compared to Tracy Chapman and Aretha Franklin, the young songstress channels the sincerity of the former and the feistiness of the latter though her three-octave range and powerful songwriting.
It was hearing her sing live on CBC Radio while in an airport limo on the way back to Toronto from Paris that prompted Workman to call the station to track Ryder down.
“He got in touch with me and invited me out for dinner. I had heard his name before, but never heard his stuff,” she says. “He’s like a soul brother from many years ago. It was kind of that instant connection where you meet someone and it’s, ‘Hey, I know you! Nice to see you again!’ That’s how it felt, and we’ve been working together ever since.”
Workman signed Ryder to his label, and the two recorded Unlikely Emergency (all 10 songs were penned by Ryder, save the closing track, an intense a capella take on Etta James’ classic “At Last”) last summer at his schoolhouse studio in Huntsville, live off the floor with bassist Derrick Brady and Todd Lumley on organ.
“It was three days in the studio, which is just fucking amazing for an album-usually it takes forever and ever, right? We just jammed, and it only took two or three takes max for any of the songs,” Ryder says.
“The whole recording experience was based solely on inspiration and being in the moment. I walked in there and Hawksley had set up flowers for me on the table, and brought in my favourite incense to make the whole place smell wonderful, and put an ashtray down beside me because I’m a smoking fiend. We had a little bottle of tequila, and every day that we went in the studio, we’d have a couple shots, like ‘OK, start the day!’ It was phenomenal-just how effortless it was, and how much fun it was.”
While Workman continues to be Ryder’s biggest champion (the day we spoke, he was on his way to MuchMoreMusic to hand-deliver a copy of Ryder’s first video), he’s not the only star in her orbit. This spring, she supported Steve Earle during an Australian tour, has played with Texas legend Jimmy LaFave and just last week opened for Irish megastars The Corrs at no less a venue than the Air Canada Centre.
Ryder recognizes that few artists get the opportunities she’s had, especially at her age, and she isn’t taking any of it for granted.
“Lately, I’ve been feeling so inspired and I’ve made a conscious effort to actually realize how disgustingly lucky I am right now,” she says. “I find that a lot of people, when they’re feeling on top of the world, they forget about feeling really shitty and alone and out of place. So I try to remind myself about that, and not get lost in the hustle of it all. So many people would love to be where I’m at; not to sound big-headed, but I feel blessed right now and I really appreciate where I’m at-it feels really good.”
