Kate Maki, born and raised in Sudbury, Ontario, is not your average folk singer—she started as a neuroscience student at Dalhousie University, then became a teacher, and only afterwards turned to rockabilly music. With a voice that alternates between sweetly conversational and piercing and powerful, as well as a guitar that’s part bluesy, part country twang, there is something pure about her style.

“I love performing,” Maki says. “I guess when you’re teaching, you’re performing as well; you are kind of performing for your students. But I’d prefer to perform my own creations in front of my own audience.”

She hasn’t given up teaching permanently: “It pays the rent,” she explains, “and I do enjoy it.” Maki reveals that she would rather spend more time writing and performing music, especially in the wake of her critically-acclaimed 2008 album, On High, and a number of successful tours. She’ll undoubtedly get a chance to do so this coming year, as she releases two new albums: the first, entitled Two Song Wedding, comes out Jan. 12, with an as-yet untitled disc following in November. “I know it’s crazy to release two records in a year, but it’s a small territory that I’m covering, and I hope to tour a lot in the spring and fall of next year. For the next five years, I’d rather be touring, get all the wild travelling out of me,” she laughs.

Two Song Wedding was recorded over just two days in Tucson, Arizona, during a brief break from Maki’s tour for On High. “I had some time off in Tucson, so I went into a studio and I had some new songs. It was recorded with some people I had just met during the day—we just had a rehearsal and we recorded it. I lost my voice on the third day. I couldn’t speak, so we couldn’t record anymore. I went back to touring, six months passed […] and when I listened to the songs later, I really liked them.”

With an easy laugh and down-to-earth demeanour that compliments the light-heartedness of her early songs, it’s no wonder that Maki has charmed audiences across Canada and the United States. Maki concedes that Two Song Wedding is “more introverted” than her previous efforts. “I tend to have two different categories of songs. Some are moody and quiet; some are very ‘get everybody together,’ rootsy, backyard barbeque type songs. So, I was able to make two very different records. I split them up.”

“I wasn’t intentionally trying to do something different […] but sometimes I’m upstairs in the sunny room with the acoustic, and sometimes I’m in the basement with an electric guitar doing something moodier. It’s good to be able to separate them; it’s good to be able to make two records.”

If “Bloodshot and Blistered,” the first song off the new album (and currently streaming on Maki’s MySpace) is any indication of the mood that will pervade the rest of the tracks, it’s indeed a departure from her previous, jaunty folk ballads into more melancholy, brooding territory.

Maki intends to play some album release shows at the end of January and in early February, hopefully kicking off a Canadian tour in March. “It’s kind of dangerous touring Canada in winter. I’ve been in the ditch,” she quips. “I definitely want to tour the U.S. again, too. I love the West Coast. I think a lot of my influences come from that area, and it’s nice to tour there because it just feels like it came from there.” In the meantime, Maki will be playing shows in Toronto, Ottawa, and Sudbury this month to preview some of the material off her new record—including tonight (Thursday) at the Cameron House.

When asked about the sound of her forthcoming album, Maki laughs, saying that a friend who listened to it recently told her that the record sounded like “Ann Murray fronting Led Zeppelin.”

“It’s tough to categorize, I guess,” she admits, “but I like it when you can’t put your finger on it.”

Kate Maki plays at The Cameron House on Thursday, Nov. 5 with Doug Paisley.