In a couple weeks Crissi Cochrane plans to bat her brown eyes at a train attendant so she can read to her cats, Conor and Jenny, in the cargo bay. She's one of many caught in the annual ebb and flow between Nova Scotia and Ontario, so you could call her CD release this Saturday a going-away party.
Cochrane's Darling, Darling, named for the last waltz on the album, echoes one of her heroes, Jill Barber. Though she's more often compared to Sarah Harmer, the Valley girl sounds like Barber's younger sister, with a nostalgic, folksy voice that's wise beyond her 21 years.
In terms of artist influences, Cochrane's ideal concert on the Common would have involved Broken Social Scene and the Get Up Kids, plus local singer-songwriters Rose Cousins, Amelia Curran and another Ontario-to-Halifax transplant, Meaghan Smith.
In a lo-fi right of passage, Cochrane recorded two EPs in her bedroom and bathroom, so recording Darling, Darling at Chicago's SOMA Electronic Musicwas a nice change of pace. The result is a sharp collection of nine songs spanning from high school to last December; a relationship cocktail of learned lessons and family heartache.
Hers is the perfect show to attend with close friends or lovers before they leave at the end of summer. Hold hands during "Coming Home"---it's the song that most often makes Cochrane's fans cry: "Here is the school where I used to stray/there lived a girlfriend who passed away/here is the bus station on a sunny day/where mom and I wept when I moved away."
"That was such an awful day," Cochrane says. "We were at the bus station in Wolfville, me in the backseat with my suitcase and guitar, my parents in the front seat, and none of us were talking. We were all just awkwardly waiting for the bus, not knowing what to say. I'm getting sad thinking about it. When the bus came my mom gave me a hug and we both started crying."
That was the day she moved to Halifax. It could be argued last time she moved for a boy, and this time she's moving for "the boy." He's worth it, but she'll miss the ocean. –Hilary Beaumont
