The Home Routes tour is returning to Thompson on Feb. 9, featuring the soulful sounds of Coco Love Alcorn, daughter of Canadian jazz icon John Alcorn.
With 12 shows in 14 days, the Home Routes circuit can be a taxing tour, but Alcorn notes that the unique experiences provide her with more than enough fuel to keep the tour moving: “You get to see new places, you’re meeting new people and old friends, and you get that high from connecting with the music every night.”
With a career spanning three albums (with a fourth on the way), Alcorn’s sound has straddled the genres of jazz, soul, R’n’B and folk and the musician’s influences come from Stevie Wonder, Chet Baker, even Bjork; but her songs may also find a home among fans of artists like Morcheeba, or Adele – old-school rhythms and sensibilities, reinvigorated with polished production and modern punch.
In her blog, Alcorn notes that music is often considered a young person’s game, but her own career stands as a sort of contrast to the notion: while Coco has been steeped in music from birth, and playing music live since she left high school, she didn’t release her first original solo album – titled “Sugar” – until 2006, whenshe was 32. Prior to the album, Alcorn describes her musical interest as too divided among genres to settle into a consistent musical identity. Her father John is an award-winning Canadian jazz musician, and at 20 years old, the younger Alcorn debuted her own jazz album in Vancouver’s East Cultural Centre to an audience of 400 listeners. But her life on the road didn’t begin until a move to Toronto, where her performance developed a more folk-inspired acoustic tone, which earned her spots as the opening act for Ani DiFranco and Burton Cummings of the Guess Who. She was also part of an electronica side project with Canadian rock band 54-40. It wasn’t until “Sugar” that Coco managed to build an identity as an artist that she was happy to pursue on her own: “How do you decide? At one point, you just acknowledge that there’s 20 records you want to make, and you pick one.”
Until mid-last year, Alcornhad taken a considerable break from touring to raise her daughter Ellie (who also inspired her 2011 album, “Play”). But while touring as a mother has come with its limitations, Alcorn welcomes the more grounded lifestyle:
“I loved settling down, and I felt like I could have settled into a more simple life, but I felt like touring was calling me back. She’s independent enough now that I can go away for trips, but before Ellie, sometimes I would just go and tour and tour and tour, for 12 weeks, sometimes. With her as my gauge, it’s nice to go away for a week, or two, or three, then come back for a week or two. It forces me to come back more often, and it works out better for everyone.”
Alcorn will be bringing her guitar and ukelele on tour with upright bass player Alan Mackie, enhanced by a much-beloved five-track looper to deepen the duo’s performance. The show will feature songs from both previous years, as well as from her new album “The Spirit Sessions,” which features songs inspired by the human spirit: “I think spirit is where we feel connection most deeply with each other, with ourselves, and with nature. It’s something that we can lean on, when times are tense or confusing, to get us through the troubled times. It’s a place of inspiration and joy, it’s expansive, it’s surprising, all of those things.”
Alcorn has lived throughout Canada, from Nova Scotia and Ontario to British Columbia, and has played a few times in Onanole and Russell, Manitoba. Nonetheless, this will be her first visit to province’s northern forests. “Am I going farther north this time? I haven’t even mapped the tour yet!” She said, laughing. “I’ve booked the flight, rented a car, and I’m proceeding with faith and enthusiasm.”
For more information, or to sample Alcorns’s music, visit www.cocolovealcorn.com. To RSVP for the concert, visit homeroutes.ca/concerts/paintlake-4/ . The concert starts at 7:30pm at 42 Wekusko Drive. Entry is $20 at the door.
