Born
outside Montreal in Sweetsburg, Quebec, Lynn Miles grew up
in a musical home. Her father played the harmonica and listened
to his jazz collection while her mother was a lover of both
opera and country music. Miles’ mother recalled once
that she knew when Lynn had finally fallen asleep in her crib:
Lynn stopped singing. During her elementary school years, Miles
learned guitar, violin, flute and piano. She began performing
in public at around the age of sixteen and when she was in
her early twenties she studied with an opera singer to strengthen
her voice and enrolled for a time at Carleton University in
Ottawa where she studied classical music history and theory.
Years later, Miles put this training to good use while serving
as a voice teacher at the Ottawa Folklore Center. While at
the center, she taught voice to many students including a then
fourteen-year-old Alanis Morrisette. The lessons came just
prior to the making of Morrisette’s first album.
Though Miles had been writing her own songs since the age of
10, she didn’t end up recording any of her own material
until 1987 when she cut 9 original compositions for a demo at
Happyrock Studio in Ottawa. An avid reader and music-lover, those
early recordings were inspired by the books she loved to read,
and the music she listened to on the radio. Miles continues to
draw inspiration from music and literature to this day. On her
latest album (Love Sweet Love) for example, the opening track, “Flames
of Love,” was inspired by a long period of reading Sufi
poetry. "I’m fascinated by the way the Sufis write
about love," Miles says. "Their love is spiritual,
and I reinterpreted it and wrote ‘Flames of Love,’ about
jumping in the fire, 
letting
go and not being afraid and letting it get hot and not caring
about what other people think. Just
really going for it." The idea – and the song itself – is
exhilarating and exciting, yet full of hidden corners and alleyways
from where the joy can be blindsided without notice. But as Miles
notes, "You don't learn from happiness."
If that's true, one gets the sense that Miles has learned a lot.
In a career that has seen her move from Ottawa to Nashville to
Los Angeles and back to Ottawa, and release albums as varied
as the slick Night in a Strange Town (co-produced by Larry Klein,
of Shawn Colvin and Joni Mitchell fame, and featuring renowned
west-coast studio musicians David Piltch, Dean Parks, John Cody
and Tal Bergman) and the stark Unravel, Miles has consistently
been unflinching in putting it all out there: the unbridled ecstasy
of new-found love, the fragile process of sweeping up the pieces
when it breaks.
The accolades, meanwhile, continue to pour in. Her 1996 album,
Slightly Haunted, was a Billboard Top 10 Pick of the Year. Unravel
(released 2001) was praised by critics – All Music Guide
describing it as "sounding as if it's been produced by Daniel
Lanois in an Appalichian town" and "a diamond in the
rough." Canadian folk-music icon Valdy once said, "I'm
sorry for all the heartache she has to go through in order to
get those juices going, but, yeah, she's marvelous." The
New York Times may have said it best: "Lynn Miles makes
being forlorn sound like a state of grace."
Her latest album, Love Sweet Love (Red House Records – February
7, 2006), is a road album. Songs like “Night Drive”, “Sweet
and Tender Heart”, “8 Hour Drive” and “Never
Coming Back” trace the metaphorical journey of the human
heart, sketching a roadmap of modern relationships and heartache.
Miles recorded Love Sweet Love with a first-rate collection of
Canadian musicians: Unravel producer, guitarist, longtime-friend
and collaborator Ian LeFeuvre and drummer Peter Von Althen (both
of the Canadian band Starling); Chelsea Bridge double-bassist
John Geggiem; Prairie Oyster guitarist Keith Glass and violinist
James Stephens all lend their talents to Love Sweet Love. The
result of this collaboration is a warm, hopeful sound in perfect
harmony with Miles’ smart, heartbreaking lyrics.
