Artist: Kim Barlow, Album: Champ, Song: Great White Nothing

"Here they come again like every spring before, thundering caribou over the hill they roar.  They eat my leaves and they scratch their itchy asses on my bark and they break my branches."  Kim Barlow is a singer songwriter from the Yukon.  She was actually born in Montreal and raised in Nova Scotia but following her post secondary education at Florida State University, she decided to settle way up north.  She went from sun to sub-Arctic weather.  She taught herself to play banjo and in 1999, released her indie debut.  Her sophomore release was Juno nominated for Roots and Traditional Album of the Year in 2003 along with fellow Canadian, Kathleen Edwards, but they both lost out to Lynn Miles that year.  She has five solo albums to date and her most recent was released in 2010.  She also has some interesting side projects.  The Juno nominated string band, Annie Lou, has a couple of albums to their credit as well as a collaboration with Mathais Kom from the band, The Burning Hell (see blog 6/27/11), entitled, Spring Breakup.  She just returned from playing shows in Europe with Kom.  Champ was her fourth release from 2007.  Great White Nothing is one of a few outstanding songs on this album and you can check out the track on You Tube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVL85JDTfRk&lr=1&ob=0).  Her vocal stylings remind me a bit of Liz Phair's Exile In Guyville circa 1993.  If you are unfamiliar with that album, seek out the song Fuck And Run.  You can purchase the album, Champ, on Itunes.  You can follow Kim at http://www.kimbarlow.ca/.  Thanks for reading and enjoy!