18 - Friday. December 11. 1998 ~ North Shore News All in the family for Maritime musician Rising star releases new CD Adam's Rib Bob Mackin Contributing Writer MANY musicians cite the works of famous musicians for inspiring them to take up the craft. Melanie Doane says it was her older sister who made the biggest impact, guiding her towards a career in music. The 31 vearold native of Truro, Nova Scotia, who now cally Foroaro home, released: her second albunt Adam's Reb at the end of September. She began a cross country tour with Jann Arden in Vancouver a month later. Joining her on the road was vounger brother Creighton, who plays drums in her band. Melanie and Creighton’s eldest sibling Suzanne isn’t the touring type: she tollow ed in their father’s footsteps and is amusic teacher ara scheol in Cape Breton, “she’s the musical genius of all the kids, she’s unbelievable” Doane told the News recently. “She's the one that would write songs and write canes and say “This is vour part, do this. Melanie play that instrument. She was the taskmaster, she whipped me and my brother into shape. She made us need to be professional municians.” The Doane houschald in Halifax was always a musical place where the tamily would stage impromptu kitchen parties. Melanie’s first instrument was the ukelele — just like George Harrison, she points out. She learned guitar, bass. mandolin, piano and even drums. She, tos, wanted to be a music teacher. She sang in a high school choir with Sarah MeLachlan and studied at Halifax’s Dalhousie University until the performing bug hit. That's when she left college and the Maritimes alto- gether for the bright lights, big city of Toronto, “T needed to get away from a smaller place. had to make sure [was seeing the world and knowing what's going on out there and growing. | always have that need.” She scored a six-month gig as a cast member of the Buddy Holly Story in Toronto. But she only lasted a week after the play moved to Broadway. She wanted to become a singer/songwriter in her own right. “Here Pam on Broadway, Fm in New York, Pm a young person and this is what everyone aspires to do,” she recalls, “But it wasn’t fulfilling, it wasn't doing it for me. In that sense it was avery fortuitous thing, it taught me I needed to have the guts to say T needed to quit this and go back to Canada and get on the right path. fr did. [did thar, thar was the begin- ning of when I started to write and do what T needed to do, Without that experience, it may not have happened.” She returned to Toronto, became a sideplayer with a vast array of acts (like The Pursuit of Happiness, Blue Rodeo’s Jim Cuddy, Bob Snider) and cobbled together enough money to record and release an independent EP in 1993. That caught the eve of Sony Music, which released her debut album Shakespenrena Fish in 1996. When it came time for a followup, Sony matched Doane with Los Angeles-based song- writer/producer Rick Neigher. The dozen-song dise Adam's Rib is awaiting release in the U.S. and Europe in carly 1999 and Doane is looking forward to all the touring thar will require. “L have to be around music,” says Doane, who is married to playwright/actor Ted Dykstra of Tivo Pianos, Four Hands fame. “Lean’e live without it. That’s a huge motivation. [ need to play. [have to. Ho nor get ting up and doing it, I do it in my house, I do it with my friends. | guess | learned from the theatre, you get so mach better, night after night.” Metanie Doane — in her own words they can have it all, but that’s really nec true, We do have choices we never had before, but that stili involves choosing, decision making and taking responsibility. More choice is bet- About the songs on Adam’s Rib (courtesy Sony Music): Photo Bob Mackin HALIFAX—native Melanie Doane has been touring cross-country as the opening act for Jann Arden. “Pve been thinking a ler about what the essence of this record is and I'd have to say it’s about being human and the limitations we all have in common, The idea for “Adam's Rib” came from my favourite movie of the same name. It’s a song I wanted to write for a while, but didn’t know just how it was going to unfold. Then | was thinking about writing the story of Eve and how weird it would’ve been to be a little rib, ripped from all that’s familiar and turned into a woman. Maybe that's why we're so con- fused. “Happy Homemaker” was born our cf my greatest fears. I feel like women.are told ter, but nor easier, Pm also a fan of Sue Anne Niven from the Mary Tyler Moore Show, I was watehing a documentary about “lit- tle people”. At the end, one of the characters we'd been following summeu up how he felt about his lot in lite and he said “if 1 only serve asa comparison to whar is beautiful in the world, then Tam valuable to society”. 1 was so moved by this that I wrote the lyric for “There Is No Beautiful”. Sadly, we can't see beauty without comparison. I made my husband ery one day by saying something thoughtless and then [wrote the Ivric for “Absolutels ” See Doane page 32 CABINET SHOP LTD. 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