Erin Haluschak
Record Staff
Have guitar, will travel.
If singer-songwriter Raine Hamilton needed a catchphrase, that could be it.
The Winnipeg-based musician will be starting her inaugural tour in B.C., with a stop at Studiolive in Cumberland July 31, and is willing to get there by any transportation necessary.
“I really wanted to do a car-less tour,” she explained over the phone from her Winnipeg home.
“The area is dense enough so practically speaking I can be resourceful, and also it’s very environmentally-friendly.”
Hamilton, who describes herself as a cross between Joni Mitchell and a musical Tina Fey, said she is coming to the west coast through Via Rail’s Artists on Board program, which offers complimentary or reduced fare travel for professional musicians in return for performing on board.
She is promoting her debut EP Small Packages, and credits her musical skills to her parents.
“I come by it naturally. In the ‘70s, my parents had a band called Nighthawk and they were very musical; my father was a singer-songwriter,” she noted.
Hamilton describes her songs as “heartfelt but not gloomy” and “honest and vulnerable” with a clear, ringing voice, transporting listeners to the honest, rumbling underbelly of life.
Although born in Victoria, Hamilton said ‘being a prairie person’ she’s looking forward to seeing the west coast landscape and the variety of shows on tour, including intimate house concerts to the Bathtub Days Fair in Nanaimo.
She explained she has enough material to adapt to a variety of different audiences.
“I’m really flexible (on stage). I can read the energy of the place and not every style works (in each venue) so I can change a show to where I’m playing,” she added.
Beginning in Vancouver and travelling throughout the Lower Mainland, the Interior and across the Island and beyond, Hamilton said one stop she is really looking forward to visiting is the Edge of the World Festival on Haida Gwaii at the beginning of August.
For more information, visit www.rainehamilton.com.
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