An unfinished song is like an alligator. That’s what Kim Beggs says. “You have to wrestle them,” says Beggs, who distinctly remembers doing that with a few songs on her new record, Beneath Your Skin. She’ll release the album, her seventh, on Sept. 20, and celebrate its release with a show at the Yukon Arts Centre (YAC) on Sept. 22.
For Beggs, who first stood on the YAC stage in 2005, the release is about more than just Beneath Your Skin. It’s about marking her 20-year career as a singer and songwriter. When she looks back, she reflects on the stage fright she had in her early days; being interviewed on CBC Radio by Michael Enright; the challenges unique to being a musician in the Yukon; all the Canadian Folk Music Award nominations; the difficulties the pandemic presented to the arts; and, of course, the songs.
Some, over the years, have come as they are—quick and perfect. Others, like “You Been Down My Road,” need hours of writing, re-writing and melody development.
That song, in particular, which appears on Beneath Your Skin, was one Beggs says she wanted to get right because it serves as a thank-you to songwriters who have come before her.
“You took the long way songwriter, came through by word of mouth/Blew in just like you should, just like a robin would,” Beggs sings on the track. “And I wonder when you died, did you know you made music for all time? Wish I could have sang with you at the very same campfire.”
The 13 songs on the record are all tunes Beggs has worked on in the last few years. She didn’t come to writing them with any particular theme in mind, but the record has a cohesion anyway. Her trademark style of dark, folksy Americana infuses sad, wistful storytelling with northern character.
Some songs are about the kind of heartbreak you only find in the North. Others are about what we, as the human race, are doing to the Earth.”
Some songs are about the kind of heartbreak you only find in the North. Others are about what we, as the human race, are doing to the Earth.
“I use my heart to hear and if there’s a little part that kind of drops down and makes me feel depressed, I know I have to go back and change that,” she says.
That doesn’t necessarily mean she has to make it happier, because Beggs isn’t looking to sugarcoat things, but she might change up the way the melody and the chords relate.
In other cases, she may never record the song. Sometimes songs need to stay just as sad as they are, even if no one ever hears them. Those are the songs Beggs says it’s important to write as part of her own healing process at times. It’s tough, but necessary. That’s what songwriting is, she says. It requires a lot of self-examination. So does figuring out which songs are ultimately going to make the cut when it comes to recording.
In Beggs’ case, she did that in Montreal, with recording engineer Howard Bilerman. Beggs met Bilerman (who has worked with Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Leonard Cohen and The Weather Station) a few years ago, when she was doing a residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts.
They’d wanted to work together ever since. Beggs says she put a lot of faith in Bilerman because he arranged a backing band of musicians she didn’t know— Lilah Larson on electric guitar, bass and drums, and Charlotte Cornfield on electric guitar, bass, drums and keyboards.
Beggs says she was nervous going in, but was thrilled to find the women were excellent musicians. She says the dynamic among the group was one that gave her a lot of space to explore her songs and lay them down the way she wanted.
To hear them, as well as a selection of songs from Begg’s 20-year career, buy tickets for her show at yukonartscentre.com. No alligators will be harmed as part of the performance.
