Lone Star
Indie songstress Amy Millan goes solo By Stéphanie Verge
Image credit: Courtesy Arts & Crafts/Finn O'Hara
By the standards of the Canadian indie music establishment, Amy Millan is royalty. Since 2000, she’s been the female front for the molten-hot four-piece Stars—part of the internationally renowned musical juggernaut that includes long-time collaborators Broken Social Scene, Metric and Feist. Last month, the 32-year-old Toronto-born singer released her long-awaited solo effort, Honey From the Tombs. The title is a reference to a story Tom Waits once told about Egyptian burial sites, and the album harnesses some of that troubadour’s famously eclectic spirit, flitting from twangy alt-country numbers to dreamy pop musings to in-the-gutter blues. With the help of iconic producer Ian Blurton (who refined The Weakerthans’ heart-on-sleeve punk-poet sound and nurtured Lowest of the Low’s 2004 comeback disc, Sordid Fiction), the sultry-voiced Millan has crafted songs filled with poignant memories about boys and booze—the perfect soundtrack to lonely-hearted, bleary-eyed nights.
Amy Millan plays the Mod Club June 10. $12. 722 College St., 416-588-4663, www.ticketmaster.com
TEST Originally published June 2006
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