First album in ten years from Saskatoon Polaris Music Prize nominee Steph Cameron.  Blood Moon offers dreams, inspiration, food for thought and musical satisfaction in equal measure.

Release Date:  25^th April 2025

Label: Neon Moon Records

Format: Vinyl / Digital

A LONG TIME GONE

Blood Moon isn’t the first album that Saskatoon (Canada) Polaris Music Prize nominated singer-songwriter Steph Cameron has ever released, but it’s her first for a long, long time.  It’s also her first album to feature a full band, and WHAT a band she has.  Producer John Raham has pulled out the stops to secure the musical services of, amongst others, bassist Darren Parris, keyboardist Leon Power, guitarist/vocalist Clayton Lincticum and banjo player Eliza Doyle.  They make a fine sound together.

Steph has released two previous albums.  Her 2014 debut, Sad Eyed Lonesome Lady was PopMatters magazine’s #1 Canadian Album of the Year and it attracted that much-lauded Polaris Award nomination.  Steph’s 2015 follow-up, Daybreak Over Jackson Street, was equally highly regarded, inspiring one critic to describe it as: “A masterpiece of social commentary.”

INSPIRATIONS

For Blood Moon, Steph has taken much inspiration from British folk/rock pioneers such as Fairport Convention and Pentangle as well as from acts as diverse as Joni Mitchell and Rumours-era Fleetwood Mac.  I believe that I could also detect flashes of writers like Lucinda Williams and Harry Chapin in the open honesty of Steph’s songs.

Speaking of the experiences she reflects upon on the album, Steph said: “These songs share my curiosity about the mystical world, drawing on my attachment to forests and the plains.  This record explores the sounds of those places, whilst telling stories revealing what makes us human.  I became a mother at the beginning of the pandemic, which led to taking time away from making records and touring.  The break between my last album and Blood Moon marks a period of immense adjustment and change in my life.”

SINCERITY AND WORLDLY EXPERIENCE

There’s a sincerity pervades throughout Blood Moon, and I’m particularly struck by the contrast between the innocence in Steph’s vocal tones and the worldly experience she expresses in her lyrics.  That’s a quality that’s evident from the outset with Blood Moon’s opening track, Rain.  Speaking about the song, Steph says: “Rain is the first song I wrote in this [new] genre, a substantial departure from the sparse, revivalist, folk music I’m known for.  This song allowed me to be playful with vocals and organise them with more complexity than I’ve done on previous recordings.  Rain is about the dissipation of the soul and the search for those we’ve loved and lost.  The song reflects on connecting with those who have gone by connecting with the Earth and the natural world.”

The song is a comfortable – and comforting – slice of AOR.  Similar in sound and structure to Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams, it has a soaring chorus – “It was a long time ago, just like the early morning dew…” – and the guitar sound is wonderfully clear. 

A FESTIVAL SONG, IF EVER I HEARD ONE…

Steph’s inspiring lyrics to Changes remind the listener that nothing ever stays the same for very long.  The folky acoustic guitar and the harmony vocals add an intimate, dreamy feel and there’s a genuine passion in Steph’s voice as she sings the “You will be leaving us behind…” coda.  And, we continue in a folky fame of mind for the country-flavoured Morning Time.  There are several acoustic guitars in play as Steph offers comfort to a lover she’s planning to leave, whilst painting an appealing picture of the life that she’s about to enjoy.

The rocky, bluesy backing to Summer Song provides an earthy anchor for Steph’s ‘light as air’ vocal.  This is a ‘festival’ song, if ever I heard one, with the lyrics, the dreamy chorus and the melodic rock all evocative of a sunny afternoon in a warm field full of like-minded people, all letting the glory of the music wash over them.

BAROQUE, WISTFULNESS AND PASSION

Described as: “A rain-soaked journey through the English countryside,” the excellent Whatever Questions You’re Asking merges a traditional English folk sound with late-sixties baroque.  Warming acoustic guitars and mellow flutes provide the backing to song’s soft, harmonized, vocals, before the band liven things up at the song’s mid-point, without losing the baroque warmth.

With lyrics like: “I’ve been around for a very long time, smokin’ tobacco and drinking my wine,” the pleasant Gone is, perhaps, the album’s most wistful song.  Wistful song, wistful tune, wistful lyrics; and the guitar theme reminds me so much of Stairway to Heaven…

Steph uses her description of that special time when the moon takes on its distinctive red hue to express her awe of the natural world and its impact on the human psyche, in the lyrics to Blood Moon, the album’s title track.  Pedal steel and banjo help evoke the notion of a summer night, spent under the stars, in an idyllic North American mountain setting; the band are on fire and Steph delivers her lyrics with real passion.

SOCIAL COMMENTARY

Lyrics like: “Time just a-rolls on by” return us to the subject of the irreversible passage of time with Come to Find.  I’m reminded of Harry Chapin’s Cat’s in the Cradle as Steph relates her tale of loss and dysfunctionality with passion and commitment, to a banjo and harmonica accompaniment. 

As we’ve already discussed, Steph has taken a conscious step away from the social commentary of her earlier work with Blood Moon.  But she hasn’t left that particular aspect out of her songwriting behind completely, as she demonstrates with Seventeen, her sharp reaction to the police shooting an adolescent boy.  And there’s no doubting her sincerity as she sings lines like: “He was only a child; he was only seventeen” and “It is time to turn the tide.”

A FINE ENDING – AND SOME SPECIAL NEWS

If you’re wondering how an excellent, attention-grabbing album like Blood Moon can be brought to a satisfactory close, then how about this for an idea…  Reprise the album’s standout track – in this case, Summer Song – as an instrumental number, performed by two entwined acoustic guitars.  It works so very well and it’s a fine way to conclude an album that offers dreams, inspiration, food for thought and musical satisfaction in equal measures.

And – we’ve got some very special news!  Steph Cameron will be touring Europe during May 2025, along with another of At The Barrier’s favourite artists – Abigail Lapell.  The tour itinerary includes four English dates (see below) – so if you find yourself in Birmingham, Cambridge, Bristol or London on the nights in question, why not pop along?

Watch the official video to Rain – the album’s opening track – below:

Steph Cameron online: Official Website / Facebook / Instagram / YouTube

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