Rosebud graduate celebrates release of first album

Times Contributor

 

Natalie Inga Gauthier, 2013 graduate of Rosebud School of the Arts (RSA), celebrates the release of her album Look Up, at events in Rosebud and Calgary. The first release party is Sunday, March 2, at 7 p.m., at the Ironwood Stage and Grill in Calgary. Gauthier’s band, Inga and the Birds, will open for The Carlines. Gauthier will play a full set at the second event at Rosebud’s Thorny Rose Cafe, Sunday, March 9 at 8 p.m.

The dream for Look Up began when Gauthier won a RSA scholarship, allowing her to record three songs at Paul Zacharias’ recording studio in Rosebud. Gauthier and Zacharias discovered they worked well together, planting the idea to produce a full album for Gauthier.

They began recording Look Up in May 2013, optimistic they’d also finish in May. They didn’t finish recording til November, and even after that, things didn’t go as expected. The albums were printed in Toronto, shipped to Strathmore rather than to Rosebud, and got stuck there in a blizzard. Finally, they arrived in Rosebud.

Gauthier now views the long delay as a blessing in disguise, because “it didn’t just capture one moment. The work extended over so many months that I had a lot of personal journey when I was able to learn and grow,” she says. “What’s even cooler,” she says, is that many of the songs carry that theme. 

“It’s really about growth and about the journey and about starting somewhere difficult … and ending up having a richer experience because of that difficulty,” she said.

Gauthier calls her music “uplifting folk music, featuring sweet harmonies, various instruments and a playful narration of a search for hope in all things.” 

She wants it to be “like a friend,” in the sense that music expresses how we feel when we can’t put our feelings into words, and is encouraging, while acknowledging how difficult life can be. 

“I want to give music as a gift, the way music has been a gift for me,” she said.

The fourth track, Letting Go, is a gift especially for her women friends. 

“Letting go, though we don’t know when the light will come. Letting go, though it’s slow, yes, the light will come,” the lyrics say. “Book the ticket, take the flight, close your eyes and make a leap.” 

Gauthier wrote it, she says, because “a woman’s heart just wants to love people, to love someone regardless of whether or not that person loves them back.” 

While celebrating Look Up’s release, Gauthier is acting with Calgary’s Evergreen Theatre and, in March, will participate in a festival of new works with Urban Curves Theatre. This spring, she’ll perform dinner music during Rosebud’s Diary of Anne Frank and act in I, Claudia.

For upcoming events, see “Natalie Inga” on Facebook. Hear Look Up at www.bandcamp.com and iTunes. You can purchase the album for $15 at natalieingagauthier.wordpress.com or the release parties. Tickets for the Ironwood event are available for $10 at www.brownpapertickets.com. Contact Lynn at 403-677-2507 or at the cafe’s Facebook page for $15 tickets to the Thorny Rose Cafe party.