Andrea Nixon,
In the movie “The Shawshank Redemption,” Ellis Boy “Red” Redding (played by Morgan Freeman) says something that still resonates with acclaimed Edmonton singer Andrea Nixon:
“I have to remind myself that some birds aren’t meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright. And when they fly away, the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up does rejoice. But, still, the place you live in is that much more drab and empty that they are gone. I guess I just miss my friend.”
“I would write out these monologues from the movie,” says Nixon via phone from Edmonton. “I remember as a kid thinking that whoever wrote this script is a real writer. You recognize that in film in television. That’s one movie where I just thought what a story!”
Maybe that’s why Nixon is a floor sitter. Sometimes she will sit on the floor to write a song or perch at the dining room table “pen to paper.”
Hence 2017 debut album “Diary of a Housewife.”
“Housewife” songs are gritty slice-of-life vignettes, be it venting about an ex-lover on kick-ass roots/rock revelation “You Didn’t Make Me,” the emotional landmine of uptempo ballad “Homefront,” the heart wrenching sorrow of “Waiting for Sirens” or the pop-edged guitar/ banjo-laced ear candy of “Inner-glow.”
“I am always thinking how do you transition from one piece to another because to me the album is like going through a house. Every room has its personality,” notes Nixon. “How do I walk people from room to room?”
Nixon exudes the pure country Loretta Lynn, Emmy Lou Harris, Reba McEntire, Dolly Parton, and Patsy Cline mixed with the alt-roots ballads of Corb Lund, punctuated with the ’90s rock/ pop edge of Alanis Morissette.
Nixon says Morissette was “absolutely foundational” to her work because her was father was terminally ill with emphysema.
“I had a really beautiful strange childhood,” says Nixon who began writing poetry at the age of eight. She did everything she could to “hold down the fort” from household chores to looking after her brother Gabe.
“Dad knew he was going to pass away and we were very kindred spirits,” says Nixon. “We had deep conversations all the time. I understood and experienced things as a child that I think were hard to relate to my peers about. I did not relate to them at all really. To be honest I had a very hard time making friends.
“So I went to words to try to figure it out. Poetry and lyrics have spoken to me as long as I can remember so I just thought I am going to start writing in a diary, writing short stories, and trying every form of writing I can ever find. That’s how it started. It was a way for me to understand my experience,” says Nixon.
“Jann Arden was another a big influence on me as a kid,” she notes. “I was 12. My dad had just passed away,” recalls Nixon softly. “I was grappling with that and I was not very good at communicating. I was really upset. As a child I had this crazy idea that when Dad died because we were so close that I would go. When you go to sleep you think God is going to take me too if he has any kindness in his heart. I remember being so mad about it and not knowing how to talk about it. Then I heard Jann Arden’s “Unloved.”
“I thought somebody else across the world knows my heart in such a way. I want to do that for somebody at some point, and be good enough at this thing to make somebody feel that.”
Her song “Waiting for Sirens” is a profound ballad that has two meanings for Nixon.
Her father often had to go to the hospital at night, so Nixon would sit up late and wait for sirens.
Nixon has also taught students raised in family violence.
“I had an epiphany,” she notes. “I felt their stories were more important than mine in that moment. I thought if I ever get a voice that gets heard I want to be able to speak to that cause. So I do a lot of work with domestic violence.”
As an extension of “Waiting For Sirens,” Nixon launched an awareness campaign, in partnership with Alberta Music and (Country Artist Development Showcase) Project Wild, on behalf of families affected by violence. She has been visiting and performing in shelters all over Alberta, gathering the “siren” stories of front line workers and survivors as part of a video series to raise money to buy gifts for children in these shelters.
She says playing shelters is a “privileged place to be” as these women tell her their stories helping her to “give a voice to the voiceless.”
Nixon has three children of her own: Austin, Abigail and Ava, who often appear in her writing and life observations as she continues to chase her music dream across the country.
She’s looking forward to playing Kitchener with local singersongwriter Lynn Jackson.
“Somehow I am being pulled in your direction,” says Nixon, adding she’s also playing Toronto’s Dakota Tavern, and likely the Maritimes in June for Canadian Organization of Activities because her album is charting heavily on college radio.
“All of these songs are about identity, coming to terms and finding joy in life. So I can see you having an identity crisis when you become a mother. You have an identity crisis when you become an adult. So I think that’s why the songs are working. Their themes are universal. That was intentional because I wanted to hook into people’s hearts.”