Singer is doin’ it for herself
Nova Scotia singer and songwriter Jackie Putnam is having a busy summer.
Not only is she spending much of it performing at various shows and festivals across the province but much of the season is also taken up as a featured entertainer on the MV Atlantic Vision cruise ship, which traverses from North Sydney to Newfoundland.
“I’m singing basically every day — I have about five days to myself this month,” says Putnam from the deck of the MV Atlantic Vision. “When I step off here, I’m go to the P.E.I. Ferry and just before I came on here I was on the Fundy Rose for three days and then I did Canada Day.”
As if the Debert-based singer wasn’t busy enough, she also started the summer off releasing her debut album, The Phoenix — a work of art that was largely a lifetime in the works.
“It’s about me, it’s about real life, true experiences that I have gone through,” she says, noting that many of the songs on the album were written during a transformative time in her life.
“The Phoenix is about me being held back, sinking into that bottomless pit, climbing out of it and rising above and becoming a stronger person,” adds Putnam. “That is what that song is about — that’s what the whole album is about.”
One of the best examples of how personal and heartfelt Putnam’s songwriting is can be heard on one of the album’s two lead-off singles, Hurt.
“Hurt is about all the pain that I had inside me,” says Putnam about the inspiring song, which she began crafting while she was sitting around a campfire during a trip with her family. “That’s about when you are going through hurt and anxiety — just to remind yourself to take that second breath.”
However, it has been the album’s other lead-off single, A Church with No People that has earned Putnam the most attention. Earlier this year, that particular tune won Putnam the North American Country Music Association’s Songwriter of the Year and Entertainer of the Year awards at an event in Tennessee.
“I wrote that during the pandemic,” adds Putnam. “When you couldn’t have church services, no funerals, no weddings.”
With those songs and the rest of the album now out, Putnam is excited to play her music for Cumberland County fans at an official album launch show on Thursday, July 20 at Pugwash’s Lobster Factory in The Thinkers’ Lodge — a regular stop for the plucky entertainer.
“I’m really excited. I know that there’s people in Pugwash who already want to buy my album,” says Putnam. “(And) it is such a beautiful venue — they always have weddings that happen there every weekend and that’s why my show is on a Thursday.”
For more information on The Phoenix, visit: www.jackieputnam.com