For Ottawa singer Sherri Harding and songwriter Dick Cooper, the realities of ongoing wars, climate disasters, and societal instability have become unavoidable when they visit the studio.
“It’s hard not to get disheartened by what’s happening in the world,” Harding told the Lookout.
But there is still hope to find in such an uncertain world, the pair suggest on Harding’s new album, Storyland, which released on June 5. Songs about relationships fractured by political divisions are interspersed with more optimistic tunes about perseverance and the small moments of connection that help people navigate difficult times.
Over the last 35 years, Harding, a Carlington-area resident, has performed everywhere from bars and festivals across Canada to overseas shows for Canadian Armed Forces personnel in Bosnia, Dubai, Italy and the Middle East. She balanced these performances with her career in the federal public service, often keeping a guitar near her desk in preparation for evening gigs.
Harding typically performed other people’s music until 2016 when she joined The Cooper Brothers, founded by brothers Dick and Brian Cooper. The band became one of Canada’s most successful rock acts of the late 1970s and early 1980s, producing such hits as The Dream Never Dies and Rock and Roll Cowboys. Their music was aired internationally and earned them a loyal fanbase that has endured for decades.
At first, Harding was simply another member of the group, but Cooper eventually realized she “deserved a shot because that voice of hers is something else.”
During the pandemic, Cooper began writing songs specifically for Harding, keeping in mind her voice, personality and experiences. Those songs made it into Harding’s 2023 debut album A Million Pieces, recorded in the legendary music town of Muscle Shoals, Alabama.
The recording project connected her to one of the most storied places in popular music. Generations of artists — from Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett to The Rolling Stones and Etta James — travelled to Muscle Shoals in search of the region’s distinctive soul sound.
Sherri Harding performing "A million pieces" in March 2023. Photo by Charlie Senack.
The experience was transformative for Harding. If A Million Pieces was about proving she belonged as a recording artist, Storyland feels like the work of someone growing increasingly comfortable in that role, she said, especially as Cooper becomes more familiar with her voice.
“He’s getting to know my range and my style and my strengths,” Harding said. “The songs on this record were written specifically for me.”
Cooper says he wrote around 25 songs that he then narrowed down to 11 tracks for the album. Ideas came from all over: news stories he watched on TV or headlines he read online, conversations about Harding’s previous relationships, and observations about everyday life made in notebooks.
The album opens with “All Around the World”, a reflection on a planet grappling with instability and division. Later comes “Bad Weather”, inspired by climate change. “Down in the Shoals” pays tribute to the Alabama recording community that helped launch Harding’s recording career.
No matter how serious a topic they tackled, neither Harding nor Cooper wanted the album to feel pessimistic. Following the success of A Million Pieces, Harding and Cooper hoped to return to Muscle Shoals to record a follow-up, but they reconsidered when political tensions grew between Canada and the United States.
Storyland, which was recorded primarily at Ottawa’s Audio Valley Studio, features many of the city’s most respected musicians: Brian Cooper, Jamie Holmes, Jeff Rogers, Clayton O’Connell, and Rob Fraboni, among others.
Guitarist Kelvin Holly travelled north from Alabama to participate in the sessions after performing on Harding’s previous record. The renowned Muscle Shoals Horns recorded their contributions separately before the album was mixed in Alabama.
“It was a great combination of both sides of the border,” Cooper said. “We had all the best people up here and then all the best people down there.”
For Harding, recording closer to home also allowed her to get used to studio recording after decades of performing in front of audiences.
“The stage, I’m very comfortable on the stage,” she said. “I’ve been doing it for a really long time. But the studio is more Dick’s happy place. I have more confidence in the studio. More of a voice in the studio. Speaking up and saying, ‘How about we try this?’”
Early reviews have praised Harding’s vocals and the album’s blend of classic soul influences and contemporary themes. Americana Highways described her as a “female power vocalist” and highlighted the contributions of the Muscle Shoals Horns. Reviews from Europe and the United Kingdom praised her commanding voice and the record’s rich arrangements.
The cover for Story land. Provided photo.
A changing music scene
Storyland is releasing during one of the most challenging periods musicians have faced in decades. With rising costs in the entertainment industry and the impact of streaming on musicians’ business models and audiences’ listening habits, Cooper says live music venues have been gradually disappearing.
“When we were young, you could work 52 weeks of the year… Every club in the city would be full on a Friday or Saturday night,” Cooper said.
He added that today’s “better players in this town” need to play in “four or five bands” just to stay afloat. Venues, too, are struggling to stay open.
Zaphod Beeblebrox and Mavericks have disappeared from the city’s music landscape, while venues like The Rainbow have only avoided closure after a group of local investors stepped in to purchase the historic ByWard Market performance venue, preserving its place in Ottawa’s music scene.
“All those guys, God bless them, they put up the money and kept The Rainbow from closing,” Cooper said. “That’s an indication of how tough times are.”
The challenges are not unique to Ottawa.
According to the UK’s Music Venue Trust, 125 grassroots music venues closed in 2023 alone. More than half of those that remained operated at a loss, underscoring the growing pressures facing independent music spaces around the world.
Cooper is equally concerned about the role artificial intelligence will play in reshaping the music industry.
“There are people using AI to write lyrics, and then the AI writes the music,” Cooper said. “This is an artistic statement when you write a song. It’s got to come from the heart.”
That human-centric philosophy is woven throughout Storyland. The album relies on live musicians, real horn sections and songs built from lived experiences rather than algorithms.
On June 16, Harding will bring Storyland to the National Arts Centre alongside a 14-piece band, a horn section, backup singers including Rebecca Noelle, Dee Dee Butters and Mackenzie DeMelo, and many of the musicians who helped create the album. Opening the evening will be Ottawa musician Sean Tavernier.
“This will be the only time that she’ll do this,” Cooper said. “You can do this once.”
