Rae Billing - Alt-Country Songstress

After 7 long years...
BLUE BLACK NIGHT released May of 2008

Rae's voice and lyrics create a touchstone that is unique on the Canadian landscape. Her voice has been described as "shiver-inducing," "honest and pure, assured and desperate at the same time." And her lyrics and music have been lauded - "full of wide open spaces and bittersweet emotions," and called "late night, pan-Americana rootsy ballads... handled with gutsy femininity."

Rae was the previous lead singer and songwriter of the Toronto alt-country band, Crybaby. Lasting just three years, Crybaby won serious critical acclaim with the 1996 debut, Paintings. Toronto's Eye Magazine placed it alongside offerings from Lyle Lovett and Blackie & The Rodeo Kings as one of the Top Three Country Albums of 1996, with scribe Greg Boyd praising "the weary sensuality" of Rae's vocals.

The band also elicited kudos south of the border, specifically at Austin's famed South By Southwest Music Festival in 1997. Among the many positive reviews, visiting Nashville Scene writer, Michael McCall, characterized their music as "tangy country soul" and called Crybaby one of the "notable moments" at the festival.

After disbanding the group in late '97, Rae retreated from the local club circuit to re-enter the studio of noted Toronto producer Peter J. Moore, whom she'd worked with on Paintings. This sonic sculptor has a well-deserved reputation for getting the best out of strong female voices, such as Cowboy Junkies' Margo Timmins, Holly Cole and Oh Susanna.

Rae's first solo album was highly praised. On his cool Top Ten list of 'Anti-Hits', The Toronto Sun/ CANOE's John Sakamoto placed "Walking In A Dream", the closing cut from the album, as number 3, describing it as "a heartbreaking rumination on a mind 'slipping sideways.'" On a list populated only by Brits and Americans, Sakamoto praised Rae's album as "an astonishingly assured solo debut."

Now, after seven long years and including a tour of England and buying a home and moving to Hamilton, Ontario, Rae has finally brought herself back into Peter Moore's studio. With Blue Black Night, Rae re-established her connection with old friends, Cleave Anderson (Blue Rodeo, The Battered Wives, The Screwed) on drums, Steve Koch (Demics, Handsome Ned, Ron Sexsmith) on guitar and Derrick Brady (Dodge Fiasco, Hawksley Workman) on bass. On B3 and piano is Matt Horner (Mary Margaret O'Hara) and providing backups are Greg Clarke (Corndogs, The Madvarks) and 'Lucky' Pete Lambert (Kensington Hillbillies, The Trojans) from Crybaby. With guest appearances by Garth Hudson playing Rhodes on "The Dream" and Maud Hudson singing backup on "Personal Jesus."

Together they offer up a stellar album, in which the 'alt' nature of her music is especially apparent on songs such as "No Closer," which follows in the footsteps of Gram Parson's "Sin City" to create a riveting commentary on the times, and "Shatter," which peals back the skin to reveal a small agony.

"There is a depth to her songs few contemporaries have yet to hone." Jason MacNeil, All Music Guide.