Michelle Rumball makes songs. She chases songs by other writers. And she sings them all with joy and conviction and a smile in her voice. Now, after a ground-breaking album with the legendary Grievous Angels, two previous solo records, and a sojourn in New Orleans, she’s back with a new collection of songs.
Time to make a list
Burn it up and move along
Time to sing a whole new kind of song
Time to see a sky of blue not grey or rain
They’re the opening lines of just one of the 11 songs on Years Behind, Michelle’s new record, and a new turning point in her life. Five of the songs on the record she made herself; others are love-letters to your heart from John Hiatt, Bob Dylan, Sting and Toronto songwriters Kevin Quain and Chris Staig.
And she sings all of them with heart and style.
Michelle is from Toronto’s maligned suburb of Scarborough — and proud of it — and she’s been a musician for as long as she can remember. Her powerful voice first emerged as the voice of the legendary Canadian acoustic rock band Grievous Angels. After two records and five years, a Juno nomination and countless gigs in coffee houses, clubs, concert and legion halls, bars and festivals across the country, she left to find her own voice and sing her own songs.