“All in all,” says Carolyn Dawn Johnson, “I’d like to think
that in my life, Love Rules.”
That sentiment, like the album’s title track itself – a beautifully
rendered arrangement featuring Johnson’s vocals set against nothing more
than a single acoustic guitar – says a great deal in very few words
about the approach Johnson takes to both her personal life and her
diverse musical career. It’s also an example of the elegant simplicity
that typifies the songs the Alberta born, Nashville based recording
artist has chosen for her latest release on DANCING LILY/ROADANGEL/Universal
Records, Love Rules – her first since 2006’s Love & Negotiation.
For someone who once asked her mother how people could live without
music an absence of four years might seem strange. But while Johnson may
have taken some time out of the spotlight to have a family, she
certainly hasn’t been living without music. Before the arrival of her
first child Johnson moved to ensure she had a dedicated home studio to
work in. A space she has spent a great deal of time in ever since;
working not only on Love Rules, but recording, producing and writing
with a variety of other artists.
She’s also been actively expanding the avenues open to her beyond
that; as host of her own syndicated radio show for a year (Sounds
Canadian), as a voiceover talent, as an ambassador for the Children’s
Miracle Network and as the host of events like the BCCMA’s and The SOCAN
Awards (2009).
Produced by Johnson and fellow Nashville songwriter/producer Frank
Rogers, Love Rules represents not only Johnson’s return to the airwaves
and the stage, but a change in her personal perspective that has
sharpened her talents as a singer, songwriter and producer. “Music is
still a huge part of my life, but my life has changed. I now have two
children and it’s not all about me anymore.”
Nor are most of the tracks on Love Rules. “It’s not about my life so
much, it’s more about other people’s lives this time. I’ve always wanted
to be an artist who writes things that are real to me,” Johnson says.
“All the stuff on the record – it might not be me right now – but I’ve
either seen it, or been in it, or watched it somewhere in my life.”
“That title track itself is probably twelve years old,” Johnson adds,
“but I’ve always loved it, always wanted to put it on one of my albums
and always thought it should be the title of a record.” And although it
may sound like a song about her relationship with her husband, it was
written long before they met. “As a songwriter you’re always thinking;
have I got another song in me? So, if for some reason a melody and a few
words pop out on a particular day you just have to follow that
direction.”
While ‘Love Rules’ stand out from the rest of the album because of
its spare arrangement, the raw sentiment behind it is reflected in the
balance of the record – a fearless and forthright recognition that
happiness is all too often balanced by heartbreak; by wishes
unfulfilled, opportunities missed and personal losses deeply felt and
feared.
On songs like ‘The Whole Thing’, Johnson slips into the skin of
someone questioning whether the love she’s found is good enough to last,
or something that needs to be let go. “I have absolutely have been in
that spot,” she says. In ‘Bitterness’, she revisits a time when she felt
like she was done with the music business. “But that’s not me. That’s
not how I think as a person. I wanted to get rid of that bitterness.” On
other cuts she is clearly an observer; on ‘I Just Want My Life Back’,
for example; a song about a friend who finds everything she believes in
torn away from her after finding her husband cheating with her neighbor
and close friend.
But implicit in the title, Love Rules, there’s hope and faith as
well, balancing out the doubt and darkness in some of the subject matter
Johnson was so drawn to while making the record. “Musically and
lyrically, I tend to be more attracted to the bittersweet, but the other
part of me still love’s to be hopeful and positive.” It’s there in the
possibilities for “opening up the door to heaven” and lasting love
Johnson describes in ‘What If’. And in ‘Teach Me’, a prayerful appeal
for the strength and knowledge to learn to love better, and to find the
strength to give thanks for that knowledge even if it comes with a
measure of pain – a track that also showcases Johnson’s production chops
with an arrangement that’s powerfully dynamic musically, and yet still
intensely devotional.
These are all songs Johnson truly loves, delivered with a level of
conviction and authenticity that’s as much a testament to her range as a
singer and songwriter as it is to her deepening perspective on life and
love. Making Love Rules wasn’t a result of feeling any specific pressure
to release a record, she says. “I come around when I have a handful of
songs that I really want to be heard and then I build the rest of the
record around that.”
On Love Rules Johnson’s arrangements and lyrics are as compelling and
truthfully spoken as ever. Regardless of the subject matter, on every
track Johnson manages to communicate the power of love with both a sense
of wonder and a keen sense of self. Nowhere more so on the record’s
first single, ‘Let Me Introduce Myself’. A track that, unlike the rest
of the songs, was initially intended for another artist’s record.
Ironically, the sentiment it expresses offered Johnson a perfect way to
reintroduce herself to listeners after so long away.
“There’s nothing better than someone saying they like something
you’re passionate about,” Johnson says. On the other hand, there’s
always the chance, especially after being out of the public eye for a
time, they won’t. “That’s the insecurity that comes with being a
recording artist.”
There are many phrases that come to mind as a way of describing
Carolyn Dawn Johnson, but insecure certainly isn’t one of them. Over the
course of her career Johnson has shared the stage with Country greats
old and new, from the likes of Reba McEntire,
Kenny Chesney and
Keith Urban, to Kenny Rogers and Merle
Haggard. She’s garnered critical acclaim and commercial success with
powerhouse hits ranging from her first No. 1 as a songwriter (1999’s
‘Single White Female’ by Chely Wright); to tracks from her own records
including ‘Complicated’ and ‘I Don’t Want You To Go’. Along the way
she’s won ACMA, JUNO and American Music Awards, and has been honoured as
a songwriter, recording artist and producer with multiple ASCAP, SOCAN
and Canadian Country Music Awards (an astounding 16).
Still, for all the awards, and for all the breadth of her experience,
it wasn’t the easiest thing in the world to put herself out there again
with the release of her own record. “I didn’t know what was going to
happen. I was nervous about getting back out there, and you do ask
yourself, is anybody even going to care?”
The answer is a resounding yes. When ‘Let Me Introduce Myself’ hit
Canadian airwaves it became number 1 most added track at Canadian
Country Radio two weeks running following its June 2010 release. “It
felt like they’d welcomed me back with open arms,” Johnson says. And
although the record may stray into areas that reflect some of her
personal uncertainties, Love Rules, like Johnson herself, ultimately
tends towards the positive. Leaving the lasting impression that no
matter what insecurities haunt you, or what past choices may have left
you with lingering doubts, for every corner you turn to find heartache
waiting there’s another just down the road around which you’ll find
happiness.
