Lynn Miles

Lynn Miles is an acclaimed Canadian roots rock singer/songwriter known for her warm, plaintive singing and often melancholy muse. The Ottawa native entered Carleton University with the intention of studying music, but soon dropped out to write songs and perform at the bars and coffeehouses of Canada's capital city. Following a self-titled nine-song demo, she self-released her debut LP, Chalk This One Up to the Moon, in 1991. The following year, one of her songs, the poignant "Remembrance Day," was used in a widely televised video created by the Canadian Armed Forces, raising her national profile considerably. By 1996, Miles had signed with the revered folk label Philo Records to record her follow-up, Slightly Haunted, which landed atop many critics' year-end lists. A move to Los Angeles yielded 1998's more polished Night in a Strange Town, which was co-produced by Larry Klein (Joni Mitchell, Shawn Colvin). Reuniting with fellow Ottawan and longtime collaborator Ian LeFeuvre, Miles recorded the more stripped-down and subdued Unravel, which arrived in 2001 and netted her a Juno Award for Best Roots & Traditional Album of the Year. Arriving in 2006, Love Sweet Love received another Juno nomination and marked her label debut for True North Records, which would also handle 2010's Fall for Beauty. In between those releases, Miles began the Black Flowers series, in which she recorded spare acoustic version of earlier songs. Initially self-released, Black Flowers, Vols. 1-2 were picked up by True North and reissued as a two-disc set in 2009. A live album, Live at the Chapel, also appeared that year. In addition to further volumes of the Black Flowers series, Miles released Downpour, her seventh studio album, in 2013. That same year, her song "Three Chords and the Truth" was used in the popular BBC TV program Case Studies. Miles has toured extensively throughout North America and Europe and earned several Canadian Folk Music Awards. In 2015 she returned with Winter, her first holiday-themed album. A year later, she teamed up with longtime touring guitarist Keith Glass for Road, a live collection featuring songs recorded both on-stage and live in the studio. ~ Timothy Monger