Linda McRae

Linda McRae is a Canadian folk-roots-Americana musician and singer-songwriter. She is a multi-instrumentalist who plays clawhammer banjo, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, accordion, bass and porchboard stomp box. She is also a former member of Spirit of the West, with whom she earns two platinum and three gold records.

Solo career

After leaving Spirit of the West, McRae resumes her solo work and releases a series of albums that includes Flying Jenny, Cryin’ Out Loud, Carve It to the Heart, Rough Edges and Ragged Hearts and a career retrospective, 50 Shades of Red. Flying Jenny is produced by Colin Linden, Cryin’ Out Loud is produced by Gurf Morlix, and Carve It to the Heart is produced by McRae and Marc L’Esperance.

Rough Edges & Ragged Hearts receives a nomination for Contemporary Album of the Year at the Canadian Folk Music Awards and spends 48 straight weeks on the Roots Music Report charts. It also reaches number one at CKUA, number four on the Top Canadian Album chart, number one and two on the Top Canadian Songs list for Rough Edges & Ragged Hearts and Be Your Own Light, and number eight on the Folk DJs’ Top Canadian Artists list. The recording also earns five-star reviews from No Depression and Rock Star Weekly, and four-and-a-half stars from Penguin Eggs. McRae signs to Borealis Records around this period.

Collaborations and performances

McRae records and performs with Bruce Cockburn, Neko Case, Alejandro Escovedo, Gurf Morlix and Ray Wylie Hubbard. Featured performers on Carve It to the Heart include The Sojourners, Doug Cox, Gurf Morlix, Ray Bonneville and Samantha Parton of The Be Good Tanyas. Her song “Burning Bridges” appears on a Skydiggers release. She also records cover versions of songs by Canadian artists including Gordon Lightfoot, Ron Sexsmith, Neil Young and McRae herself.

Her live appearances include Plainsong Festival in Nebraska, Yukon Arts Centre, Vancouver Island Music Festival in British Columbia, South Country Fair in Alberta, the Barbican Theatre in the UK, Maverick Festival in the UK, The Bluebird Café in Tennessee and New Folsom Prison in California. At New Folsom Prison she performs in concert and leads writing workshops for inmates.

Community work

Those prison workshops lead to her Express Yourself writing workshops, which she presents with North American Music Festivals as part of community outreach programmes for detox centres, alternative schools, and youth and adult correctional facilities across North America.