STORY BY MICHAEL SEGUIN
Heirloom
PHOTOGRAPHY BY HEIKE DELMORE
Crissi Cochrane Releases a New Album IN MANY WAYS, Crissi Cochrane’s musical journey has been a circular one. It began in the Annapolis Valley, in a small town an hour outside of Halifax called New Minas. “My relationship with music goes back as far as I can remember,” Crissi states. “I always wanted to be a musician. Growing up in a small town, maybe I just thought there wasn’t much to do. Or, it could be that the relative isolation made me a bit delusional about how much work would be involved. Because I didn’t see anyone doing it. I never knew it couldn’t be done. Back then, I was just young and naïve and I loved music.” Crissi first started playing guitar at age nine. In high school, she started performing her first gigs. “There was a good music scene there, although it was much more hardcore and punk,” Crissi recalls. “So, I was kind of making more emo music back then, but I was still just a girl on stage with a guitar. The only shows I could play were with punk bands, because they were the only ones performing. So, I’d be the opener before things kicked off. Or, I’d go up at the end of the night before the kids went home to calm everyone down.”
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However, despite the area’s musical climate, Crissi found herself drawn to the underground folk-pop community. “There’s a really great folk community out there,” Crissi explains. “Everyone’s a singer-songwriter. All the open mic nights are crammed. I don’t know if that’s just what was in demand or if that was just what my heart was drawn to. But during the time I was there I was doing my folk-pop kind of style. It wasn’t until I came to Windsor that I started getting into jazz and soul.” Crissi’s journey eventually drew her southwest, to Windsor. Crissi first acquainted herself with the City of Roses over 10 years ago, after a local pub achieved some renown. “I came here for the first time in 2010, kind of on a whim,” Crissi explains. “The Phog Lounge had just been named the best live music venue in Canada by CBC Radio. So I came to Windsor to play at Phog and do some co-writing with my husband, who, at the time, was just an acquaintance. I didn’t know anything about Windsor. I didn’t even know it bordered Detroit, really. I kind of had my mind blown.” After a brief stint in Windsor, Crissi decided to relocate. While
