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Local musician Patti Maloney releases new CD

Whistler musicians, recording studio included in project "Careful what you ask for, careful what you ask for, careful what you ask for, you might get it.
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Patti Maloney & Choro

Whistler musicians, recording studio included in project

"Careful what you ask for, careful what you ask for, careful what you ask for, you might get it." — Unrequited Love, Whistler Suites

Patti Maloney found local beauty the driving force for her new CD, Whistler’s Suites .

The San Francisco native discovered the beauty of B.C. years ago while travelling with the band Function when she was in her 20s. She moved here full time thereafter.

"Here in the forests I never feel lonely – it’s a strange feeling of belonging," says Maloney, who has been playing music since age six.

The mainly classical and world music album, written and co-produced with long-term music colleague Ray Roper has a definite Whistler feel, including fiddler Kyla on The Loon (recorded at Rob DeMarco’s studio), and a cover shot of Whistler-Blackcomb from photographer Greg Griffith.

Mark LaFrance (Cease & Desist), will promote the album through his Vancouver-based company, Delinquent Records.

"She did a terrific job of arranging," says LaFrance.

Symphony-calibre musicians, including Sarah Cardwell of the Kamloops Symphony, are included on the album.

LaFrance will assist with the promotion of the album and plans to take it to the MIDEM music conference in France next year. He feels the CD could be worked into film soundtrack material.

"It’s a great record," adds LaFrance.

Maloney also hopes to have Tourism B.C. incorporate the CD as part of a promotion.

She says the title track, Blackcomb to Whistler, as well as Singing Pass and Emerald Forest, were inspired by walks through the local landscape.

Peter Pan is a song about Whistler, "a place that is full of little boys who don’t grow up. They arrive here after high school for a season, become waiters and end up staying, where the money and the lifestyle are good," she laughs.

Meanwhile the more sombre Funeral for a Bear is about the death of a young cub.

Abandoned by his mother and sibling several years ago near the Nicklaus North Golf Course, the bear had to be killed. The song is really a death march for the young cub.

"The mother had been raising them somewhere between the third and fifth holes, but then she disappeared," Maloney says.

"He was caught in a trap at one point, but then some visitors let it out thinking they were doing the right thing."

Unrequited Love looks at a theme that ties humanity together.

"I don’t think there’s a person who hasn’t been through that, it’s a common emotion. I said to Ray ‘think Pink Floyd’ for the song, and he did which was great."

While Maloney says there was someone specific in mind when she wrote the song, she won’t say whom.

But she will say life as a full time musician is rewarding, and adds she is excited about this very different direction in her musical path.

A former folk musician, she also played blues, rock and any other style required for gigs through her 20s in California.

Whistler Suites

is available at Bestsellers.