Angela conquers adversity
Gifted singer-songwriter who lost her sight presents inspiring songs of hope

by Graham Rockingham

One of the lessons Angela McKay has learned from life is to stop asking so many questions. Especially those "why?" questions.

Questions like "why did I go blind? Why did things happen that way? Why? Why? Why? " Questions like that can really drive you nuts. Best to just put them aside. Get on with things. Have some faith.

They're the kind of questions McKay confronted in 1992, when, at the age of 22, she lost her sight to diabetes. She was near completion of a business program at Mohawk College at the time.

McKay took a couple of years off, restructured her life, stopped asking "why." She returned to Mohawk, completed her course, then turned her attention to her first love, music. She brushed up on her guitar, took
some voice lessons, taught herself how to write songs. She played service clubs, churches, hospitals, folk clubs and coffee houses, often on behalf of the CNIB and the Canadian Diabetes Association.

Along the way she picked up a guide dog, a blond Labrador named Fenway, and a life partner named Brian Wice, and electrician and fellow music lover. Wice is also legally blind, although he can make out your face if you're not standing too close or off to the side.

Together they designed and built a recording studio on Cumberland Avenue near Gage Park. It used to house a plumbing shop and a law office. She named it Angel Cave, a place where all the angels in her life can hole up, pour a coffee and take a breather.

By 1998, a year after opening Angel Cave, she was on her feet, able to kiss her disability pension good-bye. She had learned her life lessons well.

So it's only appropriate that the title song on McKay's debut CD is called Lessons. It's about faith, guiding lights, overcoming life's setbacks.

"Someday I will be smiling at the lessons I have learned", she sings.

These themes of hope and inspiration could easily be written off as trite in the hands of another artist. But with McKay, they ring true. Her songs possess a gut-wrenching honesty and musical turn of phrase that lifts them above typical country/rock fare. On songs like Lessons, Words, Paradise and Sweet Angel, McKay has a voice that can't lie.

The production, guided by Hamilton's Rob Lamothe, is outstanding. With Lamothe's help, McKay assembled an outstanding group of local musicians to back her - Jacob Moon on guitar, Danny Lockwood on drums and Mark McIntyre on bass. Sonny Del Rio was called in to play sax on the fun rocker Elvis Don't Live Here Anymore. Melissa McClelland, Airjana Bacalo and Lamothe sang back up vocals. Stephen Fuller's violin soars over the lyrics of Justify, a gutsy song that strips the politics out of the abortion debate. Wice and his sons David and Brent add guitars, keyboards and harmonica.

The bed tracks were laid down during a few days at Angel Cave, with frills added at Lamothe's home studio. Jess O'Brien put down some grand piano tracks at Grant Avenue Studio.

McKay, sitting in her studio with Fenway at her feet, is philosophical about her future. She's just trying to focus on the concert she'll be playing with her band this Saturday.

"If something happens from here, that would be amazing, " she says. "But just to do this show and have all of my friends and family, and to share the stage with these fine musicians that would be enough."

Hamilton Spectator Thursday, March 11, 2004

ANGELA MCKAY
by Ric Taylor (View Magazine March 11, 2003)

For the last three years, Angela McKay has been putting on a monthly intimate showcase for artists at her Angel Cave, ’60s–style coffee houses, but this weekend she takes to the stage at a much larger venue for her debut CD release, Lessons, armed with a throng of helpful hands.

“Our venue for singer/songwriters has proved to be very popular,” muses McKay on the wealth of friends she’s acquired over the years. While she started singing at five and playing guitar
by 14, McKay left music behind with her teens for a life in business—but life had something else planned.

“The loss of my vision due to complications with diabetic retinopathy, brought me back to my music as a viable career,” she says. “After taking a few guitar and voice lessons from David Buckley of the West Lincoln Music Conservatory, I obtained a book titled Anyone Can Write A Song, and that’s when my writing started to take meaning.”

Not only did she begin to record her songs, McKay created her own studios. She’s fine–tuned her country, blues, and rock mix, and now takes great pride in having Rob Lamothe producing her debut full–length. “Rob was able to bring out the best in my music and his choice of backup musicians, including himself, brought my tunes to a different level,” smiles McKay. “As a team we were able to capture the essence of all my songs, [but] Rob helped to bring the entire project to fruition and I am ecstatic with the final product."

“All of the performers at the concert performed on the CD, with the exception of Alvin Rankin and Caroline Wiles, who are regular performers at our coffee houses,” she adds. “The entire event is being produced by Brian Wice and myself with much help from our friends. We expect a sold–out venue.”

Angela McKay celebrates the release of Lessons this Saturday, March 13, at the Hamilton Place, Studio Theatre with Melissa McClelland, Jacob Moon, Rob Lamothe, Sonny Del Rio, Mark McIntyre, Jordan Abraham, Arijana Bacalo, Danny Lockwood, Coby Wice, Brian Wice, David
Wice, Alvin Rankin, George Kohut, and Caroline Wiles. Doors open at 7pm and the performance begins at 8pm. Tickets are $10.00, plus applicable charges, at Copps Coliseum Box Office and Ticketmaster.

Read the CD Release Press Release here