Returning to touring and performing with the release Everyday Life, Graves has built on her reputation as a fine contemporary Canadian songwriter from years of successful touring. From 2006 to 2008 Graves was artistic director at Blue Skies Music Festival, worked in health care, & started a family. She stayed away from performing and recording until life during the pandemic brought songwriting to the forefront once more. Songs flooded. Graves took to the studio once more.
“During the pandemic, working in a mental health hospital catapulted me into intensely writing again. Believing that my gift of making music is an important healing tool, believing more in myself as a music creator are lessons learned from the time I had on my hands in Covid times”.
Everyday Life is Graves’ 5th full length studio album. With her remarkable voice and a poet heart, Graves is a performer who knows everyday life in a caregiving setting so that her songs represent the familiar. She draws the audience into her songs to discover together we are all the same. The themes move from bedside death journey (To the Other Side) to calls for protest against increasing disparity of wealth (Sparrow Parable) and to reconcile with justice and action how far we have pushed the marginalized (Little Mercy). Sharp focus on living life with a daily grind and the fallout of this choice is heard in Bend the Rules. Graves shot video and released this first single in Nov 2022.
Her career has included shared stages with Lesley Feist, Buffy Sainte Marie and Fairport Convention. She has played festival, house concerts and theatre music series across Canada. Her five years as alto in Malaika brought her to the US and the recording studio twice. Graves now makes her home in Ottawa ON.