First Listen: Dala’s Everyone Is Someone

The third act of a Hollywood romantic comedy invariably begins with a sad-music-montage. The couple who have overcome so many obstacles to get together are faced with an entirely new challenge that threatens to tear them apart (most likely the revelation of a secret one of them has been harboring since the first act).

Dala's Amanda Walther and Sheila Carabine - Photo by Scott Lennon

Now it looks as though the relationship will fail completely, so the audience is treated to shots of the couple apart from one another, riding buses, looking out rainy windows, crying on couches – all accompanied by an acoustic guitar or piano and a sweet but slightly sad voice singing of the sort of heartbreak we are witnessing on screen.Television shows like Dawson’s Creek and Buffy the Vampire Slayer used the sad-music-montage, within the forty-minute-drama format, to perfection.

All of which is to say, the sort of music played during the sad music montage is exactly the type of music Canadian sing-songwriter duo Dala perform on their newly released fourth album, Everyone is Someone.

These ten songs sound as though they were specifically crafted for soundtrack consideration, and while Dala’s Amanda Walther (the “Da” in “Dala”) and Sheila Carabine (the “La”) must be pleased to have already had their music featured on Canadian shows such as Flash Point and Falcon Beach, with their lush harmonies and haunting melodies one can only imagine an appearance (during a sad-music-montage, of course) on Grey’s Anatomy can’t be too far off down the road!

Photo by Scott Lennon

Dala have toured heavily with Canadian mainstays like Jann Arden, Tom Cochrane and Mathew Good, and played the Canadian festival circuit, including Mariposa, Edmonton Folk Festival, Summerfolk, and Hillside. They have also recently landed a prized spot at the famous Newport Folk Festival (the very place where Bob Dylan first “went electric” over forty years ago).

The duo's current tour isn’t scheduled to hit Ottawa, but it does include some upcoming Ontario dates (Toronto on June 16, 25, and 26, Sudbury on July 3, and Almyer on July 18).

Judging from the quality of tracks on Everyone is Someone, Walther and Carabine shouldn’t have any trouble filling clubs (or grabbing the attention of those Hollywood soundtrack coordinators!

For additional tour dates and to learn more about Dala, visit their website.

Dala performed "Levi Blues" on CTV earlier this week:

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