Celeigh Cardinal has a new single – a new version of an old song
Photo by Sheena Zilinski.Juno-winning singer-songwriter Celeigh Cardinal has another new single out. But the song itself is not new.
Instead, Celeigh took a favourite from her debut album, Everything and Nothing at All, and re-recorded it with new instrumentation and, I’d say, a bigger helping of soul.
If you’re a fan of numbers like “The Devil is a Blue-Eyed Man” from her sophomore project, Stories from a Downtown Apartment, you’ll love “There Ain’t No Way (Better Days Version).”
“I poured my heart into this song when I wrote it, and to this day, I feel the magical power of love healing me when I sing it,” Celeigh said in a news release announcing the release. “I’ve changed. The song’s changed, but the feeling is the same – it is an anthem to remind me that I am worthy of love. The title now has the additional Better Days Version. Back in 2017, I didn’t have access to the funds to record and orchestrate this song in the way that I wanted to. Now, in 2021, I finally can, because so much has changed, and it is definitely ‘better days.'”
The song is accompanied by a new video from fellow musician Cayley Thomas.
The music video is all about self-love and uses the colours of the Cree medicine wheel to create four different scenes: red, blue, yellow and white.
“Each colour represents a different part of ourselves,” Celeigh explained, “and the medicine wheel teaching is one that I have been applying to my life during the past 16 months to help me bring balance to my life. I wanted to reflect on how we can be all things, from spiritual to sensual, playful and everything in between.”
The video shoot crew was 50 per cent Indigenous and 60 per cent female. Celeigh added.
“It was one of the rare moments of working with a group of people who not only uplifted my voice and vision but truly made me feel seen,” she said.
Creative director and producer Cayley Thomas had this to say about the video:
“I love making music videos and jumped at the opportunity to create one with Celeigh. She is an artist of true integrity and brought together a remarkable team of folks to work on this project. As a musician myself, I know it requires a high level of trust to hand over your brand to another creative… so I was deeply honoured that she chose to entrust me with the creation of this bold and colourful video to accompany one of her most popular songs!”
