Fathomless Tales from Leviathanʼs Hole (CD Review)
Maverick Country Magazine, U.K.
The new voice of Folk and Country Laura Bethell - LK - PSC2008CD
March 2009

It's six years since Canadian Songbird, Phyllis Sinclair released her debut album, FENCEPOSTS AND STONES. A folk singer with a soulful, expressive voice, Phyllis has written all the featured songs and she has drawn from person experiences as well as from people she has met and places she has been. The opening track, My Fishing Hole is a nostalgic backward glance to days of childhood when life was so much less complicated than it is today, a secret place of tranquility she recaptures so well. She manages to convey a feeling of yearning as she heads back to a place she loves in My Northern Town, as she does once again on the Melodic Encinitas while painting a vivid picture of Main Street, wholly convincing as, with the eye of a painter, she manages to take in every small detail of a typical street in just about any town, any where. A chance meeting with an elderly lady who asks for her assistance in unloading her shopping trolley is the subject of The Manicure. Far from complaining about her gnarled, and less than pretty hands, this lady holds them up as a testimony to a lifetime's toil and is proud of the many things they have turned themselves to during her long journey through a hard life. Alberta Rose recounts the life cycle of a pretty wild flower, which unattended, blooms every spring, oblivious of the perceived hardships which us mortals encounter from one year to the next. There are convincing songs of small fishing ports, busy harbours and the men who make their living from the sea, made manifest in delicately crafted songs like Wreck of The Dictator and Jewels on the Crown of Saint John. Phyllis captures the shock of receiving news of an unexpected tragedy, when there are no words express the way one feels in Lost for Words, which anyone who has had such news broken to them will well understand. It is easy to condemn someone who has struggled to cope with marriage, children and countless other hardships all endured in silence for a long time and therefore not understood by others, who overcome by depression suddenly takes the decision to leave everything behind them and attempt to make anew start from the place they have known for years. This is the story of Mary Jo, and despite the level of the condemnation she suffers from those who do not appreciate her plight, she does at least find someone like Phyllis Sinclair on her side. Demonstrating her ability to cover a range of subjects, Phyllis relates the story of a World War II veteran who describes the harrowing time in which he was involved in The Liberation of Holland in Four Days in Groningen. Phyllis has long been a champion of an aboriginal tribe in Canada who, for centuries had lived in peaceful, nomadic existence, fishing and hunting the Caribou as they wandered from place to place. The Federal Government supposedly became alarmed at the rapid decline in the number of Caribou and so, in 1957, they forced a large group of Sayisi Dene to move to the outskirts of Churchill, Manitoba in order to live a more settled existence. For a long while these unfortunates had to live in tents and makeshift shelters until the government eventually set up a proper housing project for them, but it was reported that almost a third of the people, unable to cope with this new way of life, and desperately unhappy died. Phyllis sings about this shameful period in the moving Sayisi Song. Wholly acoustic, FATHOMLESS TALES FROM LEVIATHAN'S HOLE, is an admirable collection of songs sung by a lady of conviction.

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Fathomless Tales from Leviathan’s Hole (CD Review)
Hallandsposten, Sweden
Gert-Ove Fridlund
GENUINE MATERIAL FROM CANADA
APRIL 2009

Canadian Phyllis Sinclair is something of an unwritten page in Europe. At home she's more familiar, at least for those who are into pop ballads and folk music. Many appreciate her poetic lyrics. “Fathomless Tales From Leviathan's Hole” is an excellent sequel to her debut album “Fence Posts and Stones” (2006). The album contains twelve of her own pieces, where Sinclair is backed by musicians at violin, bass, mandolin and guitar, for example. The song material is very powerful. Sinclair has a feeling for melodies and atmosphere – pieces like ”Lost for Words”, ”Jewels on the Crown of Saint John” and ”Four Days in Groningen” comes to mind. The lyrics also stays with you, beautiful words about aging pictures of memories, meetings with persons, distant places, continuous beauty. Genuine folk music!

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Fathomless Tales from Leviathanʼs Hole (CD Review)
Le Cri Du Coyote, France
Coyote/ #108 APRIL 2009

With her second album, this Canadian installs herself in the great family of female singer-songwriters, and with very good arguement. Raised by her mother and grandmother, this Cree woman started to write songs at the end of the 70ʼs, but for a long time she gave priority to her family, and her journalist profession. It wasnʼt until 2003 that she record her first album “Fence Posts and Stones”, which received a warm welcome from the independent music industry. Here she returns with twelve self-composed songs. Elegantly produced by Stew Kirkwood, who also plays a number of instruments. This album displays a folk dyed in country/rock of find quality. Phyllisʼ pure voice reminds me more of Judy Collins or Mimi Farina than of Joan Baez. If youʼre looking for the kind of pretend folk which is being praised to the skies by some media, then this is probably not going to suit your taste. But, if youʼre looking for the pleasure of certain timeless classicism, then you should make a trip with Phyllis.

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Fenceposts and Stones (Article)
Roddy Campbell, Penguin Eggs Magazine
September 2006

Amidst the merciless winter squalls that blast through the Hecate Straight, Herring fishermen from the port of Prince Rupert strive to earn a living. There, on Mariner's Wall, numerous plaques remember those lost at sea. This harsh BC background inspired Phyllis Sinclair's profoundly moving North Coast Fisher Wife's Prayer - one of several stand out tracks on her positively impressive debut disc, Fence Posts and Stones. Sinclair, a former journalist with CBC radio once managed Prince Rupert's Ocean Fisheries gillnet fleet. She wrote North Coast Fisher Wife's Prayer as much for herself (her son worked as a deckhand), as for the numerous families she knew on the coast. "Every year there were fatalities," says Sinclair. "I thought about how I felt and how the wives must feel when their husbands go out to work in the fishing grounds - particularly in February when the winds are rough. That song was a prayer for the families, really, of those worked on the fishing grounds." Born Cree and raised in Churchill, Manitoba, the Sinclair family moved to Winnipeg in 1967. There the then 13 year old discovered folk music on the radio through the songs of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Donovan.....she tells numerous elegant tales about a cousin's harsh life on the streets (Hard Time Hannah) and the dignity of struggling prairie farmers (The Old Nine and Fence Posts and Stones). She includes a lullaby partially sung in Cree (Sleep Baby Blue Eyes). "I want to share my songs. Music is healing: Music is power. And the more good music we have the better off the world will be."