“I Should Have Changed” is the new release (via YouTube) from Kearney, ON singer-songwriter Christina Hutt, the latest in a series of singles released throughout 2020. This new song, originally anticipated for release last summer, has been greeted with enthusiastic appreciation by her many loyal and devoted fans in the Muskoka region. Christina is loved and celebrated for her deeply emotional performances, both in concert and on recording. Her rich, powerful vocals have enraptured audiences for their sincerity and the pure penetrating clarity of her singing and song presentation. Her songwriting and her passionate vocal high wire act leave audiences speechless. “I Should Have Changed” is a hauntingly beautiful showcase for all of her gifts as singer and performer.
Christina Hutt emerged onto the local music scene in Huntsville, ON back around 2015-16, when her brief sets at local open mic. stages and fundraisers began to turn heads and garner praise and awe for her soaring, moving singing. Within a year, she released an EP, “Mirror Mirror,” which quickly became a strong selling element of her fledgling shows; with audiences wanting to take home a fragment of the feeling they experienced when they heard her sing. Her developing guitar ability allowed her to soon perform on a more regular basis, as her own accompanist. Soon, she came to the attention of JUNO Award winning blues artist, Paul Reddick, who invited her to join him and other friends on stage in shows throughout Toronto. Meanwhile, her own growing fan base also wanted to see her perform more frequently too, both for her original material and her broad ranging, stylistically intricate cover set.
In 2019, Christina worked ceaselessly throughout both the Muskoka and central Ontario circuit of bars and theatre shows, setting course for a more extensive, expansive touring schedule for 2020. She was also working tirelessly as a background singer, notably with Jon Brooks, Jamie Oppenheimer and Sean Cotton. Unfortunately, like so many, the COVID-19 pandemic dispersed all of her shows and planning. In early 2020, Christina released “Cracks & Crevices,” her first single since recording her debut EP; surprising her listeners with both its vulnerability and the poignant discussion surrounding mental distress and the impact and disruption that depression, mood sensitivity and sadness can cause. Similar in tone and suggestive poetic nature of the late Leonard Cohen, the song resonated with her fans and the video gained her a larger audience. It also introduced a format for her to send out new material through YouTube and other social media platforms, as she accumulated songs for her next recording project.
“I Should Have Changed” as a song, and specifically the accompanying video, is a study in self-awareness and self-discovery. Largely inspired by events deep in her past, the song is plea for acceptance and forgiveness. The title itself is deceptive because the song deals with the fallout from grief and the nature of redemption. Christina has stated that the song, transformed slowly through her live shows, is indeed one with a focus on her own childhood feelings and misgivings. Perhaps, only through a full acknowledgement of the pasts’ hold, no matter its secrets and anguish, on our growth and evolution, as people, and as artists, are we ever truly set free. Free to find, in action and in deed, the real purpose of our life. Christina Hutt has explored this landscape in previous compositions, but not as viscerally as this dramatization of her struggle for self-understanding. In her openness and courage to expose the lingering doubts that old wounds and inner turmoil leave on the soul, she gives us something sublime. It will stand in our memory. It is a moving portrait of an artist coming to grips not only with her past, but most certainly, her future. She has discovered the steadfast strength of her talent. Armed with such insight, Christina strives to fulfill her promise as a singer of the highest caliber. Clearly, this is only the beginning of a remarkable journey that will surely astound not only her fans, but also audiences around the world.
‘”I Should Have Changed’” was redesigned and produced by the extraordinary production team of Bet Smith and Rob Currie, teaming up once more following their collaborative work on Christina’s highly successful single, “Fifteen Shades,” released this past April.
Visit Christina Hutt on Facebook.
Douglas McLean fell in love with music at a very early age and has worked as a musician and songwriter since his early teens. He has a deep love for the written word and has spent his life in pursuit of language as a means to convey what Van Morrison once called “the inarticulate speech of the heart”. He lives deep in the Almaguin Highlands with his wife and their dog. Douglas is active in local radio, recording, producing and writing, in and around Huntsville, Ontario.
His website is:
http://www.douglasmcleanmusic.com
