|
|
Kelita - Heavenly Night (Christmas
Album) |
|
Kelita Haverland’s Christmas album
Heavenly Night has been out
for a few years now, but the nice thing about albums like this is each
time December rolls around they take on a new life. This Christmas also
served as an opportunity for Kelita (she is easily recognized by music
fans by just her first name) and this writer to sit down and do an
interview, something that we have attempted to do several times over the
years and busy schedules for one or the other or both of us simply got
in the way.
The Juno Awards are Canada’s top music award and Kelita has been
nominated five different times for an award. She is recognized as an
impactful, inspirational speaker who does not try to charm you or sell
you some magic potion that will cure all life’s ills and nor does she
try to tell you that if you do everything a certain way that you will
never have a problem again. She just tells you how it is, through her
music and through her speaking. She has experienced more tragic events
than most and yet if you did not know her story you would never guess
that was the case. When we first became aware of Kelita, about sixteen
years ago she brought to life several funny characters she had created
over the years. Since that time she has also been featured as a keynote
speaker for TED X. She would also tell you that the most important thing
you can know about her is that her faith in God informs the way that she
lives her life and the decisions that she makes.
Kelita talks about how Heavenly
Night came to be, “I saw a program on television that was on the sex
trafficking of little girls in Cambodia and I was so impacted by what I
saw that I ended up writing a song, “Not Just This Christmas,” that is
on the Christmas CD and I ended up performing it on TV. I met the
producer of the segment and then she turned me onto one of the men that
was in the video that was actually doing something over there in
Cambodia. He happened to be the founder and director of Ratnak
International an organization out of Vancouver. I connected with him and
I said that I was just so moved by his story and the work that he was
doing over there that I wanted to help. I didn’t know what I could do,
but I felt so moved. I thought, well what I do is music and all of a
sudden I got this vision of doing a Christmas CD and a big concert that
would raise awareness and fun for this restoration center that was just
opening up. It was taking rescued girls and then rehabilitating them.
That was the beginning of a very amazing journey and after I met
him and told him what I wanted to do, of course he was very supportive.
My husband Gord and our son, who was a young teenager at the time, all
went to Cambodia and we spent three weeks there. I thought if I am going
to advocate for this cause and for these people in this very dark
country I need to go and experience it for myself. When we returned I
knew what I needed to do and I hit the road running. I raised money for
the project (through the) album and a fund raising concert. Then this
whole project took over my life for about seven years. I did a lot of
fund raising, not just with the concerts, but by getting out there and
sharing the vision with people and educating people as to what was
really going on. This is kind of when human trafficking wasn’t talked
about as it is now. For those seven years I did lots of concerts and I
had great opportunities to let people know what was going on. People
caught the vision. I thought maybe we could raise $25,000 and send it
over, but through all of those different avenues we were able to raise
$250,000 and to send it over to this restoration center and to this
organization that was on the ground there. That whole thing changed my
life in many ways, just one song.”
There is also a personal connection for Kelita when it comes to trying
to draw more awareness to the problem of human trafficking and more
importantly trying to motivate people to do something about it.
She explains, “I am a survivor of child sexual abuse and on some level I
could relate to these young girls. But really, what they go through over
there (she pauses)…it is just a whole other world over there. I think I
was drawn to it for the compassion that I felt for these children who
have no means of escape. Some of them are trapped for a few years even.
While I was over there I met one girl and I continue to be in contact
with her today. When you
get down to it, I have compassion for people that have been hurt or that
are in these situations. It is just the way that I am wired.”
Kelita is a survivor of an awful lot and we asked her to share her back
story, “My father was an alcoholic and he suffered severely from
depression. He committed suicide when I was eleven. Unfortunately, my
mom married a guy who wasn’t the nicest of guys, so there was more abuse
there, not sexual or physical, but very much verbal and emotional.
Shortly after that my mom found out she had breast cancer and I lost my
mom when I was fifteen. Two years after she passed my oldest brother was
found dead of a heroin overdose. He was a wild child and if he was alive
today he would be labeled a deviant. He abused several people in my
family and several friends of the family. It was a crazy time and not
only was there abuse and all of the secrets and the hiding, but there
were (also) a lot of repressed memories. There was so much loss and I
felt like I was abandoned. Then I left home at age 18 and I wasn’t
really welcome there any longer.
I finished high school, before I left Calgary and I moved to Toronto. I
went to university and I studied to be a big star (she laughs). I
studied theater at York University. I was really blessed with the
ability to be funny and to transform myself. Even today I talk more
about it in my speaking and in my concerts. Creating all of those
different comedic characters over the years is like all of these
different masks. I think when I was a little kid and I started creating
all of these characters it was a way for me to deal with everything that
I was going through. It is amazing how the human spirit will kick and it
will gravitate towards those things that come easily to us, those gifts
that we have. It was protective. It was a way for me to protect myself
and for me to take attention off of what was happening in my family and
make people forget that when I put these masks on.
My story has become a huge part of what I do. I guess you could say that
I am an inspirational speaker who sings and does comedy. That seems to
be where the emphasis is on what I do these days.
They all fit together. When I
was in the Country music business some of the big wigs in the record
business they always have such a hard time of pinning me down. They
would say oh she’s just a singer or songwriter. I had the funny stuff
and they were confused and maybe I was too.
Now I feel so fortunate, because I get to speak. I get to sing all my
original songs and I throw in some standards too, depending on the gig,
(plus) I get to make people laugh. By sharing my stories I am
encouraging other people to share their stories. There is such freedom
and such healing when we can take off those masks and we are able to
process that and we allow the shame to dissolve. We can really become
who we are meant to be instead of having all of these chains on us. To
be able to do what I do, I just feel wow, I have the best.
I have the best job ever.”
Back to the Christmas album, “Before this project came in front of me,
my life was actually going quite well. That was surprising, because I
have been through a lot, but it was like wow there was a reprieve. I
wrote down these words, God break my heart. I thought what breaks the
heart of God and in a few weeks or so this came across my path. I
thought really, this is what you want me to do. This is not something
you choose to go into. There has to be a heart connection there. For me
I knew that I had to go. It is really crazy and I don’t think that I
have ever felt so driven in my life by something. I would wake up in the
morning and I would go to bed at night thinking how I can make a
difference in the lives of these kids,” she says.
In collaboration with her husband Gord Lemon, whom she describes as “a
great arranger,” they decided to record some familiar Christmas songs
such as, “Joy To The World,” “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” “O Holy
Night,” and “The First Noel,” to name a few.
“I thought let’s really make them our own. When you are putting together
an album you want to take standards and make them have a life of their
own and you want to put your own spin on them. That is fun and it gets
your creative juices going. You can maybe try some new things,” says
Kelita.
Christmas music when done well never really seems to fade into the
distant past and Heavenly Night’s
story has been the same.
“Christmas music is timeless really. It is funny, because I know at my
concerts there is a certain strain of people who collect Christmas
music. It is just a hobby that they have.
I will always have some copies
of the Christmas CD on my merch table, because there are always those
that I run into who are looking for new Christmas music. I always travel
with them. It is fun. I always tell people that there are a couple of
tunes on this album that you can dance to, so you don’t just have to
play it at Christmas (she laughs
lightly).
There is a Wynona Judd song on there. She recorded one of the songs
(that I have) on there, “Let’s Make A Baby King,” which was written by
Jesse Winchester. I always have loved Wynona and I loved that song when
she recorded it years ago. She didn’t record it on a Christmas album,
but the lyrics lend themselves, because they talk about when Jesus was
born. I love the flavor that she brought to it and it allowed me to go a
little bit more Country than I have on past albums. It has lots of
energy and I love doing it live,” says Kelita.
“Don’t Save It All For Christmas Day,” was recorded as the fourth song
on the album and Kelita first heard it when she was in a store around
Christmastime. She was not familiar with the song and since the store
was playing a CD, she asked the cashier if she would mind checking the
song title for her.
She says, “It is a good song to stretch you vocally, but it has such a
beautiful sentiment. Don’t save your love for just Christmastime, spread
it around, year round and every day. That one really touches a chord in
me.”
The title song from the album,
Heavenly Night is very special to Kelita and she explains why, “I
wrote it twenty-four years ago. It was shortly after our only son, our
only child was born. My husband Gord was off touring with Frank Mills.
It was a Christmas tour and as soon as the baby was born Gord was back
on the road doing the tour. I was at home alone having moved from
Toronto to Mississauga. I didn’t know a soul and I was a new mother. I
didn’t have any family close by. I was quite overwhelmed. I think it was
the first time since he was born that I actually had a moment when I
could put him in the little seat and I sat at the piano and I finally
had the opportunity to just play.
I was so overwhelmed with all of those hormones that were flowing as a
new mother. I felt the incredible unconditional love that I had for my
child and that was the inspiration for that song.
I had also done a few tours with the armed forces and before I recorded
the song I had the opportunity to sing it over in the Middle East,
Germany, Cypress and Israel for our Canadian troops. There is a line in
that song about praying for the babies in places where soldiers fight,
so they would know peace for one heavenly night. It started with the
inspiration of my son being born and then these peace keepers who
weren’t on the front lines, but were certainly away from their families.
I have to say that one is my favorite. I sang it for years before
I recorded it. It waited a long time, before it saw the light of day.
The memory of performing for our peace keepers and doing a Christmas
show for them was one of the most rewarding shows that I have ever done.
To take some Canadian love over to these men and women who are away from
their families for at least six months at a time. They are such
appreciative audiences.
We got to eat Christmas dinner and hang out in the Golan Heights. It is
not a very nice place, it is very cold and windy up there, but on that
particular peace keeping base I have memories of sitting with the
soldiers and having Christmas dinner with them. Those are really special
memories.”
Please visit
Kelita's website.
|
The
good news is if you buy the album Heavenly Night this year some of the
proceeds will still go to helping combat human trafficking.