For Serena Ryder, size matters

By Tom Lanham
Special to The Examiner 4/16/09
Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention.
Just ask Canadian folk-rocker Serena Ryder, who arrived at an unusual solution for the tennis elbow that was stifling her strumming. The tendonitis grew so painful, the petite powerhouse couldn’t play the big, full-sized guitars anymore.
That’s when she discovered vintage parlor guitars, popular in the late 1800s. “They were these tiny guitars, originally invented for women to play to the men in drawing rooms, and they’re amazing. I actually fell in love with their sound,” she says.
Now Ryder, 26, is an obsessive collector of parlor six-strings and their equally-comfortable competitors, half-sized guitars.



Next week at Slim’s, she’ll be playing a parlor, plus two half-sizes she tracked down on tour.
“They’re called Matons, you can only get them in Australia, and they’re the best I’ve ever found,” she says. “I actually have someone who’s making me a parlor guitar right now. He’s been crafting it for the last two years, and he keeps on sending me pictures of it. Other than that, if I can ever find any parlor better than the ones I have, I’ll get it — they’re that great.”
Plus, it beats the singer’s last obsession — sew-on buttons. It recently took her two full months to whittle her monstrous collection down to a prize 45.
All of these quirky eccentricities add up to some thoroughly refreshing songwriting on “Is It O.K.,” Ryder’s brainy U.S. debut for Atlantic.
From the chiming opener “Sweeping the Ashes” to a forlorn “Dark as the Black” finish, Ryder’s soulful rasp wends through tales of breakup, despair, even death, justifying her 2008 Juno win as Canada’s Best New Artist.
Ryder’s upbringing was equally odd. She hails from the rural Ontario village of Millbrook, population 3,000.
“The only thing that I knew of the outside world was by TV,” she says. “There was no bus that left town, no train — the only way to get out was by driving.”
Her biggest thrills were long woodland walks and the annual Millbrook Fair in June. “I had my first crush on the carny who ran the Octopus ride,” she says. “And I ended up writing an early song about him, which started out ‘I’m only 9/ What are you?’”
But she isn’t serenading any new beaus in her Toronto parlor; she’s looking inward instead: “I’ve actually been falling in love with myself and my life. Because only then can you truly love others and be loved in return.”
If you go
Serena Ryder
Opening for Paolo Nutini
When: 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 22
Where: Slim’s, 333 11th St., San Francisco
Tickets: $11
Contact: www.slimstickets.com