Born in Windsor, Ontario and raised in France and Kelowna, British Columbia, Fellows lived in Toronto, Vancouver, Guelph and Montreal before settling in Winnipeg in 1992.
In 1993, she formed her first group, Helen, with Barry Mirochnick, Paul James, and Chang. Helen broke up in 1995, and in 1996 Fellows teamed up with singer-songwriter Keri McTighe, Barry Mirochnick, Keith McLeod and Peggy Messing, to form Special Fancy. The group released one album, King Me.
In 2000 Fellows released her debut solo album, 2 Little Birds. This was followed by The Last One Standing in 2002, Paper Anniversary in 2005, and Nevertheless in 2007. These albums feature Leanne Zacharias (cello), Jason Tait (drums, vibraphone), Barry Mirochnick (drums, vocals), John K. Samson (vocals, guitar), Keith McLeod (mandolin), Monica Guenter (viola), Greg Smith (bass), Ed Reifel (percussion), and Cristina Zacharias (violin).
Fellows has performed with the Rheostatics, Veda Hille, The Mountain Goats, Kim Barlow, Old Man Luedecke, and The Weakerthans. She is married to The Weakerthans' lead singer, John K. Samson.
In 2006, Fellows and Samson recorded The Old House, an album intended only as a Christmas gift for friends and family, although they released two songs, "Taps Reversed" and "Good Salvage", for airplay on CBC Radio 3 in early 2007. Fellows and Samson also performed live on the network on March 17, 2007, to mark the final night of the network's terrestrial simulcast on CBC Radio 2.
Fellows also composes music for dance, film and television. She scored part of Clive Holden's Trains of Winnipeg film series, as well as collaborating with Tait and Samson on the associated album. In 2007, she wrote several songs for a dance piece by choreographer Susie Burpee; they were later included on her fourth solo album, Nevertheless, which was released on November 6, 2007.
Fellows has also toured as a member of The Pan-Canadian New Folk Ensemble with Kim Barlow and Old Man Luedecke.
Recently, she was artist-in-residence at Le Musee de Saint-Boniface Museum in Winnipeg (2009), and she has been writing songs for a new solo album, scheduled for release on Six Shooter Records in fall of 2010.
20 Bullets
Christine Fellows Lyrics
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hey you. what's your name? whyn't you come over and play our game? I just stood there and shook my head. he said don't be scared it's just pretend.
one is waiting at the fork in the road for her dad to come home. two is counting by the side of the house and he's skipping numbers. three is a photograph but she's turned her back at the very last second.
bang bang you're dead. buried in a shoebox with a pillow for your head. that's not pretty, that's what I saw. missing the beauty of it all.
Christine Fellows's song "20 Bullets" is a tragic tale of a young child who witnesses a violent and disturbing incident. The lyrics "Bang bang you're dead. 20 bullets in your head. that's not pretty, that's what I saw. missing the beauty of it all" describe the gruesome sight of someone being killed. The child is unable to see any beauty in the world after witnessing such a violent act.
The second verse of the song reveals that the child is invited to "play our game" but shakes her head in refusal. The child is too scared to join in and play a pretend game that simulates violence. The child's innocence and naivety is shattered by the horrific event that she witnessed.
The chorus repeats the opening lyrics, and the last verse paints a picture of the child's perception of the world after the traumatic event. The child counts, waits and turns away, perhaps detached from the world around her, missing the beauty of it all. The final lyrics "buried in a shoebox with a pillow for your head" is the tragic conclusion to this story and highlights the loss of life.
Overall, the lyrics suggest a loss of innocence, trauma and detachment from the world. The song's title "20 Bullets" suggests that the act of violence was extreme and shocking.
Line by Line Meaning
Bang bang you're dead. 20 bullets in your head. that's not pretty, that's what I saw. missing the beauty of it all.
Someone was shot and killed by 20 bullets, which is not a pretty sight. The singer witnessed the gruesome scene and realizes that they may have missed the beauty of life in the process.
hey you. what's your name? whyn't you come over and play our game? I just stood there and shook my head. he said don't be scared it's just pretend.
Someone offered the singer an invitation to play a game, but they refused and felt nervous about it. The other person reassured them that it was just pretend.
one is waiting at the fork in the road for her dad to come home. two is counting by the side of the house and he's skipping numbers. three is a photograph but she's turned her back at the very last second.
Three different scenarios are described where someone is waiting or looking for something/someone, but the outcome is left ambiguous.
bang bang you're dead. buried in a shoebox with a pillow for your head. that's not pretty, that's what I saw. missing the beauty of it all.
The person who was shot and killed has been buried in a simple, makeshift coffin. The artist reflects that death is never pretty and that it can obscure the beauty of life.
Lyrics © OBO APRA/AMCOS
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