Born outside Montreal, in Sweetsburg, Quebec, Miles grew up in a musical home. Her father played the harmonica and listened to his jazz collection while her mother was a lover of both opera and country music. During her elementary school years, Miles learned guitar, violin, flute and piano. She began performing in public at around the age of sixteen and when she was in her early twenties she studied with an opera singer to strengthen her voice and enrolled for a time at Carleton University in Ottawa where she studied classical music history and theory. Years later, Miles put this training to good use while serving as a voice teacher at the Ottawa Folklore Center. While at the center, she taught voice to many students including a then fourteen-year-old Alanis Morrisette. The lessons came just prior to the making of Morrisette’s first album.
Though Miles had been writing her own songs since the age of 10, she didn’t end up recording any of her own material until 1987 when she cut 9 original compositions for a demo at Happyrock Studio in Ottawa. An avid reader and music-lover, those early recordings were inspired by the books she loved to read, and the music she listened to on the radio.
In the early 1990s Miles released a self-titled album plus an additional recording called Chalk This One Up to the Moon. Her composition "Remembrance Day" became part of a nationally-televised video created by the Canadian Armed Forces.
Miles' 1996 album, Slightly Haunted received favorable reviews in the New York Times and was a Billboard Top Ten Pick of the Year.
In 1997 she released the album Night in a Strange Town.
Miles' reunited with collaborator and guitarist Ian LeFeuvre for her 2001 album, Unravel, which won the 2003 Juno award for Best Roots & Traditional Album of the Year: Solo.
Miles was nominated in 2005 for a Canadian Folk Music Awards.
In 2006 Miles recorded the album Love Sweet Love which was released on Red House Records characterized as a "road album". It was recorded with guitarist Ian LeFeuvre and Keith Glass, drummer Peter Von Althen, John Geggiem on bass, James Stephens on violin. It was nominated for a 2006 Juno Award.
In 2008 and 2009 Miles re-recorded her earlier work in a two volume, songbook called Black Flowers.
Her 2010 album Fall for Beauty was nominated at the Juno Awards of 2011 in the Roots & Traditional Album of the year category.
Loneliness
Lynn Miles Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And send off to a stranger in a )town across the sea
Loneliness is a tired old friend who carries your baggage
Through airports and train stations for free
Loneliness wears a suit and tie on busy city streets
And makes you cry at parties filled with people that you know
Loneliness will take your hand and lead you to the shoreline
On foggy days to find the undertow
It is the hurt that hurts the deepest
It is the ache that you can't cure
It is the desperation of the late night telephone call
It is the lover in the shadows
It is the one that got away
It is the cry of the southbound birds in the fall
Loneliness will steal your soul on stormy windy hills
And hides behind red maple trees on autumn afternoons
Loneliness sits on the porch of the house you used to live in
It is the distant sound of thunder and trains and loons
It is the hurt that hurts the deepest
It is the ache that you can't cure
It is the desperation of the late night telephone call
It is the lover in the shadows
It is the one that got away
It is the cry of the southbound birds in the fall
It is the lover in the shadows
It is the one that got away
It is the cry of the southbound bird in the fall
In Lynn Miles's song "Loneliness," the lyrics explore the concept of how loneliness can feel like a physical entity that engulfs a person's being. The lyrics describe loneliness as an "envelope you can seal yourself into" and send away, portraying it as something that one can isolate themselves in. The use of the pronoun "you" throughout the song makes the depiction of loneliness even more personal and relatable.
The lyrics continue to delve into how loneliness can follow a person, as a "tired old friend who carries your baggage" and travels with you as you move through your life. The description of loneliness wearing a suit and tie in a bustling city and taking your hand to lead you to the shoreline portrays loneliness as an ever-present force that can manifest in various ways. The final verses paint loneliness as something more ominous and haunting, stealing your soul on stormy hills and lurking behind familiar places. The repetition of the phrases "It is the hurt that hurts the deepest" and "It is the ache that you can't cure" adds to the idea that loneliness is an inexplicable pain that can't be remedied easily.
Line by Line Meaning
Loneliness is an envelope you can seal yourself into
Loneliness can make you feel isolated and alone, and it can be something that you willingly close yourself off to.
And send off to a stranger in a town across the sea
You can feel loneliness even when you're surrounded by people, and you might feel like a stranger even in places where you're supposed to belong.
Loneliness is a tired old friend who carries your baggage
Loneliness can be a constant companion, always present and familiar, and it can be something that carries your emotional burdens.
Through airports and train stations for free
Loneliness can come with you on your journeys, and it can be something that you don't have to pay to experience.
Loneliness wears a suit and tie on busy city streets
You can feel lonely in crowded, busy places where you might expect to find connection and community.
And makes you cry at parties filled with people that you know
You might feel most alone when you're surrounded by people you know and care about, and you might experience intense emotions like sadness or grief as a result.
Loneliness will take your hand and lead you to the shoreline
Loneliness can be something that takes you to places of introspection, contemplation, and reflection, whether you want to go there or not.
On foggy days to find the undertow
When you're feeling lonely, you might be drawn to darkness or danger, and it can be difficult to see past the fog or uncertainty of those moments.
It is the hurt that hurts the deepest
Loneliness is painful and can cause deep emotional or psychological distress.
It is the ache that you can't cure
Loneliness can be a persistent, unrelenting feeling that you can't fix, no matter how hard you try or how much you want to feel better.
It is the desperation of the late night telephone call
Loneliness can make you feel desperate for connection, for someone to talk to, for someone to share your experience with.
It is the lover in the shadows
Loneliness can be associated with longing or desire, a sense that something or someone is just out of reach or nearly forgotten.
It is the one that got away
Loneliness can be linked to loss or the absence of someone or something that was once present or valuable.
It is the cry of the southbound birds in the fall
Loneliness can be a seasonal or cyclical experience, something that comes and goes with the passage of time or the changing of the seasons.
Loneliness will steal your soul on stormy windy hills
In isolating or fraught situations, feelings of loneliness can be intensified and feel like they're taking over your very being.
And hides behind red maple trees on autumn afternoons
Loneliness can be elusive and hard to pinpoint or understand, even when it feels like it's right in front of you.
Loneliness sits on the porch of the house you used to live in
Loneliness can be associated with memories or nostalgia, and can feel more acute or painful when you're in familiar or formerly meaningful places.
It is the distant sound of thunder and trains and loons
Loneliness can be both a sound and a feeling - something that you hear in the distance or see in the world around you, but also something that resides within you.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: LYNN MARIE MILES
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind