In the Spring of 2007 Rough Trade Records released the debut album from Basia Bulat. Entitled Oh, My Darling, the album generated a groundswell of support from both the press and fans alike. NPR called the first single “In The Night” “one of 2008’s great singles” and Spin.com said, ““Oh, My Darling's lucky thirteen tracks showcase Bulat's soothing, throaty voice and her dead-on aptitude for poignant, classic songwriting. From gracefully sad to hopeful and joyous, she exudes an earthy, organic quality to the music's mystic, Phil Spector-like backbone.” Basia went from playing small venues to packed out shows across the US and her home country Canada where the album garnered a Polaris Music Prize short list nod. Baisa Bulat commands the room with her raucously arranged songs, infectious melodies, and a voice that is both exuberant and intimate.

Her latest effort, Heart Of My Own, was born after over a year of touring that took Bulat across Europe, Australia, Canada and the United States several times over. When it came time to move ahead with the new album Basia said goodbye to the road, took the newly penned songs up in her arms and found a home for them on tape. Recorded with Howard Bilerman (who was at control panel for Oh, My Darling as well) at the mighty Hotel2Tango studio in Montreal, Quebec, nearly all the songs on Heart Of My Own were written while on the road: traveling between cities, crossing the Canadian prairies, searching for a place to stop in the Nevada desert, trailing through the Smoky Mountains, standing in the bright dusk of a summer night in the Yukon. Perhaps most surprising was the strong influence her short time in theYukon had on this album. Basia spent five days and nights in Dawson City, where for the first time she experienced true silence. "I felt my mind was overwhelmed with ideas. It had been a long-time dream of mine to make it to the Yukon, so to finally accomplish that, and for it to be possible because of my music, was also a very overwhelming thing."

The instrumentation on Heart Of My Own is a lot more varied than Oh, My Darling, notes Basia. "I think it is at times extremely sparse and, well, spacious, with big choirs singing, and then it gets really dense with really spirited and rolling drums, and I think I even managed to pull off a Johnny Cash–inspired country song." She plays autoharp, guitar, piano, organ, pianoette, banjo, ukulele, bass and of course, sings; her brother and many dear friends, old and new, play everything else. The strings chase after each other as though coming down a mountain. The autoharp's versatility is explored, fitting just as well in a soul song as a folk song, its sound by turns charming and warm, then icy cold and precise. The horns mean business, but still have a sense of humour! But most important to Basia is the spirit that has been captured here. There is a determination in these songs. They are at times about a broken heart, a careless heart, a faithful heart, and a hopeful heart—but above all, a wandering heart.

The press is glowing:

Drowned in Sound
“… wonderful; a waltzing procession of jangly guitars and see-saw string arpeggios which nail the stomach-churn and smile of difficult love. Male music fans of a certain disposition have a propensity to fall in love with female singers in the three-four minutes it takes for a perfect song to be sung, and for those who have had such an experience listening to Joanna Newsom or Scout Niblett, this track will elicit similar Technicolor daydreams.”

Pitchfork
"But while Bulat's versatility's a selling point, it's her rare, extraordinary voice that makes her a fresh find in the notoriously musty folk-pop bin. Graceful and incandescent, confident but approachable, her alto's the aural equivalent of the perfect party host who makes every guest not only welcome, but certain they're the most important person in the room."

BBC
"Bulat is a fine (sometimes disarmingly so) singer is never in doubt; neither is the quality of the numerous backing players that bolster these tracks. As a songwriter, she proffers tunes both sweetly melancholic and of a laudable optimism."

CBC
"Nearly every track on Bulat’s superb new album, Heart of My Own, leaves you with the sense that you’re being whirled through centuries of music. The lead single, Gold Rush, begins with folksy fiddle and autoharp as a backbone, then builds into a torrent of muscular drumbeats, choral swells and a plangent vocal melody. The Shore is a strange, magical ballad that skirts the edges of both Soul Stirrers-style gospel and 17th-century madrigals, buoyed by the resonant strains of a hammered harp."

Eye Weekly
"I’d never write about someone whose work I didn’t enjoy. Sometimes, though, you want to reach up through the newsprint and shake the reader by the shoulders until they’re as excited as you are. Of all the things to admire about Basia Bulat — and there are plenty, not least the wicked wit that keeps threatening to get us chucked out of this quiet café for laughing too hard — I never stop marvelling at her voice."

Prefix Magazine
"At once childlike and wise, Heart of My Own is laden with a twinkly essence and a musing outlook. Escalating strings, jingling bells, mournful horns, rolling percussion, and finger plucking seep from the tracks, with Bulat herself on autoharp, guitar, piano, organ, pianoette, banjo, ukelele, and bass. … the warmth exuded from the woodsy harmony of Bulat’s voice mingling with the amalgamation of guest instruments cozies even the bitterest of winter days.”