Oh, my, 'Darling'

Basia Bulat performs at the Middle East Upstairs on Sept. 20. (Bobby Bulat)

In some ways, the piano was Basia Bulat's Easy-Bake Oven. Other little girls might watch their mothers cooking and pretend to bake a cake. But Bulat keenly recalls early memories of her mother playing the piano and creating enchanting sounds that she wanted to emulate.

"I wanted to be just like her," says the 25-year-old Toronto native. "I loved music and loved being able to make sounds like my mom." Though Bulat clambered up onto the piano stool at the guileless but inquisitive age of only 3, she laughs at the idea she was some kind of prodigy. It was all just plink-plink-plink at first.

"It wasn't anything like young Mozart or anything like that where I was a genius," she remembers. "It was more like a kindly old man would hit the key with his finger and I would follow what he did. Eventually I was able to figure out octaves and stuff like that. Just figuring out how the piano works and what notes are."

She's been figuring out how instruments work ever since. Along with piano, there was her mom's guitar ("I remember messing around, pulling at the strings, and trying to make sounds"). In high school, she learned stand-up bass and the flute. ("I'm 5 foot 3, so the flute was easier for me"). Then came banjo, ukulele, saxophone, and, perhaps her favorite, autoharp: "What I liked about it is that it's a democratizing instrument. It was created so anyone could play it." Still, with what seems like typical humility, she doesn't see herself as much of a musician.

"I don't count myself as proficient on any instrument. I feel that if I can write a song on it, then that's good enough." Happily, she gathered friends and family to play on her debut, "Oh My Darling," which was released last winter on indie UK label Rough Trade. Strings and flute lead the chamber-folk bridge on "The Pilgriming Vine" and horns entwine on the Latin-tinged waltz "La-Da-Da."

But a standout is "In the Night," a strident reel where Bulat trills madly while strumming an autoharp over her drummer-brother Bobby's shuffling beat. (Bobby, 22, also plays in a more punk-rock outfit, Boulevard Trash.) This fall, Bulat embarked on her first headlining tour - the final date hits the Middle East Upstairs tomorrow - with a stripped-down quartet that includes Bobby, Allison Stewart on viola, and Eric Démoré on accordion.

That's Démoré, not Bulat, barreling away on piano on "In the Night." Perhaps Bulat knows her true strengths. The instrument she's truly gifted with is her stunningly sweet, soaring voice, which recalls classic folk singers such as Judy Collins, Joan Baez, or even June Carter. But "Oh My Darling" is as touched by Appalachian soul as much as it is '60s greats such as fellow Canadian Joni Mitchell. Bulat says she identifies with many songstresses. "I have a lot of musical godmothers," she says.

Bulat wrote "Oh My Darling" while in college in London, Ontario. Then, during a stint in Montreal in the summer of 2006, she was introduced to Howard Bilerman, whose credits include producing and playing drums on Arcade Fire's career-launching "Funeral." Bulat enlisted Bilerman to record her songs. After the CD was recorded, he recommended her to Geoff Travers, cofounder and head of Rough Trade, which had released "Funeral" in the UK. Travers heard the songs and their lovely instrumentation, heard the beautiful voice. But, for him, there was something more compelling to complete the package.

"When she speaks it has meaning," Travers says from Rough Trade's London headquarters. "She's a fascinating individual: She's a real person in our world. She's fiercely intelligent and independent, she knows what she's doing, and yet she does it in a really lovely way, which is very endearing."