Jann Arden has a special Mother's Day gift for her mom tomorrow night -- a ticket for Jann's show at the Jubilee Auditorium.

And it's a free one, too.

"I'm going to comp her this time, but that's it," Jann says. "Because this has been going on for years."

Heart-warming. Arden is currently on a quick little cross-Canada tour "for the fans" before heading south to promote the June U.S. release of her latest album, Blood Red Cherry, which has been out in Canada for the past year.

For the Calgary artist, the return to music caps off a brief hiatus that saw her concentrating more on a different artistic outlet -- acting.

"If you can call it that," she says. "I like to call it 'pretending.'

"It's very interesting and it's a lot of hard work and I have a new respect for the Baywatch girls now."

The latter comment is in reference to Baywatch babe and Playboy Playmate Erika Eleniak, who is one of the stars of the film Snowbound, which Arden just finished filming up in Whitehorse.

Though hers isn't a large role, Arden says she made the most of the opportunity.

"It was a walk in the park really -- it was 20 lines and a kooky little character, much that I could relate to," she says.

"She's a bloody mountain girl driving around in a Land Rover renting out cabins to unsuspecting women who will be bludgeoned to death."

Not that the part in Snowbound or her stage stint in recent productions of The Vagina Monologues will entice Arden to quit her day job any time soon.

Despite the fact that Blood Red Cherry, her most mature and engaging work to date, hasn't fared tremendously well commercially in Canada, it did help earn her the Juno award for best female artist.

"The Blood Red Cherry record was what it was," she says.

"It was disappointing for the record company. I wasn't disappointed by it at all. I always think it's a miracle that I sell 10 (copies).

"Any career is so song-to-song based. All it takes is that one song to make things go again."

Her record company in the U.S., Rounder Records, is hoping that one song will be Cherry Popsicle, a poppier track not used as a single up here.

But again, Jann doesn't seem to concerned about what may or may not happen. She's been in this business too long and been through much too much to lose perspective.

"It's supposed to be fun and I am enjoying being out (on the road)," she says.

"I think I will enjoy doing the American stuff. It's going to be mostly press, and when we do play it will be a lot of bars. And that can be fun too.

"There's nothing like drunk people -- they really seem to enjoy music."