Singer, songwriter and composer in residence for Winnipeg's contemporary dance company, Christine Fellows is an accomplished member of the Canadian music community.

However, on this particular day, she's wearing another hat entirely.

"They get to go to Europe, what are they grumpy about?" she ponders over the phone.

"John is one of those people who has to be two hours early for everything, so he never misses an airplane. Myself on the other hand ..."

The "John" Fellows is referring to is her husband, -- John K. Sampson, perhaps better known as the front man for The Weakerthans. She has just returned from driving him and his band to the airport, where they are about to cross the pond to promote their new album, Reunion Tour.

Despite the doting-wife role she is exhibiting here, Fellows looked into a largely opposite lifestyle for the past year as she wrote her new album Nevertheless.

Originally crafted as a song-based score for the dance production The Spinster's Almanac, the album expanded into an eclectic meditation on solitary figures such as New York poet Marianne Moore.

"She was a single woman who lived with her mother until she died, never married," explains Fellows.

"That was part of the criteria, as I was researching solitary figures. She kept a pet alligator in her bathtub, and was obsessed with Muhammad Ali and baseball.

"But more importantly, she won the Pulitzer Prize. She was a single woman taken seriously for her intellect, not expected to be attached to a man. During that time period (1940s and '50s), that was really difficult.

"But that was part of it for me -- creating portraits of someone who escaped the straight and narrow path."

Fellows may not be a spinster, but she is taken seriously for her art as well.

Her 2005 album Paper Anniversary was praised by Pitchfork Media, Spin magazine and influential blogger John Darnielle, perhaps better known as the front man of The Mountain Goats.

In fact, Darnielle liked Fellows so much he asked her on tour with him.

"He actually sends us letters and postcards all the time, since my John met him somewhere years ago," says Fellows.

"I had never met him, but John sent him my last record, and he listened to it and freaked out. He called me up and asked me to go on tour with him, which was totally crazy."

Besides admiring the music of her husband, Fellows also credits their relationship - both working and personal - as a source of her continued success.

"Initially, the reason we found each other is because we have a common interest," says Fellows.

"So even if it's not always an overt collaboration like we've done in the past, I think we always have a big effect on each other's work. Support is a huge thing, with just having someone who understands what you do.

"I know that's a struggle for a lot of people if one is an artist and the other is not, because it's so intangible," she continues. "It can look like you're just wandering around touching the furniture, but we recognize that as working."

Fellows must have touched a lot of furniture in 2007, because her output included not only the dance score and an album, but scores for two short films and a documentary, on top of an earlier tour.

"Last year was a weird one for me," she says. "John was home more because they were taking a bit of a break, but he takes way longer than me to write. He spent about four years writing that album. We have different kinds of output -- his is all quality, and I just write a lot."

Fellows plays at The Marquee Room tomorrow night.