Toronto singer/songwriter Ember Swift is becoming a familiar face around Halifax. This weekend marks her third visit in a year, and each time she heads east the audience for her forceful acoustic playing increases. This weekend, Swift and Toronto's Andrea Florian blitzkreig Halifax with three shows in three venues, starting Saturday with a Women's Tea Dance at the Church on North Street. On Sunday the pair is joined by local singer Amy Brunn at the Marquee, and they wrap their visit up on Monday night at Cafe Mokka.

Swift has been making progress by word of mouth and word of 'Net, and this summer made her first-ever trip to the other coast and back, returning with (gasp!) a slight profit.

For an indie artist like Swift, making money isn't the prime motive for touring though. For example, one gig in Maple Ridge, Sask. turned out to be more valuable as a memory than as a pocket liner.

"We had nothing to do that night, and someone invited us to play at a show," she recalls, "and it turned out to be a youth dance at a local community centre. They had one really, really loud band and nothing else because everyone else had cancelled on them. They were all under 18 and they were great. There were so receptive, and they danced and had a great time.

"It's fun to take risks at this stage and take every opportunity to play. And it's paying off."

That risk-taking extends to her second CD, Can't Corner Me, which she recorded live-off-the-floor over a couple of days. At the same time, she wanted to vary the musical texture from her first disc, InsectInside.

"I wanted to increase the sound, which happened by virtue of including drums and horns. It was important to produce something a little more accessible, in a way. Maybe that's not the right word, but a lot of people found my first CD to be a little long-winded and it was more introspective and less rooted in social commentary than the new album. I wanted to come across more clearly.

"I think it's just more grown-up. It happens over a year, and hopefully the next one will be more grown-up than the last."

Grown-up doesn't necessarily mean commercial, as Swift remains firmly entrenched in alternative folk, often challenging as much as entertaining. One new song, Rules, even takes others to task for creating cookie cutter music that serves no purpose other than to sell more records that further the assembly line attitude.

"Some people aren't really sure how to take that song," she says, "and people have even come up to me and asked 'What are you trying to say?' My criticism isn't about accessible music - simple music is often the best, when you can say some things without overcomplicating it and still create something beautiful - what I'm poking fun at is artists who believe there is a template to follow, and they look at other artists' success and perceive those are the results they ought to achieve.

"It takes the whole spirit away from creation and innovation."