Visually, the slow-rolling, lush cinematography echoes the musical soundscape it represents even as it contrasts the barren landscape it captures. “We wanted this video to encapsulate the love between two people over a lifetime,” Baxley explains. “The apocalyptic backdrop driving the point that true love only becomes more vibrant in the toughest of times. It’s a poetic visual.”
“This song was the doorway to this collection of songs and the doorway to a new kind of self-knowledge, self-reliance, and self-acceptance,” de Vitry explains. “Sometimes our pain exists in visible, external, physical ways, like when we fall and a bone breaks. But sometimes our brokenness is internal and invisible, and we may lack the words or ability or even awareness to communicate our condition, our needs, our pain. Sometimes there are parts of us that need to be healed but could never be put in a cast. We need to find other ways to give these parts of ourselves rest and recovery, before putting weight on them again.”
There’s magic in this new music from Michael Doucet, and the album lives up to its title, which means to “let go.” Doucet and the band let loose in a simmering blend of Cajun, swamp soul, and Gypsy tunes that celebrate love and the simple joys of having a good time. From the gamboling fiddles of the opening tune, “Water, Water,” to the haunting Gypsy shuffle “Bad Woman,” Doucet and the band create a sonic landscape filled with soaring vocals, scampering fiddles and accordions, and haunting lyrics.
Taylor Ashton, founding member of the Canadian alt-folk band Fish & Bird, showcases his groove on “Nicole,” the latest single from his forthcoming solo debut, The Romantic (Signature Sounds.) On the track, Ashton, an incredibly versatile and talented musician, imagines a world where catastrophic disasters and human progress can all be rewound in the name of innocence and simplicity.
The set opens with the easy-going folk-rock of “St. Peter's Bay” and its caring, bittersweet look back on a love now lost. Here, Harmer acknowledges what worked and didn't, with gratitude for what it was, rather than anger for what it wasn't. (No regrets, Coyote, you might say.) And she does it all in quintessential Canadian fashion... replete with hockey references.
"Tunes come to you in all sorts of ways. Sometimes it’s a phrase, a fragment of an idea that comes to you and you file it away to hopefully finish someday. Other times, it arrives all at once, fully formed, as if it has always existed. It was in this way the this waltz arrived to me. I sat down one afternoon and it came out of my guitar all at once. This doesn’t happen very often and certainly not nearly as often as I would like but when it does it feels like magic. I’m joined here by Kyle Sanna on guitar, David Surette on bouzouki, and Corey DiMario on double bass." - Seamus Egan
For “Bluegrass in the Backwoods,” Stickley and company turned a classic fiddle tune by Kenny Baker into a world of its own and letting Lyndsay Pruett soar on through it. The flavors of European Gypsy Jazz are right up front, as her fingers fly over Hunter Deacon's solid drum groove — yet another departure from your standard bluegrass fare.
From their forthcoming album, Formations, due out January 10, watch Hawktail's performance of the first single, "Annbjørg," a polyrhythmic romp inspired by Norwegian fiddler, Annbjørg Lien.
JUNO Award-winning singer/songwriter Rose Cousins is a name very closely and beautifully tied to sad tunes which is part of what makes this breezy new number, "The Benefits of Being Alone" such a breath of fresh air. It's the first track off her upcoming Bravado album, scheduled for a February 21, 2020 release via Outside Music.
It's been a year since Mile Twelve mandolinist, David Benedict released his solo album, The Golden Angle. He's celebrating the anniversary by publishing a transcription book and putting out a previously unreleased track from the album, called “Bish Bash Bosh” featuring Mike Barnett, David Grier, and Missy Raines.
