Song Premiere: The Slocan Ramblers, “Long Chain Charlie and Moundsville”
Artists In Their Own Words: Song Premiere
Artist: The Slocan Ramblers (Frank Evans-banjo; Adrian Gross-mandolin; Alastair Whitehead-bass; and Darryl Poulsen-guitar)
Hometown: Toronto, Ontario
Upcoming release: Queen City Jubilee (SloMusic)
Song: “Long Chain Charlie and Moundsville”
From the band: “We recorded Queen City Jubilee at Andrew Collins’ studio, which is in an old warehouse in the only remaining industrial area in downtown Toronto. It’s a little slice of Hogtown from a different era. It’s where we made our first record and had a feeling of coming full circle, this time with way more experience as a band and many years and miles under our belts. We were joined in the studio by two big influences on the local scene, Chris Coole as producer and Andrew Collins as engineer. It was a blast hanging out in Toronto with our friends and making music, let’s hope we get to do it all over again soon.”
About “Long Chain Charlie and Moundsville” Frank Evans says: “When I first started taking banjo lessons from my good friend Chris Coole he would always send me home with some listening material. Don Stover’s Things In Life was one of the first albums that really solidified my love for the banjo. It’s something about the way he delivers the words and delicately supports them with his banjo playing that really captured my attention. During one long drive with the Slocans, I was listening to some old albums I hadn’t listened to in a long time. When “Long Chain Charlie” came on it almost brought me to tears. I remember forcing the guys to stop their conversation and listen to the song which is probably not the most elegant way to introduce material to the band. We added it to our set list pretty quickly and found that people were really responding to the song. It’s tough to sing a song about a character on death row when none of us have ever been to prison and all come from very loving and stable families, but I think it speaks to those experiences in life where the only way to remedy your situation would be to turn back the clock.”
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Queen City Jubilee is available for pre-order now at iTunes and Amazon.com.
