Brandon Bertram
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When You Left the Fire
While this band is from Toronto, their music is better described in terms of their Wilderness of Manitoba namesake than of the noise-infected streets of their metropolitan environs.
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I Made This For You
Childhood memories and superstitions, grown up relationships and the art of living off minimum wage are all topics on The Mountains & the Trees debut full-length.
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POSTDATA - Postdata
Under the moniker Postdata, Paul Murphy slows things down and gets a lot more raw and a little more gritty than with Wintersleep.
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RICH BURNETT - Not So Blue
Glad I’m Gone, the opening track to Rich Burnett’s new full-length, is a perfect introduction to the Ontario singer/songwriter’s smooth vocal style and exceptional songwriting skill, with superb phrasing and some pretty clever lyrics (“you’re picture perfect hanging on the wall, but you lean a little to the left”).
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JASON MAAS AND THE LOWER COMPANIONS - Clean
Jason Maas and the Lower Companions release this disc Saturday, Oct. 17 at the Pyramid. United by Maas’s gritty vocals and hooky, flat-picking acoustic guitar, Clean opens with one of the album’s stronger tracks, Bonafide War.
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THE DUST POETS - World at Large
The Dust Poets’ fourth album is a masterful collection of folk and country songs commenting on such subject matter as homelessness (World at Large) and love and technology (Skeletons in Your Inbox).
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THE WOODEN SKY - If I Don’t Come Home You’ll Know I’m Gone
My first introduction to The Wooden Sky was their brilliant cover of Colorado Girl by Townes Van Zandt, whose influence can be heard on many of the songs on this, the band’s sophomore release.
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Chris Carmichael - Chris Carmichael
After years of relentless behind-the-scenes support of Winnipeg’s blues and roots scene, playing alongside the likes of Big Dave MacLean, The Perpetrators, and Romi Mayes, singer/songwriter/guitarist/drummer Chris Carmichael has finally released his first solo album.
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The Deep Dark Woods
The Deep Dark Woods, a foursome from Saskatoon, have created an album of well-crafted country tunes with vocals that run through your body like whiskey, keeping you warm on a cold winter’s night, and harmonies like the north wind blowing softly through the trees.
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Woodpigeon - Treasury Library Canada
This Canadian collective from Calgary incorporates all the indie-rock gimicks – glockenspiels, whistles, hand-claps, unreasonably long song titles, etc. – but they do it in ways that make their songs a joy to listen to.
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Bon Iver - Blood Bank
On last year’s For Emma, Forever Ago, Bon Iver (a deliberate misspelling of the French, bon hiver, meaning “good winter”) created a mood that was deeply sad and utterly beautiful, and a sound that was strikingly original.
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Shane Philip - Live at Baker Studios
Consider him Canada’s answer to Xavier Rudd, or just a hippie from B.C., Shane Philip is a one-man-band, playing guitars, percussion and didgeridoo all while whooping and singing about peace, the environment (“Plastic Bags”) and social issues (“Stranded”).
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The Olympic Symphonium - More In Sorrow Than In Anger
More In Sorrow Than In Anger is a collection of 10 deceptively simple songs about relationships. The lyrics are simple—often almost to a fault—but contemplative and sincere. Themes of community and being together permeate the album, even going so far as to allude to the Christian sacrament of the eucharist, or communion (“I don’t intend to raise my glass alone/I don’t intend to break bread alone”), on the ultra-catchy standout track, “Intentions Alone.”
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Lyle E Style - Cutting Room Floor
When local country singer-songwriter Lyle E Style asked whether his musical heroes had any unrecorded songs, he got the answer he was hoping for: they did. And so Cutting Room Floor was born.