On April 14, Outside Music will release Canadian singer-songwriter Matthew Barber’s album Ghost Notes. Recently Ghost Notes was nominated for Juno’s Best Roots/Traditional Solo Album. Barber’s musical career began while attending Queens University in Kingston, Ontario. Barber’s solo debut, Means and Ends, was released in 2003 and attracted the attention of Warner Music Canada. He subsequently released the EP The Story of Your Life in 2004 and his major-label debut Sweet Nothing in 2005. Recently Barber completed a sold-out tour of Canada with his sister Jill Barber and a five-week tour of Australia, appearing at some of Australia’s biggest festivals including Woodford Folk Festival and Peats Ridge.
Gonzales / Dot
Gonzales is an ex-pat Canadian who has been living in Europe for a long time, experimenting with many different musical forms. He’s been involved musically with Peaches and Feist, and has a sort of mystique around him that goes along with moving to Berlin and rarely returning to Canada for shows. He made an instrumental album of solo piano compositions and I loved it the first time I heard it. I don’t listen to too much instrumental music, but when I get tired of listening to singers, this is one of my first choices. Instant mood.
Doug Paisley / Broken In Two
Doug is a good friend, and we’ve played in a band together for years called Live Country Music. He’s recently released a solo album and it is getting a lot of attention, thanks in part to the hard work of his Brooklyn-based label, No Quarter. That and the fact that it’s a great album. Doug started songwriting later in life after he’d mastered bluegrass guitar and could play almost every George Jones song ever released. The result is a seriously mature solo debut, and this might be my favorite song.
Al Tuck / February’s Snow
Al Tuck hails from Prince Edward Island on the east coast of Canada and despite his modest public profile, he is one of the most respected songwriters of his generation. He is equally adept with a heartbreaking line as he is with a tongue-in-cheek joke line, always delivered with a deadpan that keeps you guessing about what he’s really up to. This track is more in the heartbreaking category, and represents the last gasp of winter that now looks to be behind us for another year.
Matt Mays and El Torpedo / Digital Eyes
Matt Mays is another Maritimer who now lives in New Jersey (last time I checked). He and his band, El Torpedo, play some of the most committed rock and roll in Canada, or anywhere these days. I was late in getting to their latest record, a serious rocker that landed them on tour with Kid Rock, but instantly fell in love with this track. Matt has a great way of taking his classic influences (Dylan, Springsteen, Petty, Young) and making them sound completely current, not out of place on modern-rock radio, except that they’re much better than 95 percent of modern-rock radio.
The Beatles / It’s Only Love
I just finished reading Philip Norman’s recent biography of John Lennon, so I’ve been craving his music for the last couple of months. It’s an unbelievable story – even if you’ve heard a lot of it before. This song is from my favorite Beatles album, Rubber Soul. The lyrics to the verse are somewhat juvenile, which you could say about a lot of early Beatles stuff. But the lift in the chorus is genius, and lyrical sentiment put to that melody makes for a classic. I know the Beatles don’t need my help with promotion, but I actually think that this particular song is underrated.
Ashley Monroe and Brendan Benson / Grey
I was recently asking a music biz friend of mine: what’s up with Brendan Benson these days? He’s one of my favorite contemporary songwriters, and I’m always looking forward to his next thing, whether it be with the Raconteurs or solo. My friend told me, ‘he’s working with a girl country-singer’. This seemed interesting, so I checked it out. Her name is Ashley Monroe, and I guess they have an album in the works (these might be just demos that I found on MySpace). She has a sweet Alison Krauss thing to her voice, and this tune is somewhat reminiscent of the Jayhawks in its upbeat melancholy.
Hey Rosetta / A Thousand Suns
Hey Rosetta are a young, ambitious band from Newfoundland playing really interesting music that could catch on huge. I had the pleasure of touring through Australia a bit with them and got to witness many a stranger be blown away. Tim Baker’s lead vocals are very intense, in all the right ways, and the band has a great all-for-one vibe that comes through in the music.
Jill Barber / Chances
What’s wrong with plugging your sister? Nothing. Especially when this song is as great as it is. I remember it as more of a lilting country tune when when she debuted it on tour last year, but it works equally well as a big band production. It’s one of those songs that makes you scratch your head and be amazed that it hadn’t been done before. As a songwriter, those moments are priceless.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Love this record!
I blinked twice when I saw Gonzales “DOT”. I’ve had that on repeat for the last week. Must be the April weather.