Canadian Musician magazine showcases unsigned Canadian acts in our Showcase section. We publish this section online to help further promote Canadian artists.
Archive for November, 2006
Saturday, November 11th, 2006
Who: Dustin Bentall
What: Dusty trails
Where: Vancouver
To Contact: www.dustinbentall.com.
The 23-year-old son of Barney Bentall, who himself came out with an album this summer after a lengthy absence, cut these 10 alt-country songs at NAL studio in North Vancouver with producer, engineer and mixer John Macarthur Ellis. The younger Bentall sings, plays acoustic guitar and harmonica, and corrals Ellis on electric guitars, pedal steel, piano and banjo, drummer Pat Stewart, and stand-up and electric bass player Rob Bekker to help out. There are also a number of guest vocalists, including his dad. Bentall wrote all the songs, save the cover of Stephen Still’s “Helplessly Hoping” and a co-write with JP Poirier called “The River Song.” Drawn to songs by Neil Young, the Band, Bob Dylan, John Prine, Tom Petty, Gram Parsons, and Steve Earle, this songwriter has ignored what most guys his age might be doing - rocking out in a punk band or waxing all sensitive to lure the girls - and instead creates music that is more timeless from the flaked-out county cool of the title track to the party-hardy twang of “The River Song”. He’s more a Ryan Adams or Rhett Miller, just writing fresh songs with no mind to trends or MTV.
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Saturday, November 11th, 2006
Who: Rides Again
What: stop searching and listen
Where: Oshawa, ON
To Contact: Garry Francis at Prizefighter Management Group 416-714-3391; www.prizefightermanagement.com; www.ridesagainmusic.com; www.myspace.com/ridesagain.
Rides Again does play the clubs, but what the three-piece has also done is hit the high schools coast-to-coast, which to date has put the band in front of more than half-million teens. The melodic edgy rockers have done this twice, most recently from February through to June of this year. They have full lights and sound, then give a motivational talk. Devout, but not a Christian band per se (i.e., they don’t sing about God), instead they sing about issues with which most young people can identify. From the latest release, the EP Searching Tonight For Answers, there is “Bury Your Own,” a desperate song about suicide, with the lyric “Daddy lost the company/Momma’s always mean to me/I have nothing left to lose/I’m so messed up.” “How It Feels” opens with “Miles away from anything/My only friend is loneliness” and “Yours” begins with “another night of senseless drinking.” Vocalist/guitarist Nathan Peyton; his older brother, bassist Chad Peyton and drummer Mike McElroy try to reinforce positive choices in the students, as they traverse the country doing something most people envy - playing rock ‘n’ roll. The band is currently writing and recording new material.
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Saturday, November 11th, 2006
Who: Madviolet
What: a beautiful blend
Where: Toronto
To Contact: www.madviolet.com; www.myspace.com/madvioletmusic; publicist: James Monaco 416-686-3395 or
Brenley MacEachern and Lisa MacIsaac, the dulcet duo known as Madviolet, crossed the pond to England to work again with friend John Reynolds (Sinead O’Connor, U2), who produced their 2004 debut album, Worry The Jury. It was Reynolds who actually suggested the two form the group in the first place in 2001. Recorded at London’s Ghostrooms, Caravan is a beautifully-sounding album full of the singer-songwriting team’s wonderful narratives and imagery. Both play guitar and MacIsaac, like brother Ashley, plays fiddle. Providing the rhythm section on the recording are Reynolds on drums and Claire Kenny (Indigo Girls, Damien Dempsey) on bass, and then various guests are brought in to add certain colour here and there - lap steel guitar by Simon Alpin (Teenage Fanclub), dobro by Fiachna Braonain (Hothouse Flowers, Michelle Shocked) and classical guitar and banjo by Hugh Segat - never once detracting from the girls’ voices or lyrics. The appeal of Madviolet’s mellifluous blend of folk, country and pop has taken the pair on tour to Australia, Fiji, Denmark, Switzerland, Grenada and the U.K. They wrote many of the songs on Caravan in Byron Bay, Australia, in the spring of 2005 with the Pacific Ocean at their feet.
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