Stream the EP HERE on CBC Music
“I never sang before I met you” is a new short collection of songs recorded and produced by Joel Plaskett at his New Scotland Yard in Dartmouth NS. With an increasingly busy tour schedule and a crazy busy home life (three kids under the age of three) I wanted to revamp my approach to making songs and records. In the past I’ve recorded in sprints of four songs a day to make a record in four days. Pretty special. Pretty stressful. Pretty damn quick. I’m now trying to form a habit of getting into the studio more often than just for album making marathons to see what kind of magic can be captured with more time spent there. This collaboration with Joel Plaskett has yielded a gem that seems worth releasing as an EP on the eve of a cross country tour. Then I can play the new songs live.
Working on a tune a day (luxury!) with Joel and the broadened pallet, sensibility and attention to detail he brings as a producer was as thrilling as it was inspiring. When I wrote Baby, We’d be Rich I knew it needed a JJ Cale rock and roll approach outside of my usual banjo setting. I have admired his wondrous drum machine for several years since it started popping up on his records. I him in mind to produce the track soon after it was written. I think the ease that it comes across with is worth the price of admission alone and is a testament to his production values.
Sorry if I let you down (a line from the which the title is drawn) is a lovely marriage of a typical OML kinda song and Joel’s killer instincts. It flourishes mournful and solo for a minute until the Pettyesque 12 strings come in and lift the weighty burden. It is an uplifting song about professional angst. Hopefully it’s the only one I ever need write.
Time alone is the biggest sound from the project and is a really exciting treatment of a groovy kind of love song. Drive me to the beach you summer thing.
I’m really grateful Joel Plaskett took the project on in the limited “free time” we had and I’m thrilled with the results. To quote Al Tuck, one of our mutual friends and heroes, “Here’s hoping the sucker goes gold” Please Enjoy