Oh! Canada Road Trip! Part 1: Prince Edward Island

October has been a busy month for Oh! Canada. A month that saw a logical and long planned trip. To Canada. As a result of my travels there will be no Oh! Canada compilation this month, while we take time to prepare the second edition of Ho! Ho! Ho! Canada for your festive delight in early December. In the meantime, I will be sharing tracks and bands of interest via twitter. Follow @ohcanada_uk for more updates.

Oh! Canada does…..Prince Edward Island

Having flown in to Halifax, NS the night before it was up early to meet driver Mort who would drive the Charlottetown Shuttle (read van) to Canada’s smallest province PEI. With a population of just over 135,000, this predominantly pastoral island has quietly been putting together something of a music scene in the last few years, under the watchful gaze of Music PEI, a non profit organisation dedicated to promoting the careers of the island’s musicians. For the last three years Music PEI have held a two day showcase to present some of the islands leading lights. This year, Oh! Canada was invited to attend.

Before the music started however, a conversation with a local Lobster fisherman gave a little insight in to why music plays such a part in the community. Due to a tight quotas for fishing lobster and crab, and weather conditions that make fishery and agriculture nigh on impossible in the winter months, a culture of music and storytelling helps to pass the cold nights. Throw in the Acadian influence as well and there are outstanding cultural reasons for the vibrancy of the music. Indeed, it is a duo from this Acadian tradition that kick proceedings off, fusing physical comedy with more traditional Acadian dancing and folk song they got to the evening off to an unexpected but enjoyable start. While not to everyone’s tastes, what shines through with Chuck and Albert is their desire to engage the audience with Acadian culture and history in an entertaining way. As Chuck observes while Albert taps while standing on his shoulders “You don’t see this a lot in New Jersey.” Also representing the Acadian tradition, Vishten provide a more ‘straight’ presentation of Acadian roots music. With members from PEI and the neighbouring Magdalen Islands, Vishten fuse traditional folk reels and Acadian fiddling with modern day influences drawn from various other Celtic traditions as well as formative years playing in rock bands. In their brief showcase they demonstrated why they have become a force on the Celtic scene in recent years.

Haunted Hearts

Haunted Hearts wear their hearts (haunted or otherwise), and their influences, on their sleeves. The sound of a lonely bar-room with a battered old piano and assorted down on their luck lovers. Mixing The Band with occasional honky-tonk breakdowns, it is a sound that continues to endure. You can almost hear the clink of the empty whiskey glass on the hard bartop. Another act unafraid of wearing their influences on their sleeves are Nudie and The Turks, who, I am assured, have developed a somewhat legendary status on the island for their trad country chops. A little J. Cash here, a little Hank over there, a whole lot of Willie up front. Indeed the band once followed Nelson’s Maritimes tour, playing shows busking for the audience outside. The band made such an impression that later in the tour various members of Nelson’s band joined them, with the band eventually being invited to play the end of tour party. Those seeking the old school Nashville twang, rather than the big budget sheen that has blighted mainstream country music in recent years could do a lot worse than give Nudie a try.

Where Nudie and the Turks provided straight up country, The Grass Mountain Hobos have a different schtick going on. Decked out in suspender-braces, the band swing into action with their six-piece bluegrass harmonies, fingers plucking at the mandolin and banjo, bows sweeping across the fiddles and generally carousing around the stage in the name of good fun. With their tales of a ‘Coyote on the Farm’ it’s easy to see why they won over audiences at the likes of Warwick Folk Festival and Larmer Tree Festival earlier this year, as well as recording a Bob Harris session. Proving that it isn’t just about folk and roots in PEI Paper Lions take to the stage with plenty of bluster and choppy guitars. Playing selections from their 6 song ‘Trophies’ EP, which clocks in at just under 20 minutes, this is the ideal soundtrack for dancing with your friends in backrooms on autumnal evenings. There is still a charming rough around the edges feel to Paper Lions, but on the evidence of ‘Don’t Touch That Dial’ and ‘We Lost The War’ (whose melody remained stuck in my head for at least two weeks) there are plenty more exciting things to come from the band.

Paper Lions

A more established band on the national Canadian scene are Two Hours Traffic, whose stock has seen a significant rise thanks to the appearance of some of their songs on US series Gossip Girl and The OC and a Polaris Prize shortlisted album in the shape of Little Jabs in 2008. As with Paper Lions, they come to the stage with an armload of hooks, but they have perhaps a little more polish to their act, belying their experience. You can see why their songs have been picked up by TV programmers- theirs is an easy-going guitar pop sound that you imagine soundtracking a thousand high-school romances and pouring over the airwaves of college radio stations all over the country. It’s a particularly North American sound, and one that has frequently had difficulties crossing over to the UK for a variety of reasons- the tight play listing of UK radio stations being a significant one of them.

English Words

With a toy raccoon attached to the mic stand Raccoon Bandit turn in a charmingly ramshackle set, with enough insistent melodies on tracks like ‘Hat’ and ‘Train Song’ to warrant further investigation as their indie folk-rock songwriting skills continue to develop. If Raccoon Bandit provide a friendly, easy going stage presence then English Words are the polar opposite, their frontman staring menacingly in to the middle distance as he twitches his way through a set of taught new-wave influenced pop. There’s an aggressive, confrontational energy to their performance, and extra credit has to go to any band who plays a song about nobody liking their video as part of a twenty minute industry showcase. While they may not have the songs to back up the attitude 100% just yet, the tumbling pianos of “Cold Mercenaries” suggests that they are certainly headed in the right direction. Closing the evening, The Danks bought the scuzzy sound of Brooklyn to downtown Charlottetown. Frontman Brohan Moore plays the part perfectly, his raspy voice equal parts studied boredom and youthful exuberance. The Danks blast through an energetic set, with no song overstaying it’s welcome (or indeed lasting past the three minute mark). It might not be the most original sound around, but its immediate and when the songs are as catchy as “Treaty Connector” and “Die Young” it doesn’t really matter.

The Danks

The fact that neither Boxer The Horse or Milks & Rectangles (whose Dirty Gold EP is yours to download for free over at bandcamp and comes highly recommended) played as part of the showcase just goes to show that there is more to Canada’s smallest province than Lobster, Potatoes and Anne of Green Gables. It is with a heavy heart (and a bottle of moonshine under my arm) that I leave Prince Edward Island.

Next stop… Montreal.