Talking to Indie88.com Gardiner said:

“We were trying to do something that was a little bit more indicative of our live show. We’ve been talking within the band a lot about how difficult it is to capture, because it’s not just about what you’re playing, it’s about the energy that’s in the room, and the experience, and the visual cues, and the physical feeling of sound.”

There is a definite urgency in the tracks, at least compared to the previous Wooden Sky releases. Opener ‘Saturday Night’ is a slice breezy indie rock that goes at quite a clip, a positive beginning that raises a sense of excitement and anticipation (although dig a little deeper into the lyrics and things don’t seem quite so rosy). Songs like ‘When the Day is Fresh, and the Light is New’ continue this theme, the driving guitars celebratory in their energy, a tune to be played with the windows down while driving into a new town under a wide blue sky (which is a long-winded way of saying the title is apt).

Another favourite track of mine is ‘Our Hearts Were Young’, with it’s snappy, shuffling rhythm reminiscent of something Okkervil River would have put on The Stage Names. Okkervil River are actually a pretty good reference point for this album, with the meaningful (and often dark) lyrics concealed beneath a veneer of rock & roll. Gardiner even provides some Will Sheff-esque vocal explosions, such as his yelps of “Come on, come on!” on the aforementioned song.

For all of the rock songs, it’s not just in terms of tempo that they manage to capture energy on the record. Slower songs such as the title track have an intimate feel, with Gardiner’s vocals clear over the instrumentation and laced with passion and emotion, every change in volume and break of his voice adding to the sense of immediacy. This is what he alludes to in the above comment, the ’the energy that’s in the room… the physical feeling of sound.’ It’s not necessarily raw noise or thumping drums but rather the vibration of a note, the slight echo of a voice.

Gardiner’s writing and voice have always been central to The Wooden Sky’s sound and Let’s Be Ready feels like the consolidation of everything that has made them a success. His distinctive vocals have always seemed real, not pristine or manufactured but rather a product of a feeling he shares with the characters in his songs. And of course this is only effective with strong writing capable of weaving these tales, making the protagonists alive and nuanced enough for us to care. Luckily this is something which Gardiner excels at. For example on the title track:

“Oftentimes, I wonder
What she must think of me.
I’m riding on the wind;
On the shoulders of the kin,
Like some drunken, fucked up dream.

So lover, take these arms
And build me a boat.
You know, half the time,
I think I’d rather not know.
So, Sarah, baby, let’s be ready,
‘Cause when it all comes down,
You know it’s gonna be heavy.
Oh, what Memphis has that I don’t,
I may never know.”

Lets Be Ready is another confident and accomplished release from a band of whom we’ve come to expect such things.

The album has been available for the best part of a year from Chelsea Records, but it now has a worldwide release on Nevado Music.

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Robbie Bankes is a Calgary folk musician whose talents span an impressive array of instruments from around the globe. According to this feature by The Calgary Collective, he plays in groups that make a diversity of folk music, from traditional Quebecois to age-old Celtic stuff. But on this solo album, Through February Snow, which he released earlier this year, Bankes focuses on what sounds to me like american folk music, playing guitar, 5-string banjo and fiddle to make what he himself describes as, “sings songs of the dusty prairie and high mountain peaks.”

The entire album is peppered with great lyrics, which is as important to folk music as guitars are to rock. Opening track ‘Alice’ is a beautifully written and poetic (lost) love song, which utilizes the classic minimal folk formula – just one man and his guitar. It opens with the lines:

“Oh my Alice I’ve been dreaming ’bout your sea-blue eyes
All the letters that I’ve sent that have not met with replies
Maybe you got lucky or you just can’t find the time.
Oh my Alice I’ve been dreaming about our lives”.

The second song is ‘February Snow’ which sounds warm and cosy during the persisting winter chill. The songwriting is great again, see for example the refrain:

“There is a place that’Il like to go
To watch the city far below
And to hear the sounds and to see the show
And to wait for you and the February snow
Well you took off your shoes and showed me your soul
You gave me a lot of warm socks to keep out the cold”

‘Little Sadie’ is a change of direction, a throwback to old-timey Gothic folk, with a morbid atmosphere straight out of a Flannery O’Connor story. It tells the tale of a murder subsequent events from the perspective of the perpetrator:

“I went out last night to make a little round
I met little Sadie I blowed her down
Went back home and jumped into bed
.44 pistol under my head.”

Bankes shows his proficiency for writing sad and pretty folk songs again on ‘As I Walked Out’ (e.g. “I’ll pack my bags and I’m moving on to soft summer nights of silver and gold, long rides and hillsides and shivering cold.“), before providing a decidedly Canadian take on the classic folk song ‘Hang Me Oh Hang Me’ (“Up on the Rocky Mountains it’s there I’ll make my stand, with a rifle on my shoulder and a sixshooter in my hand”). ‘Up to Skoki’ is a banjo/fiddle instrumental, the soundtrack to a lively Appalachian celebration, and ‘The Blackest Crow’ sees things out with a wistful flourish, the musical equivalent of an evening with no company except the lonely pines and two foot of snow.

Music can be used to say a lot of different things but folk musicians are poets at heart and (to meat least) are best suited writing these kinds of songs. Lonely and lovelorn they may be, but they’re also songs of hope, of finding beauty in everyday life and the natural world, and a realization that our lives are not isolated events put the products of hundreds of years of history. Folk music paints a romanticized version of a life that is actually attainable. It doesn’t shy from sadness and hurt, in fact it can dwell on them, but it dwells on other things too, like how the town looks from the hillside or the sound of the river.

You can get Through February Snow via the Robbie Bankes Bandcamp page.

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Their album, Stay Cold, is a frantic 25 minutes of abstract politcal statements dealing with Canada and Canadian nationalism (or rather pride, there’s no sinister right-wing agenda here). Lead singer Kevin Stebner, while clearly displaying a love of Canada (just look at the artwork), avoids the traditional love letter style eulogising to the great country and adopts a more realistic approach. In his nation things aren’t perfect but they certainly aren’t hopeless either. It’s a refreshingly balanced, pragmatic and overall hopeful record.

Wave More Flags by Stalwart Sons

Buy Stay Cold on Bandcamp. I also recommend having a read through the lyrics on Bandcamp on your first few listens, it can be hard to follow his gruff voice at first.

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The album is both very different and reassuringly similar from If I Don’t Come Home…, with the band experimenting with their sound while keeping the familiar vocals and lyrics, the strong core of The Wooden Sky’s success. For me, this is where The Wooden Sky excel, offering the listener the choice of two listening experiences; an entertaining mix of slow and quicker rock songs or a much deeper exploration of often deeply emotional themes. While it could be argued that this is the case with most music, there is something about frontman Gavin Gardiner’s style of delivery that offers a choice, the kind of voice that you could sing along with without really knowing what he has said and enjoying yourself immensely. The variation in pace keep things interesting and the album passes as a pleasant indie-rock listen.

However as I have already said, it is in the lyrics that the true strength of Every Child… lies, and hence the album is a real grower. With each listen a song gives up another detail that was previously missed, another insight into the underlying story. The way in which these ideas unfold suggest a much wider narrative, allowing the listener to flesh out the situation themselves and thus make each story personal and appealing. For example, the opening track ‘Child of the Valley’ is an affecting tale of loneliness and redemption but remains rather vague for the most part, allowing our imaginations to apply the words in any way we see fit. This effect continues to build across the 13 tracks and by the end we each have a slightly different but no less complete picture that addresses some of the most important aspects of the human condition. This isn’t the head-on, painfully personal outpouring familiar to some songwriters, but something a lot more subtle and layered. The messages are hidden, woven into stories and metaphors. They are there if you want to interpret them. If not, there is a confident rock band to love too.

The Wooden Sky are coming to Europe very soon and will tour the US and Canada in October and November. We are hoping to get the chance to ask the band a few questions soon so look out for that too.

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The Wooden Sky will tour the UK (see below). Excitingly, they will be joined by fellow Canadians Evening Hymns, who are also on the verge of releasing a new album. Spectral Dusk is said to be influenced by the experiences of lead Jonas Bonnetta when losing his father in 2009. He has said that his aim was to create “11 moments of reflection or introversion.” Again, what I have heard of the album has got me excited; an atmospheric and visceral exploration of feeling and genuine pain. Getting excited about such a thing sounds a little strange but you get the drift. Stream a track below and watch (a personal favourite) ‘Asleep In The Pews’ at the bottom.

Both albums are shaping up to be some of my favourites this year so hopefully I will be able to write more detailed views on each album when the time comes. Until then, have a listen and try and catch them on tour. The UK dates are below and check here for more European dates.

• 03/10 – CARDIFF, Buffalo Bar
• 04/10 – LONDON, Windmill
• 05/10 – PRESTON, Mad Ferret
• 09/10 – LONDON, Slaughtered Lamb
• 10/10 – GLASGOW, Captain’s Rest
• 11/10 – HARTLEPOOL, The Studio
• 12/10 – SUNDERLAND, Independent
• 13/10 – OXFORD, Oxjam

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