Roots Music Revived

By the time Mumford and Sons won their Grammys, Alabama Shakes shook Saturday Night Live, and Mavis Staples with Jeff Tweedy had clearly revived the Creedence tune “Wrote a Song for Everyone”, it was impossible to overlook, willfully or otherwise, the trend become fact: folk music, including bluegrass and sometimes tinged with distinct blues notes, was back in the popular music limelight. It is no longer impossible to imagine the Village Stompers scoring a 1960s Top Ten hit with the instrumental banjo classic, “Washington Square”, or to imagine Mumford fans holding their candles in the wind at Coachella 2040, singing along in their portable rocking chairs.

In the midst of this for the most part welcome wave, sit two Canadian acts, named Woodpigeon and Said the Whale. Not folk music, exactly, with some expert and honest pop tunecraft getting its fair share of the love, but still identifiably comfort music, that suggests community, mutual respect, and very little irony. Most of all, their latest records are just great to listen to, full of colour, passion, and warmth.

Woodpigeon is led by singer/songwriter Mark Andrew Hamilton, who paid some of his dues in Edinburgh, before re-settling in Calgary, where the band can truly be said to have formed. The record Thumbtacks and Glue marks something of a departure for the band, more ornate in its orchestration, fewer acoustic-only arrangements, and some flat out gorgeous pop songs to make the overall package appealing in so many ways, for so many moods. The opener, “The Saddest Music in the World”, (perhaps an homage of sort to Guy Maddin?) gets things going nicely, with sparse guitars and harmony vocals abetted by more lush elements in the chorus, and all of it together makes for something even Paul McCartney could imagine writing. Songs like “Children Should be Seen and Not Heard” further illustrate Woodpigeon’s ability to fuse pop and folk elements without sounding confusing, or worse, confused. “Robin Song” encapsulates this best, with its direct rhythms, immaculate melody and almost magisterial feel. A great effort.

Said the Whale are by now virtual veterans of the music scene, and have enriched Vancouver and region with their live performances over the past few years. They, like Woodpigeon, have not stood still, and their newest record, Little Mountain, is a lesson in contrasts that adhere to some central themes, all wrapped in some exquisite songs. Ben Worcester and Tyler Bancroft are the songwriters who sing their own compositions, each with able help from the other, and with the band as a whole. The other members are drummer Spencer Schoening, bassist Nathan Shaw, keyboards by Jaycelyn Brown. Worcester’s more folk-acoustic leanings, and Bancroft’s somewhat bigger pop sound, make for an intriguing blend, although the songs in ensemble feel just right together.

“We write individually, but when we bring it to the group, it usually changes,” says Worcester. “Every once in a while, like with a song called ‘Lucky’, what you actually hear on the record is the original demo.” A beat or two later he adds, “the truth is, it is so much fun to listen to a new song when Tyler brings it in, and we can take a song from its barest parts and bring it somewhere new.” Bancroft notes that their live performances are vital, in getting the word out about their music. “In concert, we may change a few things, but really, the decisions we made in the studio, if they are the right ones, are valid in concerts too,” he says.

So, on Little Mountain, the opener, called “We are 1980”, gets things off to a rousing start. Then there are the deep charms of “Big Sky, MT”, in which flower picking on a mountainside gets its poetic due; “O Alexandra” celebrates infatuation in a disarming way; “Lucky” is a pop anthem if there ever was one, full of catchy hooks and a melody to resonate long after the lights go out. “Growing up here in Vancouver and the region, it inspires us,” says Worcester. Listening to Said the Whale explore and articulate their experiences is inspiring, too.