Two Countries, Six Cities, One Great Song.
Graham Lindsey releases a new track featuring The Small Glories and many more friends ahead of his album launch on July 31st.
This track will be released on Graham's album called "The Next Best Thing", with one other original song and 10 original Celtic style instrumental tracks.
"ALWAYS RUNNING TO THE NEXT BEST THING"
About the song Graham says "Until the pandemic, it’s just what we all did. A drinking song for sure, this is also about busy people everywhere, the life of adventure and hectic deadlines and schedules we were all living, but that kept us moving, and happy, and so gloriously exhausted!
Our extensive research shows it’s best to listen to this track at an elevated volume, physically distanced ...until it’s safe to dance right next to others, seeing this in person or hearing it play on the radio!"
AN ISOLATED INCIDENT
This track was produced at a (very) safe distance. Written in March 2020 via FaceTime by Graham Lindsey & Jordan Coaker (Quote the Raven, St. John’s, NL), produced with consultation with Graham over Zoom by Ian Foster (NL), recorded in isolation by The Small Glories (Cara Luft & JD Edwards in Winnipeg), playing with April Verch (Horse Shoe, NC, USA), Joe Phillips (London, ON), Ian Foster (St. John’s NL), and Graham Lindsey (Ottawa, ON). Mixed by Rob Heaney using screen sharing and audio streaming technology between Montreal, QC & Ottawa.
A LITTLE ON THE PLAYERS
The Small Glories (Cara Luft & JD Edwards - vocals, guitar & banjo)
Roots powerhouse duo The Small Glories are Cara Luft & JD Edwards, a musical tour-de-force partnership planted on the Canadian Prairies. Thrown together purely by accident for an anniversary show at Winnipeg’s venerable West End Cultural Centre, The Small Glories could almost make you believe in fate.
With a stage banter striking a unique balance between slapstick and sermon, these veteran singer-songwriters have a way of making time disappear, rooms shrink, and audiences feel as they are right there on the stage with the band — writing the songs, living the songs, performing the songs. It’s not uncommon for listeners to find themselves laughing, dancing, crying, or caught up in a good ol’ fashioned sing-along. “We’re folk singers, we try to write stuff that people can relate to,” says Edwards, whose looming stage presence and penetrating eyes find him the yin to Luft’s petite, snort-laughing yang. The material of a Small Glories concert is welcoming in terms of subject, folk-pop melody and instrumentation — songs of love, loss, and environment, delivered with soaring, interwoven vocals on various combinations of stomping clawhammer banjo, guitar and harmonica. However, a Small Glories performance is really about what happens in-between the songs. “The feedback we get from a lot of audiences is that it’s not just about the music for them,” Luft says. “It’s the whole package.”
April Verch (fiddle)
For over two decades, fiddler, singer-songwriter and step dancer April Verch has been recording and captivating listeners worldwide. The Ottawa Valley native has garnered praise from music’s heavy hitters including NPR, Rolling Stone, No Depression and more, for her fresh and feisty approach to deep North Americana.
Verch’s signature sound blends together regional Canadian, American old-time, bluegrass, country and Americana, resulting in a well-rounded tour-de-force of traditional sounds. On stage is where her diverse repertoire comes to life, with a presence that is versatile, robust, and masterfully executed. Her delicate voice, energetic footwork and stunning playing have brought her to stages across the globe, wowing audiences with her jaw-dropping performance. Verch’s ability to preserve the authentic folk traditions of the past and reintroduce them into the musical landscape of the present is a testament to her masterful musicianship and widespread appeal.
Joe Phillips (bass)
Joe Phillips is one of Canada’s most versatile double bassists. He performs with Toronto’s genre-defying Art of Time Ensemble, reimagines folk traditions learned from field recordings with banjoist Jayme Stone’s Folklife, struts his stuff with Payadora Tango Ensemble, performs annually at Sweetwater Music Weekend with some of the best chamber musicians in the world, and plays principal bass in the London Symphonia.
Equally at home in a concert hall or at a folk festival, Joe has appeared as guest principal bass with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra, has performed at the Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow, the Winnipeg Folk Festival, and toured Canada with chamber music supergroup, Octagon.
Ian Foster (piano, producer)
Ian Foster, native of Newfoundland, Canada, is a storyteller. That music is the way he tells those stories only makes the telling richer still. Modern folk wrapped in Canadiana, Ian’s writing style belies a love of history, home and the humble tale. CBC’s Bob Mersereau described him as being “a fine example of what a 21st century folk performer should be doing.”
Often likened to Canadian songwriting icon Bruce Cockburn in both writing and guitar style, and artists like Daniel Lanois for his atmospheric approach to sound, Ian’s music has been described as thoughtful, introspective, cinematic, hopeful, atmospheric, and cathartic by critics and fans alike. He has numerous awards, nominations and co-writes to his credit, including SOCAN Songwriter of the Year nominations, Lyric finalist for the International Songwriting Competition (Nashville, TN), and a co-write with Canadian songwriting legend Ron Hynes.
Graham Lindsey (Co-writer, mandolin, octave mandolin & author/composer)
Graham Lindsey is a multi-instrumentalist and composer, writing inventive and varied tunes. His compositions don’t follow the traditional Irish, Scottish or other Celtic styles, and the subtle differences bring a unique feel and rhythm to each tune. Graham was nominated for his 2019 album “TradHead” by the Canadian Folk Music Awards in the Instrumental Solo Artist category (2020).
A total of five of Graham’s compositions have been played on the Carillon (the 53 bells) in the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill in Canada’s Capital, Ottawa. Three were played through the summer of 2017 as part of the recital series on the Carillon (the bells that play daily at noon) in the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill in Canada’s capital, Ottawa. This was followed-up in 2019 by a performance of a fourth tune, “The Carillonneur”, dedicated to Dominion Carillonneur, Dr. Andrea McCrady arranges many of the tunes she plays, and performs them daily, live! Two more tunes will ring from the bells in 2020!
Jordan Coaker ( Co-writer )
Jordan is one half of the award-winning Americana-folk duo Quote the Raven, and the lead singer of the up and coming pop-funk group With Violet He’s also the former frontman of the rock group Waterfront Fire.
He’s spent the last five years extensively touring Canada, making stops in Europe, Nashville, and, Trinidad. He’s been nominated for two ECMAs, and has won multiple MusicNL awards, including 2019 Group of the Year. Jordan is a lover of all facets of the music industry, and a budding music engineer and musical theatre performer. He loves the opportunity to work and collaborate with as many people as possible.
LINKS TO LISTEN AND PURCHASE WILL BE LIVE AS OF 10.30pm ET THURSDAY JULY 23rd
Purchase: tradhead.bandcamp.com/track/the-next-best-thing
Website:grahamlindsey.com
Listen To More Music by Graham Lindsey: tradhead.bandcamp.com