The great Canadian artist Fred Eaglesmith once remarked that he believed one day southern Ontario will be viewed much like Texas in terms of how many great singer/songwriters each region has produced. What he heard was a common voice, capable of expressing all the joy, pain, fun and frustration of living in a place where the past and present are always seemingly at odds; a voice able to channel this tension into a sound that can’t strictly be called country, blues or rock and roll, but a bastard offspring of all three.
This is the sound of Lucas Stagg’s latest album, Off We Go!, released on Busted Flat Records. The Kitchener, Ontario native, now based in Toronto, has nine other albums preceding it over the past decade, each a reflection of Stagg’s choice of the troubadour life, and the peaks and valleys of building an audience one gig at a time.
Stagg has been at it long enough now to ride those waves with confidence, and Off We Go! finds him and his band, comprised of bassist Danny Alac and drummer Cleave Anderson (yes, Blue Rodeo’s original sticksman) defiantly hewing to a bare-bones approach, wherein a song must stand or fall on its own merits. For listeners of a certain vintage, the album will surely conjure memories of alt-country’s Golden Age of the mid-‘90s, or perhaps take them further back to the edginess of post-punk New York and London. But as much as Lucas Stagg respects tradition, Off We Go! presents a band clearly aware it is hitting its stride, with no desire to wear its influences on its sleeve.
More of Lucas Stagg at: www.lucasstagg.com/home
Date/Time
Date(s) - 09/12/2016
6:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Location
The Blue Moon
Category(ies)
