MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: BRENT MASON - HIGH WATER MARK

The backbone of the Saint John, N.B. music scene, Mason's always been a rootsy singer-songwriter, but here throws a curveball with a few "country-ish" numbers, as he describes them. The first two cuts fall in that description, especially The One That Got Away, aided by the excellent Ray Legere on fiddle and mandolin. But just as soon as I started the "Brent's gone country" notes, The Other Side Of Blue came grooving over the speakers, a tight little funky number with the Maritime master organ player Kim Dunn adding the smooth, and Saint John singer Jessica Rhaye providing a striking backing vocal, as she does on four cuts in total here.

Mason himself is singing strongly as well, perhaps inspired by the turnout of plenty of East Coast players, as well as his regular band and multi-talented producers Grant Heckman and Tim Davidson. With more Saint Johner's, such as Mike Biggar, Dann Downes and Tomato/Tomato's Lisa McLaggan involved, the disc threatens to break into a party at times, such as the boogie number I Can't Quit You. But there's still room for Mason's trademark observations of the real and sometimes rougher side of the local streets. Snowdrift is the one that will stop you in your tracks to think for awhile, a story about young women from First Nations brought into the city to turn tricks. Mason's never afraid to sing about things most of us would rather avoid or ignore.

Mason has album launch shows scheduled towards the end of September and into October, but first he's doing a special show Tuesday, Sept. 12 at Fredericton's Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival. He's joining Jessica Rhaye for a joint set at The Playhouse, opening for Martha Wainwright, starting at 7.30 p.m.

MUSIC NEWS OF THE DAY: ALEX CUBA, REENY SMITH BRING POSITIVE SOUNDS TO HARVEST FEST

On the surface, the pairing of veteran Cuban musician Alex Cuba and relative newcomer, soul/R'n'B singer Reeny Smith, seems an unlikely mix. But the two performers, who share the bill for a Saturday evening show at this year's Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival in Fredericton, turn out to be an inspired double-bill. What they share is a belief in positive, life-affirming music.

Smith, from Halifax, opens the show, and while it's not her first time at the festival, it's her first star billing. Last year, she joined her friend David Myles for backing vocals, something she's also done for his brand-new album out this week. But this time, she's back with her full band, and Fredericton will finally get to hear what Nova Scotia crowds have been raving about for a few years now.
 

Michael Richard Photography

Although still described as an emerging artist at 24, Smith has been performing since she was five, including the choirs of her family's church, Saint Thomas Baptist in North Preston, N.S. Both her father and grandfather, Wallace Jr. and Sr., were members of the famed Gospel Heirs, and her father now directs the Hallelujah Praise Choir. If that's not enough, blues fans will know her uncles Carson and Murray of the Carson Downey Band.

Her own career took off in 2011, when she started winning awards and scholarships in the province. By 2014, she started performing major concerts such as the Halifax Jazz Festival, and Canada Day and Natal Day public shows.
 

She's now recognized as an extraordinary vocalist, and has just begun releasing her own singles, including the brand-new East Coast hit, Survive. A new E.P. is planned for later this fall.

For Smith, it all goes back to those choir shows she has spent her life doing, making sure the audience feels energized.

"Just try to have people talking about it afterwards and wanting more," she says. "We put together a show that's upbeat, and there's also some very strong ballads that we do. Overall it's such a great, musical show. I think that's the biggest thing that's missing from the industry right now, the musicality has just gone out the window. We want to play real songs, real music and give people what they paid for."

Alex Cuba may be a veteran, but he still has the same hopes for his audience. The Northern B.C.-based singer and guitar player is making his debut at Harvest this year, and comes with a truck-load of accolades. He has a couple of Junos, a Latin Grammy, and two Grammy nominations, plus a brand-new album, Lo Unico Constante. It was love that brought him to Canada in 1999, and on this new album, he returns to his roots, with songs influenced by the singer-songwriters of Cuba that he listened to growing up.

Cuba's songs have several direct messages in the Spanish lyrics, including advice to take it slow, know yourself, don't keep making the same mistakes. But the advice is aimed at himself, not the listener. "I think it's the most powerful way to communicate, when we put ourselves on the line," he explains. "You never want to come across giving people orders for free, nobody asked you. So the best way is to always talk about yourself, and chances are somebody will see themselves in it."

The songs on the new album are largely acoustic, with that rich rhythm and percussion behind. You don't have to speak the language to pick up on his affirmative lyrics. "I see music as the biggest, most precious gift we got from God or whoever we attribute these powers, so therefore why not use that gift to keep spreading love," says Cuba. "Music for me is sacred, very positive."

Cuba is bringing his three-piece band with him, comprised of bass, drums and a percussionist. He calls it his best group ever, as for the first time he's been able to work with all Cuban players, but ones like him, who all have a knowledge of North American sounds too. "When I want to funk, we can funk, when I want to rock, we can do that too."

Reeny Smith and Alex Cuba will be at the Fredericton Playhouse on Saturday, Sept. 16 starting at 7:30 p.m.

MUSIC NEWS OF THE DAY: SLOAN, PLUS SUPERGROUP THE TRANSCANADA HIGHWAYMEN GET READY FOR HARVEST FESTIVAL GIGS

It's the best of both worlds these days for beloved Canadian alt-rock heroes Sloan. They are happily balanced between the past and the current, celebrating their legacy of hit songs and albums from the '90's and 2000's, and continuing to make new, exciting albums. The group members are in the middle of recording their latest and 12th new album, but are taking a break to play the Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival, headlining Thursday, Sept. 14.

Guitar player Jay Ferguson admits he gets to do everything he always wanted to do. "I basically have the job that I wanted when I was 12, so I'm still riding that wave. I like writing songs and I like recording, and I listen to music every day," he says. "I feel like I write songs easier and better than I did 10 or 15 years ago, so I feel encouraged, I feel like it's a well that hasn't run dry."

Along with Chris Murphy, Ferguson assembles the detailed archival releases the band's fans cherish, such as 2016's box set celebrating the band's One Chord To Another album for its 20th anniversary. That's work he loves doing, just as much as working on the new, as yet untitled album. He says he's happy playing the old stuff too for the festival crowds. "I think there's a lot of bands that are in that mode of, never look back, just always looking forward, nothing nostalgic. But the music is still good, it's not dated, why should time affect the music? A great song that Patrick wrote 20 years ago is still a great song today, and you know what? He's got another great, new one right here."

As usual, the group members, all four of whom are writers, work on the new songs individually, usually thinking of parts the others might add. Then as the songs near completion, they call in their bandmates to add to the final product. That's what Chris Murphy has been doing the past few days, working on Ferguson's songs.

"I love sort of defiantly creating a giant body of work, whether anyone's listening or not," laughs Murphy. "It's hard to compete with your old records when you're this far in. I always say even if you wrote Bridge Over Troubled Water now, people would be yelling out for Underwhelmed, which you wrote in five minutes."

Murphy is always happy to be on stage, so much so that he's now a member of not one but three bands, two of which are playing Harvest. Last year, he teamed up with some old Halifax friends to form TUNS, and this year he joined a group of '90's music vets in the TransCanada Highwaymen, who are playing Friday, Sept. 15.

That band consists of four like-minded, fun-loving songwriters: Murphy, Steven Page from Barenaked Ladies, Moe Berg from The Pursuit of Happiness, and Craig Northey from the Odds.
The idea is four well-known people up on stage to sing their big hits, have fun and spread that feeling to the audience.

TransCanada Highwayman Moe Berg with Bob Mersereau

"Everybody involved is super-funny and wants to entertain," says Murphy, who plays drums for most of the set. "With the Highwaymen, everybody brings their top hits, most recognizable songs, and we just chirp on each other, make fun of each other the whole time, and it's a ball."

The TransCanada Highwaymen have only played eight shows so far, but member Moe Berg says the shows have been great fun for the audience and the band. "It's a very entertaining show, it's very funny. Chris and Steven are very funny, and it's new every night, we just riff off whatever's happening, and everybody's just playing their hits, so the whole thing is to make it as entertaining as possible, make sure everybody gets their money's worth."

Sloan will be at the Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival on Thursday, Sept. 14, at the TD Mojo Tent at 10:15 p.m., and you can see the TransCanada Highwaymen on Friday, Sept. 15 at the TD Mojo Tent's late show at 11:30 p.m.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: THE HYPOCHONDRIACS - IN 3/4

Real rockabilly is deceptive. It seems simple enough on the surface, but the stuff from the late '50's was dangerous. Not the corny shtick that the era has been stuck with since American Graffiti either, there was actual physical danger playing country music mixed with rock 'n' roll, refusing to accept the status quo of race and religion. That was reflected in the music, not just the hard-driving songs but the lyrics too. This people did bad things, and you'll hear about people that crossed the moral lines of the day.

The Hypochondriacs get that danger. The Fredericton band fills its eight-cut debut with true love gone very bad, ex-couples putting themselves through hell via breakup and cheating. Opener Just Like Before sets that clear; this is not a relationship the singer is going to forget, and there won't be any forgiveness either. Like the rockabilly days, the guitar is loud and distorted, especially at the end, leaving us with a sense of foreboding. Two Bottles Of Whiskey is worse, a husband and father abandoned, not knowing if they can love again, giving up and downing the booze. At the end, we find out he has a bottle of pills as well, and he's about to swallow them too, the last line being, "I miss my wife." To remind us that we're now in 2017, there's some atmospheric sound at the end, kind of a Twin Peaks feel, which works just fine.

Hung Up and Hung Over sounds more fun, with its happy rhythm, mighty twang and rowdy backing vocals, but it's more on the same theme, getting dumped. This time though, the band has a tongue-in-cheek finish in store, first a reggae version, then almost a hair metal chorus to close. The title cut, a weepy ballad heavy on the pedal steel, has a strong lyric with a great central couplet: "That was the day that you waltzed out my door/in 3/4." That's waltz time for you folks who didn't get music education in our school systems. The Meeting Place breaks the woman dumps man mold, instead being about a preacher who runs afoul of his flock at the church he established, some of those fire and brimstone rural roots that fit the rockabilly playbook.

Rockabilly, like soul, r'n'b, reggae, folk and all those roots sounds, is still very much a working music, when it's done right. The Hypochondriacs do it right, make it their own, and make it vibrant and new. The group is releasing the album with a show in their hometown of Fredericton on Saturday, Sept. 9 at 9 P.M. at the Capital Complex.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: MICK JAGGER - GOTTA GET A GRIP/ENGLAND LOST

Clearly energized by last year's good will surrounding the Stones' Blue and Lonesome album, Jagger surprises us with a two-track single, heavy on the groove. Gotta Get A Grip has a dark, funky mood, pretty much built around one riff, Jagger's gritty voice and a bit of his always-appreciated harp. He's called this a response to the political climate in England after Brexit, but really there's not a lot of analysis here, it's all in the slightly menacing delivery.

England Lost is another on the same theme, again a simple groove track. The lyrics are a bit more prominent, built around a play-on-words, England Lost either at soccer or politically. It's no great statement, but you can dance to it. Neither side feels like a desperate attempt at a hit, like Jagger used to do with his solo work, so consider that a success.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: NEIL YOUNG - HITCHHIKER

Another tremendous archive release from Young, this one from a very stony evening back in 1976, one of his famous full moon sessions when he told producer David Briggs to roll tape as the muse had hit. In the course of an evening he laid down 10 cuts, eight of which would grace various albums from American Stars 'n Bars to Rust Never Sleeps, right up to 2010's Le Noise, plus a couple that didn't escape the vaults at all until now.

This is Young alone on guitar, or piano for The Old Country Waltz, in his dark, mystical mood, with time shifts and altered realities. Pocahontas leads things off the same cut that appeared on Rust Never Sleeps, but in that version it's overdubbed with backing vocals and more players. Powderfinger is next, again a Rust cut, but that time it was played live with Crazy Horse. Captain Kennedy is the same track that appeared on Hawks and Doves, the only bit of full recycling here. Ride My Llama is similar to the released rust cut, because it was a solo live performance, but here it's a little more chilled. When Hitchhiker was used in Le Noise, it was done on electric guitar, so this is calmer, and probably more effective, its account of drug intake now casual and alarming, even 40 years on. Campaigner, long a favourite comment on the '70's ("Even Richard Nixon has got soul") gets a verse edited out for the Decade release restored, thank you very much. Human Highway, a much-traveled Young song, was supposed to be a title track for a cancelled CSNY album around that time, and later done with the country band on Comes A Time, but here the acoustic version works just great. The Old Country Waltz is creaky, Young a saloon pianist, and probably better than the band version on American Stars 'n Bars.

Of the unreleased songs, Hawaii is one with his obscure lyrics, describing an encounter with a stranger, on an "overdose of vitamins", who wants to explain something to Young about Hawaii. Young is uneasy about the man, and although he's not named, seems to be an evil presence. Since Young met Charles Manson during his Hollywood stay, I immediately leapt to the conclusion, but I have no proof. Give Me Strength is a far more straightforward lyric, with even a rare bit of Neil break-up wisdom on offer: "Give me strength to move along, give me strength to realize she's gone." I've actually enjoyed the last couple of new Young studio albums, including last year's Peace Trail, so I won't jump on the bandwagon of those shouting that his archives are far better than his new material, but this is far better than mere discards from the '70's. Hitchhiker will now take its place in the line of Young albums of that time, in its proper place between Zuma and American Stars 'n Bars.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: UB40 - LABOUR OF LOVE, PRESENT ARMS DELUXE EDITIONS

Reggae and ska ruled in England in the late '70's and early '80's, and much of the energy and interest came from the politics of the day. Bands such as Madness, The (English) Beat and UB40 sang about economic and racial realities in England, and that meant it didn't translate all that well to North America. It wasn't until UB40 made its easily digestible covers album Labour Of Love that English-Jamaican bands broke through, and then only with the help of Neil Diamond.

UB40 were a much more political band when they first arrived, plucked out of Birmingham by Chrissie Hynde and thrust into the spotlight opening for The Pretenders. Quickly charting with their debut album Signing Off in 1980, the next year's Present Arms made it all the way to #2 in the U.K albums list. It was full of cuts that referenced the reality for young people in Thatcher's England, included One In Ten, the unemployment rate, and Sardonicus, a jab at Ronald Reagan.

For this deluxe edition, the companion album Present Arms In Dub is included. Its instrumentals, edits and remixes also provided a hit album at the time, the first dub collection to enter the U.K. top 40. A third CD is an exciting live show from that year, along with four BBC Radio sessions.

Labour Of Love arrived in 1983 when the band was solidly stars in their homeland, enough that they could stretch a little, and try to reach a broader audience. The disc was a tribute to the reggae hits that had influenced them as young people in Birmingham. Tony Tribe's reggaefied version of Neil Diamond's Red Red Wine, originally released in 1969, was pretty much unknown until then, but it became a hit not once but twice in North America for UB40, the second time a number one. Other reggae classics such as Cherry Oh Baby, Johnny Too Bad and Many Rivers To Cross were being heard by their biggest audiences ever. It was a mixed blessing for the band, as the pop success led them more and more away from the edgier, political side, and they kept trying to return to that level of success, with other covers albums.

This deluxe edition includes a second disc of single versions and b-sides, mixes, dubs and a live cut. A third disc is another live concert when the album was fresh, with a concert that included much of the Labour Of Love album, plus a couple of BBC sessions.