The hottest ticket in town tonight is getting in to see Black Spruce Bog.
It's rarely the case anywhere in Canada that a rootsy folk bluegrass band sets the local market on fire, but Black Spruce Bog has been burning. The five members pooled from more turbulent forms of music - punk, metal, country, rock - they meandered through the reeds and roots of aboriginal Canada, the American plains, the Canadian Maritimes, here in the Cariboo and the B.C. northwest, and from it grew an acoustic band with rock star fan appeal.
They have spent the past couple of years building a reputation all over the region as a quality live act, and tonight the group pulls back the curtain to reveal their first album. You can buy the album, it'll be for sale at Plaid (the new store opens Saturday upstairs at Books And Company), but good luck getting into the launch concert tonight. All the tickets were sold and, said band member Jeremy Pahl, even the backup spaces have been spoken for.
"It is pretty exciting," said Pahl. "We've had the good fortune of having every single ticketed concert we've ever done in Prince George sell out, and it is always a lot of fun to play for a packed house. We've now gotten to a place, as a band, where we can let our shoulders down and enjoy the moment and relax about wondering if people will really be there to see the show, so we can't wait to show everyone the album."
It is called Confluence because of the origins of the band being the intersection of two great rivers, the Nechako and Fraser, but also the intersection of some musical forces, human experiences, and the two sides of the record.
Yes, record. In addition to the CDs that will be available starting tonight at the release party, and the online download options, Confluence will also be released on vinyl. The band looked to Vancouver Island's "vinyl record guru" David Read to make their LPs - he the wax figure behind recent pressings by such acts as Hank Williams III, The Black Crowes, Sloan, The Misfits and others.
The vinyl records will be available in time for the band's free performance during the Canada Winter Games festival.
The two sides of the platter each have a sonic theme. One side depicts the band playing live in concert with crowd noise and all, while the other is the band playing live-off-the-floor which is a recording style that marries the controlled sound of studio recording with the organic feel of a concert presentation.
Like a salmon swimming upstream, Black Spruce Bog had to fight a lot of creative currents to bring Confluence to life, but Pahl said it was all worth it for the eventual results and the personal education.
"The creation of the songs has been going on a lot longer, but we actually got started in the studio in April, working with Rick Irvine at Cheslatta Records, his recording space at Pilot Mountain," Pahl said. "We did the main tracks, we did the overdubs, we did some experimental touches with some instruments he had available, then we wanted some think-time so we took it away and just listened to it all for a week. Aaaaaand we hated it. It had nothing to do with Rick's production skills, he was fine, it was us. The material just didn't seem to reflect who we were when we played live. So we scrapped the whole record except for one track. That was a hard decision. Some of us thought we had invested all that time and money, we should just put it out and we could live with it, and some of us were adamant that we should get it right the first time. That was the thought that prevailed in the end."
As a working compromise, they set up a makeshift recording studio inside the open confines of Judy Russell's Enchainement Dance Studio. The loud drum kit they muffled inside a crash-mat fort so drummer Danny Bell could still be in direct sonic contact with the other players but his drum beats not bleed into their microphones. Half the final songs were recorded this way.
The other half dispensed with all sound controls. They were culled from a live concert the band recorded in Prince George at the end of a Highway 16 West tour last year.
They are going back on tour down the same road almost immediately. After their show tonight at Artspace they hit the Fort Fraser Community Hall on Saturday, then hop down the highway all the way to Queen Charlotte City and Port Clements.
"Danny's never been to Haida Gwaii before so he's stoked. We all love it there," said Pahl who, as a member of the Tsimshian First Nation, has a deep affinity for the B.C. north coast.
"Maybe we'll be able to bag a deer while we're there. Do you know about the deer on Haida Gwaii. They are tiny compared to the ones here, and you have the same bag limit there for deer as you do here for grouse. We don't want 10 deer, but one or two would be great."
Those hunting for all original northern B.C. music, with lyrical references and themes directly reflecting our home region, presented in a hot broth of gypsy-jazz bluegrass folk, there is no limit on the number of Confluence records you can bag from the Black Spruce Bog.
Black Spruce Bog is:
Spencer Hammond - bass, vocals
Danny Bell - drums
Amy Blanding - mandolin, vocals, trumpet, harmonica
Jeremy Pahl - banjo, vocals, guitar
Eric Welscher-Bilodeau - guitar, vocals, piano, harmonica
