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Old Man Luedecke, Tuesday, April 6, Live @ the Folk Exchange.

Concert starts at 8:00 p.m., doors open at 7:15. Tickets $12 in advance at the Winnipeg Folk Festival Music Store, $15 at the door.

On April 9th, Old Man Luedecke will release the follow up to his Juno Award-winning album Proof Of Love. Entitled My Hands Are On Fire and Other Love Songs and recorded largely “live off the floor” in Vancouver, this album brings a unique band sound to Old Man Luedecke’s timeless material. The album also features bluegrass legend Tim O’Brien on every song and once again pairs Old Man Luedecke with award-winning producer Steve Dawson, who has produced all 3 of his releases so far.

One man alone on stage with his banjo. A driving rhythm punctuated by the stomping of his boots on a wooden floor. Old Man Luedecke’s name and choice of instrument may suggest a world gone by, but the lyrics and melodies that he creates are contemporary. Yet if you listen carefully, somewhere inside the propulsive grooves, you can still hear the unbroken line that connects Luedecke’s music to the bygone
world of Bascom Lunsford, Ralph Stanley and Pete Seeger.

It’s a sound that’s clearly winning Luedecke more fans. His recent, ‘Proof of Love’ won the Juno award for the best roots album of 2009, and hot on the tail of that release he returned to the studio with Steve Dawson once again assuming production duties. Over the course of three days, the pair - aided and abetted by Keith Lowe (Fiona Apple, Bill Frisell) on bass, John Raham (Be Good Tanyas, Po’ Girl) on drums, and Grammy award-winning bluegrass legend, Tim O’Brien (Hot Rize, Steve Earle) on fiddle mandolin and locals laid down the tracks for the eleven new songs that make up ‘ My Hands are on Fire and other Love Songs.’

The results sing for themselves, and the chemistry of the musicians soars and crackles on every tune. On an album like this one, it’s hard to pick a standout track, but hurting has never sounded as sweet as on ‘Mountain Plain’ when Luedecke’s banjo and O’Brien’s mandolin and high lonesome vocals meet at the crossroads of this song.

On ‘The Rear Guard’, which should have been subtitled My Hands are on Fire, Luedecke sings not of the avant-guard but of “Bringing up the rear guard/ coming in dead last/ trying to find the smiles that don’t fade so fast.’ He invokes imagery of Icarus’s flight to the sun to stick up for the outsider in a thrilling and memorable way.

“Good music is honest to its time. The old blues and country artists I love were singing about the world they lived in. When they sang about trains and telephones, they weren’t being ironic. It was new and what they saw around them.”

“I want the songs I write to be catchy, but not at the cost of being true. I hear so many songs that have beautiful melodies, but I don’t know what they’re about and I can’t feel them. I try to write about my life in a way that I’d like to read about somebody else’s life.”

The songs on ‘My Hands are on Fire and other Love Songs’ go a long way towards achieving that, and represent a considerable leap in Luedecke’s song craft. Each of the ten new tracks rings with roots authenticity, while still retaining a natural and unforced vibe. The eleventh, ‘Caney Fork River’ is a cover and tribute to Willie P. Bennett, a legend of Canadian song.

For a solo artist, a full band record may have been risky. As Luedecke explains, “I love the simplicity of being a solo player. But, this time, I’ve enjoyed learning to use the studio as a creative place to imagine a song. This is a bunch of great musicians making it with my songs. A recording can have its own identity that’s distinct from how the songs are presented in a live show.’ For the first time, with songs like ‘The Palace is Golden’ I’ve had the experience of shaping songs in the studio with these really great players.” The sad tale of infertility gets a dirgefull stomp that is as exciting as it is heartbreaking.

“Old Man” is quite a handle for a performer as young as Chris Luedecke to live with. But, after spending a little time with his music, it doesn’t take long to realize that it’s a more apt and descriptive moniker than one might first think. “I put the name on my first gig poster and it stuck“, says Luedecke. “In a way, it gives me the space I need to be a performer.”

It goes without saying that Old Man Luedecke is an original. Intense, committed and blessed with a purity that can’t be faked, Old Man Luedecke is the real thing. Honouring, but not trapped by tradition, ‘My Hands are on Fire and other Love Songs’ is music for the ages. Keep your ears open for when this old man comes rolling into your town.

oldmanluedecke.com

Kate Maki and Brent Randall, Friday, March 26, Live @ the Folk Exchange.

Concert starts at 8:00 p.m., doors open at 7:15. Tickets $12 in advance at the Winnipeg Folk Festival Music Store, $15 at the door.

Born and raised in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, Kate studied neuroscience at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and graduated from Teacher’s College in 2000. After the passing of a close friend in 2002, she quit her full time teaching job and travelled across the country performing her first few original songs. Since then, she has released three solo albums, Confusion Unlimited (2003), The Sun Will Find Us (2004), and On High (2008), all of which have been recognized as “Album of the Year” by Northern Ontario’s Music & Film In Motion.

In 2005, inspired by Bob Dylan’s “Rolling Thunder Revue”, Maki collaborated with fellow Canadian songwriters, Ruth Minnikin, Nathan Lawr, Dale Murray, and Ryan Bishops on two cross-Canada adventures called “A Midwinter Night’s Dream” and “A Midautumn Night’s Dream”. For each tour, the musicians recorded a special compilation album, and took turns performing each other’s songs on stage.

Kate has appeared on the cover of Now Toronto, Echo Weekly, and Ottawa Xpress, and has received enthusiastic reviews from Mojo, Uncut, Harp, Exclaim, Pitchfork, and LA Weekly. Her songs can be heard across North America on CBC Radio, College Radio, and NPR, and across the ocean on the BBC and select stations in Belgium, France, Italy, and Germany. She has placed original tracks in the Canadian films Weirdsville, and Wilby Wonderful, and in the CBC television series MVP, and has toured extensively in North America and parts of Europe with Great Lake Swimmers, Howe Gelb, Joel Plaskett, M. Ward, Hayden, Tegan & Sara, Jason Collett, Deep Dark Woods, and Fred Eaglesmith.

When Kate is not on tour, she divides her time between substitute teaching and managing her independent record label, Confusion Unlimited.

www.katemaki.com

Arriving fully formed, Brent Randall & His Pinecones released the expertly crafted debut EP, Quite Precisely, in late 2004 (Charting 34 on Earshot). The seven songs on the album showed a style of song and depth in writing rarely seen since Brill Building era pop. Randall quickly became a enigmatic yet renowned character throughout the East Coast. Along with His Pinecones, made up of Laura Peek, David Ewenson, Joel Goguen, Brian O’Reilly and Jess Lewis, he played several legendary shows in the years that followed, previewing new songs from an ever forthcoming LP that never seemed to materialize.

Four years later, and the wait is finally over. From the first listen of “Strange Love (Don’t Be Lazy),” it’s apparent that the time spent honing the songs on We Were Strangers in Paddington Green was not in vein. The track’s cabaret inspired delivery balances camp and beauty with equal grace. Produced by Jason MacIssac (Jenn Grant, The Heavy Blinkers), the song’s lush sound is reminiscent of peak era Paul McCartney and Harry Nilsson. Randall’s penchant for grandiose arrangements delivered over classic songwriting continues throughout the rest of the album. From the epic chorus of “This House” to the more crestfallen “Slumberjack,” We Were Strangers in Paddington Green never reveals the hand print of its formation. It instead is a beautifully complete document, balancing emotion and sound into one forward striding and backwards looking collection of songs. But he does it for a larf, don’t you know!

Brent Randall on MySpace