Astonishingly eclectic folk-rock from acclaimed Canadian quintet
We say :
So there I am, filling my battered old Peugeot up with unleaded at the local petrol station when I overhear a bunch of interesting-looking young people talking about the gig they’re heading towards. We fall to chatting and they turn out to be The Paperboys, an acclaimed folk-rock combo from Vancouver, Canada, on a short UK tour. Before I leave the station they’ve pressed their newly-released CD into my hands and I slip it into the car CD player as I head for home.
The Road To Ellenside, recorded in the heart of England’s Lake District, is their fifth album (if you include their greatest hits set) and I’m embarrassed to have to admit that I’d never even heard of them before. As soon as track one offered up its winning blend of eclectic country-folk-rock enlivened with all kinds of unlikely influences, I knew I was going to like this disc. By the time I’d got home I knew I was going to review it.
That first track, the sparky, sprightly instrumental String Of Horses, blends a light funky guitar rhythm with Celtic flute and fiddle, which is immediately usurped by the Mexican flavours of La Primavera, briefly introducing me to the delights of Tom Landa’s richly expressive vocals before unexpectedly transforming itself into an Irish jig for the instrumental section.
Given their playing abilities, this is a band that I can imagine being quite marvellous live, and there’s a decidedly live feel to the CD that animates soaring road ballads like California, the kind of thing that wouldn’t have sounded out of place on an early Eagles album.
The band’s only female member, Kendel Carson, plays some tasty fiddle licks throughout, but she’s also a fine singer, contributing much to a lovely duet with Landa on Fall Down With You. Their latin version of Sting’s classic Fragile, set to the rhythm of a lightly-strummed jarana (eight stringed Mexican guitar) and pepped up with another of Geoffrey Kelley’s unexpectedly Irish flute solos, is worth the price of the CD in itself, but then so are the punk-jazz jig Sheep’s Ass, the sturdy South American flavoured instrumental El Baile del Puma and the Mexico meets South Africa groove of Waiting.
Just when you think they can’t blindside you with any more surprises, they let Geoffrey Kelly loose on the vocals of Water Dreams, a semi-psychedelic sea shanty, which he delivers in tones that might belong to Tom Waits’ younger brother, until the track ends with two trumpet solos, one a smoky dive bar jazz improvisation and the other sounding almost like a long lost baroque composition.
Bands capable of bringing this much conviction to such a diverse range of styles are rare indeed so investing in The Paperboys would be a wise move for anybody who enjoys artists like Paul Simon, Loudon Wainwright or Great Big Sea.
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Johny Black - Mojo, Hifi News
THE PAPERBOYS
Tom Landa has a penchant for strong ale, long walks in soulful landscapes, and old buildings – not to forget free-range eggs for breakfast. So when the Paperboys were on tour in England’s Lake District a couple of years ago and a fan invited the band to stay overnight in her small mansion…Well, the words just fell out of his mouth after dinner, while he was being given what he calls ‘the five-cent tour’ by the owner.
“I happened to say out loud: ‘Wow! This would be an amazing place to make a record’ – because of the tall ceilings, the whole vibe of the place,” says Landa, the Paperboys leader and guitarist, interviewed in an East Side pub. “I felt our music would sound really good in there. And she turned around and said ‘Why not?’ So later that evening, having consumed much wine, we discussed the matter.”
A year later the Paperboys duly returned to Ellenside, the stone mansion in the Cumbrian countryside near Ireby, bringing with them sound engineer Mark Tucker who’s worked with England’s premier folk-rock outfit Fairport Convention and a van-load of mobile recording equipment.
“Ellenside is in a really incredible setting,” Landa enthuses. “We’d wake up surrounded by green hills, cows and sheep, and farmers making their way to work. A lot of the band members would go for long hikes in the countryside, and we’d congregate in the kitchen between noon and one, then work until about eight or nine, so by ten we were wrapped up and out at the pub for the last hour.”
It’s a hard life being a Paperboy these days. Ellenside and its owner and host Susan Hopley are saluted in the song “Comfort and Kind”, one of several collaborations between Landa and flute and whistle man Geoffrey Kelly, with the lines Our glasses are filled with charity’s gift / By the hands of comfort and kind. Landa also takes a verse to praise the vintage bottles emptied on the first visit: I went down the stone steps to the cellar below / To blow the dust off Chablis and Merlot. Sung with soul and a hint of passion.
The Road to Ellenside is the Paperboys fifth studio album. The band, which bagged a Juno award with its second release Molinos, plays an eclectic mix of roots music styles. Its main ingredients are Celtic, pop, country-rock, bluegrass, and – increasingly –Mexican folk. Landa, who was born in Mexico, is a huge fan of son jarocho from the gulf coast state and city of Vera Cruz.
“Growing up in Mexico City, I was very much into rock. Traditional Mexican music was about the most uncool thing you could listen to,” says the founder and leader of the Paperboys, who headline St Patrick’s Day celebrations at the Commodore on Friday, March 17.“When I moved to Canada I was in a big hurry to fit into my new culture, so again I shied away from Mexican music.”
“Oddly – or appropriately – enough, I rediscovered son jarocho thru Los Lobos, who did a record of traditional music called La Pistola y el Corazon,” Landa continues. “There were several songs of son jarocho. It was like the first time I heard Celtic music. Something in me was stirred and I couldn’t get enough. It’s been a burning interest in the last 6 years or so and in the past couple I’ve been down to Vera Cruz to study it.”
To northern ears son jarocho sounds like a blend of Cajun, Cuban country music, and native-Indian fiesta music – with a strong African influence in the rhythm. It’s best-known song is “La Bamba”, a huge pop hit for Mexican-American teenage prodigy Ritchie Valens in the late ‘50s, later transmuted by The Beatles into their own hit “Twist and Shout”.
The Latin presence on The Road to Ellenside is strong. The first song “La Primavera” is son-jarocho rock (cleverly intercut with an Irish jig). Landa also sings a fine cover of Sting’s “Fragile” in Spanish. And his collaboration with Kelly “El Baile del Puma” is another nod to Mexican traditions.
But the Celtic world sets the tone for the album. Spirit of the West founder Kelly adds phrases from well-known jigs and reels to several songs. He’s also responsible for the story behind “The Sheep’s Ass”, a Celtic-pop instrumental whose name requires some explanation from Landa.
“We’d written the tune and were playing it live but without a title. Around that time Geoffrey had gone hiking with a friend up a mountain in the Isle of Skye, in Scotland. It was a really hard slog, and after a couple of hours they could still see their car in the parking lot.”
“They pressed on, and got into mist and fog. They were looking out for the cairn – the little pile of rocks that marks the summit – but could hardly see anything. Then the fog parted a bit and Geoffrey called out ‘Look! There it is, the summit cairn!’ At that point the cairn moved, and they realized they’d been looking at a sheep’s ass. He told that story one night, and I said ‘That’s our title’.”
Tony Montague - The Georgia Straight