Showing posts with label The Rucksack Willies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Rucksack Willies. Show all posts

Friday, December 30, 2011

2011……The Music


    I was originally going to write this huge diatribe about how this year really sucked for me…I lost my job, my marriage fell apart you know the whole drill, it was to have 0% musical content, then I thought no one's gonna want to hear me bitch about my problems, and truth be told I have my son who's an amazing little guy right by my side so it can't be all that bad…. onto the music

   So this is the time of year when every Blog/Magazine/Website puts out there year end lists…you know the lists that try to make you feel uncool for not listening to the bands that they like …well here's some inside info..most of the writers have never listened to the records all the way through, they just put them on the list to look as cool as everyone else around them…or to get on the guest list the next time "that band" comes through town.

       I thought I'd take a different route and not put mine in any particular order, this is just a list of records that came out this past year that I really dug , I also won't bore you with long write ups about them, I'll just make it short and sweet….so here we go


David's Town- 11 Original Hits From Byrdesdale Spa, UK! (Fucked Up)

     As most of you already know David's Town was a RSD (Record Store Day) release from our good friends Fucked Up. But if you bought it originally hoping to groove out to my man Damian's planet smashing vocals you was sadly mistaken. The record was all over the place from DIY to post-punk to power pop…to be perfectly honest I have actually listened to this record more than DCTL….it's just such a good fucking record…and I have to say Damm you Ben Cook for the line "Do you wanna go for a curry with me?"  I start singing that line out of nowhere some days….you knows that's a sign of a good song.

D-Sisive – Run With The Creeps

    When Run…the first track on Run With The Creeps drops you get this strange feeling that Derek Christoff has to do thisthis being create, just listen to the lyrics and the beats as they're spread across the landscape of the record, it's DIY, it's PUNK, it's HIP-HOP, it's POETRY…it's beautiful Man….Thanks for giving us one of the best releases in many years.

Wilco-The Whole Love

  This was a record that I could (and still can) put on and let play…nothing to dangerous or adventurous just a great Pop/Rock record, and that's very hard to find with the stuff we have to wade through these days.

Fucked Up-David Comes To Life

No explanation needed…Thank You Damian, Ben, Jonah, Josh, Sandy and Mike

Bjork- Biophilia

   With Bjork you have to be in a certain groove to enjoy her music, it's not a day at the beach soundtrack, or something you throw on while the in-laws are over for dinner….but when the right time strikes Biophilia is one of her best recordings in a very long time.

The Rucksack Willies-Letter to Anne

Roots music with a shot of bluegrass and a female singer that can take on the best of them and win hands down every time best describes Toronto's The Rucksack Willies debut album Letter to Anne.

Kurt Vile-Smoke Ring for My Halo

     This record is the real deal, no phoney bologna for Kurt, he tells stories like he's talking to a good friend he just ran into on the street. If you like your music folksy with a blues tint then Smoke Ring for My Halo is your bag.

Bon Iver-Bon Iver

     I was going to start by saying that you would have to be deaf not to get the beauty and intimacy of Justin Vernon's voice on Bon Iver's S/T record …but even a deaf person could feel this……get it, put it on, and lose yourself.



           Those are the ones that really stuck with me and some part's of them moved me enough to be added into the Playlist that continuously changes in my head.



What do you have for me 2012?


Joe Cornelisse-SSGS

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

The Rucksack Willies
Letter to Anne

                My casual love for Roots/Bluegrass music is a friendship that still rears its head from time to time; I might get that thirst that needs quenched after hearing just a few fretboard notes from a mandolin or catch a commercial that uses some familiar three finger picking that I immediately start tapping my foot too, so when I was first introduced to The Rucksack Willies earlier this year I knew immediately that my casual love affair was about to get serious.

         With little fanfare, the release of The Rucksack Willies debut CD "Letter to Anne" should, nor I mean will further this groups following to include not only the downtown crowds that come to experience their astounding live shows that evoke memories of the Old Time Country and Bluegrass pioneers but new fans from coast to coast seeking out that sound to soothe the heart and burn the soul.

          Front-Woman Angela Hilts leads the charge with a voice that is not only beautiful but forceful; she does not let you down.  I'll put this down in writing, for Angela Hilts not to get a rightful place in the prestigious list of great Canadian Singer/Songwriters would most certainly be a crime. The rest of the band, group of musicians and singers that on any day could take a stage and burn it to the ground with their playing lay the base for a record that after seeing them live captures their live show perfect.

     "Letter to Anne" begins with the haunting tale of love lost "Beautiful Stranger", then moves its way through to tracks like "Higher" that showcases the astounding base vocal range of Lucas Gadke, we then swagger into "Summers Over" where you can picture the leaves falling and the winter air approaching. "Waiting for a Sign" just has this dirty, sexy semblance as it wages its war on our senses; this is one of my favorite tracks off of the record.  The records rounds out with "Take Me down", a tale of sin and consequence that starts with a one two bluegrass punch and never slows down, you can feel it being played in that small cabin deep within the Muskoka woods.

   Wrapping their enticing stories around music that hits you were the soul lives, The Rucksack Willies are a welcome addition to any musical library …I say put nudge them in between some Black Market Clash and Bill Monroe, then you have yourself a party.

The Rucksack Willies are:
Angela Hilts (vocals, guitar, banjo)
Megan Thomas (vocals, washboard)
Galen Pelley (drums)
Lucas Gadke (upright bass, vocals)
Adrian Gross (guitar, mandoline)
Michael Eckert (dobro, pedal steel)

"Letter to Anne" is available on iTunes


The band are currently playing every Monday night from 6 to 8 at The Cameron house in Toronto



Joe Cornelisse-SSGS