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Album reviews Music

>>> The Slocan Ramblers

Toronto’s Slocan Ramblers live up to their name on their sophomore record. In fact, it’s hard to sit still while listening to their caffeinated, toe-tapping tunes. The record seems made for movement.

Recorded live-off-the-floor with producer Chris Coole, Coffee Creek is confident and comfy. Though the arrangements are clever and the music can fly by (especially Adrian Gross’s mandolin lines and Frank Evans’s banjo), the Slocans never sound pretentious.

They managed to keep life in the songs during the recording process. Take their rendition of Call Me Long Gone, by Dave Evans: the band all but drops out and then, imperfectly, comes back in and you can’t fake the organic vocal blend they get on it.

Elsewhere, they experiment: on a bluegrass tune inspired by the Galilee region the instrument swap on Elk River (bassist Alastair Whitehead on banjo and lead vocals instead) Lone Pine (a darker, Gross-penned instrumental). They bring it back home on standards like Groundhog and Roy Acuff’s Streamline Cannonball, sung by guitarist Darryl Poulsen.

Top track: Call Me Long Gone


The Slocan Ramblers play Tranzac Club Saturday (July 11) and Roy Thomson Hall’s patio on August 21. 

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